IVF clinics could reopen as early as May 11, it has been revealed.
Heath Secretary Matt Hancock reportedly said it is right to restore services ‘now we are past the peak’ of the coronavirus crisis.
It comes after the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) ruled both NHS and private clinics would suspend IVF treatment from April 15.
The HFEA, the government body which regulates IVF clinics in the UK, said at the time patients in the middle of an IVF cycle would have their treatment suspended indefinitely.
And all new treatments were banned for safety reasons relating to Covid-19.
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The HFEA already said in a statement in March: ‘The advice is that clinics should plan to stop treatments over the next three weeks, allowing patients to complete any cycle they have started.
‘We have written to all UK-licensed clinics to tell them that we expect them to follow this guidance.
‘I recognise that this is very distressing for many of you as it means you have already or will have your treatment stopped or delayed.’
after the end of lockdown (Picture: Getty Images / iStockphoto)
The suspension caused fears that many women who were due to undergo IVF would be too old after lockdown was lifted.
Around 68,000 of the women who choose to have IVF every year in the UK are in their late 30s or early 40s and have little time to delay.
The NHS says IVF success rates go from 23 per cent for women aged between 35 to 37, down to 15 per cent for women aged 38 to 39 and just 9 per cent for women aged 40 to 42.
NHS clinics usually do not all women a second round of IVF after they turn 40, while private clinics tend to refuse to treat women over 45.
Had treatments been banned for a year, it could have prevented the births of at least 20,000 babies.
One 38-year-old woman spoke to Metro.co.uk last month about how coronavirus had ruined her plans to have children, and former cage fighter Alex Reid revealed how he and his partner were ‘devastated’ to have to put their IVF plans on hold.
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