Richmond residents struggling with infertility described being unable to access IVF treatment as ‘heart breaking’ as further eligibility criteria was announced in a bid to save money.

Richmond Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) previously offered one fresh cycle and one frozen cycle of IVF treatment for women between 23 and 39 years old at Kingston Hospital.

Since August 1, IVF treatment will only be available on the NHS for residents with no previous self-funded cycles and women with a low Anti-Mullerian Hormone rating, which measures fertility, will not be able to access the treatment.

The treatment will only be available for women less than 39 years old.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) guidelines say the NHS should provide three full cycles of IVF treatment for women aged under 40 who have failed to get pregnant after two years of trying.

The decision to pause all referrals to IVF services during the eight week consultation period between February 7 and April 4 was criticised by patients in the report.

One respondent said: “I am male and trust me this is not a choice I made in life. It’s an illness and stress on my marriage is significant.

“I feel like a failure and being told today that Richmond no longer even offers one round of IVF was heart breaking.”

Another respondent described infertility as “feeling like a life sentence.”

276 written responses were received by the CCG during the public consultation.

The results show that 62 per cent of respondents strongly agree or agree that they understand the reason why the CCG is proposing to stop funding IVF and ICSI.

However 72 per cent think that the CCG should maintain the existing service of offering one fresh and one frozen cycle to women 39 years or younger who meet the clinical criteria.

28 per cent said the CCG should change the criteria so that IVF and ICSI are funded in limited circumstances only

Dr Graham Lewis, chair of Richmond CCG said: “I would like to thank everyone who responded to Richmond CCG’s engagement and consultation exercises.

“Throughout the consultation we listened to the public and local healthcare community, and as a result the Governing Body has given their support to an option where eligibility for treatment is based on clinical evidence of outcomes.”