For lesbians and queer folks, IVF access is about more than fertility
The cost of IVF can make starting a family seem like a very difficult reality for same-sex and queer couples. WORDS BY NICOLE GARCÍA MÉRIDA HEADER BY ANISA CLEAVER More than half of European countries prohibit access to assisted reproduction for lesbians and queer couples – but even in countries where IVF is legal and accessible to LGBTQIA+ folks, there remains a serious barrier: the price.
Take the UK, for example: queer couples’ access to IVF on the NHS is fundamentally messed up. While cis-heterosexual couples only have to try to conceive naturally for about two years – a process that is (famously) free – before accessing IVF via the NHS, it’s a completely different story for queer couples.
Historically, queer women and trans people were required to pay for artificial insemination in order to prove their fertility status before accessing state-funded IVF.
In 2022, NHS England published the Women’s Health Strategy for England, which promised to remove this additional financial burden for queer couples.
