IVF patients need more mental health support, charity says [Beuzz]

Fertility patients need more mental health support, according to a charity which has found many suffer from depression and suicidal feelings.

Amber and Marco Izzo spent seven years and £20,000 trying to have a baby when they realized they were at breaking point.

“Partly because we couldn’t afford it and partly because of our mental health, we decided to just do one more cycle of IVF,” says Amber.

Amber, 28, who lives in Peterborough, discovered she was infertile five years ago when she was told she had two blocked fallopian tubes, which she later removed.

As well as coping with the heartbreak of her diagnosis, Amber was angry to learn that IVF was not offered by the NHS in her area, although it was available in others nearby.

“I just felt it was a total injustice,” she says. “We were told in no uncertain terms that if we wanted to continue, the only choice was to go private.”

The charity worker worked two other jobs, including at a weekend estate agency, while her husband, hairstylist Marco, worked extra delivery driver shifts and sold his car to pay him.

Amber sank into a deep depression as two rounds of IVF “failed miserably with terrible embryonic quality”.

“I reached such a dark place, I just spun around,” she says. “I was so close to deciding that I didn’t want to be here anymore.

“I felt like a burden for Marco, like I had let my parents and grandparents down. I completely hit rock bottom.”

Amber had to wait 14 months to see an NHS therapist, who gave her eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy – a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Despite the emotional turmoil, she launched a campaign for NHS funding to be restored to her area and started support groups. Amber says it was her “proudest achievement to date” when she pulled it off.

The couple reaped the rewards when they were offered a round of NHS IVF, which they started in January last year. When Amber found out she was pregnant, she couldn’t believe it.

“I couldn’t fathom that it worked. After the campaign and everything, it was almost like a fairy tale,” she says.

In October, Amber and Marco welcomed baby Joey. Amber says the love she feels for him is something she didn’t know she could feel.

However, she left mental scars from the trauma of the past seven years.

“I felt like I had to enjoy every minute because we’ve been through so much to get him, so you feel guilty saying ‘it’s hard’.

“My postpartum anxiety was so bad and I didn’t feel able to talk about it because I was afraid people would think I was ungrateful.”

Infertility, which affects around one in seven couples, has devastating effects on mental health, relationships, finances and careers, according to Dr Catherine Hill, chief executive of Fertility Network UK.

The charity surveyed 1,300 fertility patients and found that 40% had experienced suicidal feelings, with 10% struggling with suicidal thoughts often or all the time.

Most respondents wanted counseling, of which about half were able to access therapy, but most had to fund some of it themselves.

“We know that most fertility patients would love to have emotional support, if it were available, but UK fertility clinics only have to provide a free fertility counseling session, which is far from ideal,” says Dr Hill.

Some areas only offer one cycle of free IVF on the NHS, despite national guidelines recommending three, and others have strict criteria – for example not having children already and falling into a certain bracket age and weight, she says.

“Most patients have to pay typically financially crippling sums of money for their own medical treatment. For the country that pioneered IVF, this is unacceptable; we should be doing much more as a society and as a health system. healthcare to help those dealing with the trauma of infertility,” adds Dr. Hill.

Kelly Kew, 27, from Peterborough, was so stressed trying to conceive that she got into a car accident and quit her office job.

She had had two ectopic pregnancies, where the embryo was starting to grow in the fallopian tube, and felt she couldn’t take much more.

“To be sterile is to isolate yourself,” she says. “I wanted a child before all my friends and they were all at number two or three before I even got pregnant. I stuck with them and lost a lot of friends.

“I was really struggling and ended up going to therapy. The second one triggered a bit of PTSD, so it was a really tough time.”

Her first NHS therapist ‘didn’t seem to understand’, but a second advised Kelly on ways to manage her anxiety and she felt much better as she and partner Dan embarked on a series of NHS funded IVF. at the Bourn Clinic, near Cambridge.

Baby Harlan-Ray was born just before Christmas and Kelly says she couldn’t be happier. She wants to help others with fertility issues and hopes to train as a fertility nurse.

“I still can’t believe we have him, I still can’t believe he’s ours,” she says. “I would not have survived the pregnancy without the therapy I had and we would still have saved if we had to pay for IVF.”

Both Amber and Kelly are considering trying for another baby, but they are very aware of the emotional and financial costs, having already used their only free round of IVF.

Amber is also taking steps to expand her campaign for equal access to NHS fertility treatment.

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said it was working on a women’s health strategy for England, containing “a number of significant changes and future ambitions to improve variations in access to NHS-funded fertility services”.

Amber says she won’t rest until access is improved. “I’ll never forget how difficult it all was, and I want to do everything I can to make sure others receive the help I’ve provided,” she adds.

If you have been affected by the issues raised in this story, help and support is available through the BBC Action Line.