Becky’s Blog

Read any fertility forum and you’ll find sex and IVF don’t get along too well. ‘I felt so unsexy’, writes one woman. ‘After my umpteenth trans-vaginal scan, sex was the last thing on my mind’. And: ‘We deliberately didn’t have sex before or after our IVF treatment – now we’ve forgotten what it’s like’.

IVF On The NHS, You're Better Off Abroad Getting IVF on the NHS is tougher than ever. This blog is a regular critic of the poor provision of IVF services on the NHS. Over 60% of IVF applications are refused by the NHS. So patients pay over the odds for rip-off private treatment. We're now seeing fees of £8,000 and upwards for a single IVF cycle at some UK clinics.

Blastocysts have an image problem – and not just because they sound like a bad day at NASA. Should IVF patients transfer one or more? Is it a good idea to culture embryos for five days, not three? Are multiple births more or less likely? Here’s our round-up of the top 10 things you need to know about blastocysts – based on the most trusted research.

  Woman Having Eggs Removed As Part Of IVF Treatment In its recent report on donor conception, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics talks about 'information sharing'. That means when and how to tell your child she was donor conceived. It makes some good points. But ethical arguments don't always take account of the real world. Where, in that 200-page paper, does it actually celebrate the wonderful altruism of donors? In the UK, egg and sperm donors face barriers. Their impulse to donate is knocked back by ethical over-thinking and distrustful attitudes.