THE MP for Oxford West and Abingdon is to put more pressure on health bosses fund equal levels of in vitro fertilisation IVF treatment across the UK.

Speaking at debate in Parliament on fertility funding today, health minister Nicola Blackwood said she will tell NHS England that the Government expects all clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to provide a recommended three cycles of treatment.

It comes as a West Oxfordshire couple urged MPs to end the 'postcode lottery' faced by people struggling to conceive.

A national survey, Fertility Fairness, found that budget pressures had led to some CCGs reducing funds for treatment. Just 35 CCGs out of 209 in the country offer three cycles of IVF to women aged under 40, and four do not routinely fund any treatment at all.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends that couples unsuccessful in conceiving after two years should be offered three full IVF cycles for women under 40, and for women between 40 and 42. 

Mrs Blackwood told assembled MPs at Westminster Hall: "It is disheartening to learn that access to IVFtreatment on the NHS has been reduced in so many places and I would strongly encourage all CCGs to implement fertility guidelines in full, as others are successfully doing."

"I will be writing to NHS England to ask that it communicates clearly with CCGs the expectation that Nice fertility guidelines should be followed by all."

Earlier Ed Vaizey, the MP for Wantage, had warned that IVF was being treated as a 'second-class' service despite infertility being a disease and 'not a lifestyle choice'.