Woman Letters.

On July 10 Mirror Woman revealed that your chances of receiving treatment for NHS infertility treatment depend on where you live. Here is your reaction:

My Daughter has just been told that to have children she will have to go for IVF, but she cannot afford the cost of treatment.

My family and I are trying to find out if there is a charity which helps such couples. If not, I am thinking of starting a campaign.

All we want to do is help couples who would like a family without having to put themselves in debt.

Mrs Campbell

Salisbury, Wilts

After reading your story on Jayne Oldfield and her husband, I felt I had to write to you with my story. Ten years ago when I was 17 I was told the devastating news that I would never be a mum, as I was born without a womb.

I started having vaginal bleeding, which frightened me as I knew I didn't have a womb - where was the blood coming from? I had a scan and was told that I did, in fact, have a womb.

When I told the gynaecologist who had operated on me ten years earlier, he was shocked but said he must have missed something.

He told me that, with a donor egg and my husband's sperm, I could have a pregnancy with IVF. He also assured me it would be NHS-funded.

We were ecstatic but our dreams were shattered when six weeks later we were told the NHS would not fund it.

There is no way we can afford the pounds 2,800 cost of treatment.

A decision to have a baby should not rest on where you live or how much money you have. Money, as they say, can't buy you love so why should it buy the right to be parents.

Joanne Hunt Southampton, Hants

I Have been trying for a baby since I was 18. After years of tests and being passed from one doctor to another, I am still without a baby.

I am now 28 and my only hope is IVF, but I will have to find the money myself.

I count myself as lucky as I found out when I was young. If I manage to save enough before I'm 35 there may be some hope for me.

I don't understand why the NHS can only treat certain people.

Infertility is like a cancer, eating away at you for years. It can't be controlled and everyone who has it just waits and prays for a miracle.

I always thought Britain stood for equality but, instead, I find myself and thousands like me treated as outcasts.

Name and address

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Title Annotation:	Features
Publication:	The Mirror (London, England)
Date:	Jul 24, 1996
Words:	450
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