Covid had 'big big impact' on number of single women seeking IVF treatment, says report
The fertility regulator has released a new report on how different families access treatment
A laboratory director at an Essex fertility centre says COVID had a "big big impact on the number of single women seeking IVF treatment."
It's as the governing body HFEA, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, has released figures showing more than 1 in 20 IVF patients are women embarking on parenthood without a partner.
Some 6% of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) cycles in 2022 were for single women, a rise from 2% in 2012, HFEA said.
Between 2012 and 2022, the number of single women having IVF or donor insemination treatment increased from 1,400 to 4,800, the fertility regulator said.
Between 2020-21, there was a 41% increase in the number of treatment cycles, says Dr Lucy Richardson who works at Herts and Essex fertility centre.
She told Greatest Hits Radio "we were all locked down, looking at our lives, looking at what we wanted for the future, we were isolated from our families and the pressures that that put on us made us take a long hard look at our lives."
"This was something positive did come of Covid" says Dr Richardson.
When asking her about the support Herts and Essex fertility clinic offer, Mrs Richardson said they do require their patients to have counselling, particularly around "the rules around donor anonymity."
"When their child turns 18, they are able to access information about their donor."
Mrs Richardson empathises the importance to "understand your own fertility."
"Quite often there's a misconception for single people and same sex couples that they are simply missing the eggs, or the sperm. And that they're not necessarily suffering from any form of infertility themselves. But in actual fact, you are almost untested.
"So it's important to get a fertility assessment."
The HFEA report highlights how egg freezing – a way for women to keep their fertility options open for later in life – is one of the “fasting growing” treatments.
Between 2018 and 2022, those storing eggs were mostly single women, with 89% of egg storage cycles among this group.
Just one in 10 egg freezing treatments were among heterosexual couples, but this group was more likely to thaw eggs for treatment compared with single women.
Single women were an average of 36 when they started IVF, with couples starting treatment at a slightly younger age, according to the report.
Sarah Lambert, head of policy at Gingerbread, the charity for single-parent families, said: “Families come in all shapes and sizes and we know that the biggest differences in children’s wellbeing are down to the quality of relationships and not family structure.
“It’s therefore disappointing to see discrimination against single parents persist and we welcome the calls from the HFEA to ensure that families in all their diversity are represented and supported at each point of the IVF journey.”