Home insemination makes fertility care more affordable for thousands ineligible for NHS treatment

At-home artificial insemination sees increasing popularity, as only 32 per cent of the IVF cycles in England are covered by the NHS.

The medical firm Béa Fertility is preparing to launch an intracervical insemination (ICI) kit that can safely be used at home, aiming to make fertility treatment more affordable for those who can’t afford IVF.

ICI is a type of artificial insemination that involves inserting sperm into the cervix by using a cervical cap. Unlike IVF, when an egg is removed and fertilised with sperm in a laboratory, ICI is a less invasive process that does not involve any hormonal or injectable treatment.

Nicole Leeds, Béa Fertility chief marketing officer, said: “IVF is the tool that is used most often, but it is not needed by everybody and it can be very expensive and invasive. There’s also a hidden cost of it  because unless you live in a big city, it can be quite hard to access multiple clinics for appointments.

“That’s why our focus is to make infertility care more accessible and affordable, but keeping the clinical standard. We wanted Béa to offer everything that you need within a kit sent to your home.”

According to recommendations by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), the NHS should fund three full IVF cycles to women under 40 who have been trying for at least two years, and one cycle for some women aged 40 to 42.

Yet, according to a recent report, more than 80 per cent of NHS clinical commissioning groups fail to meet this guidance, forcing couples to go private, where the average cost of a cycle is roughly £5,000.

For those who can’t afford these costs, ICI is a much cheaper alternative. Recent data suggests that ICI has a pregnancy success rate of 37 per cent after six treatment cycles and the trust in this kind of treatment is constantly growing.

“With medical devices is all about being able to speak clearly and honestly about efficacy making patients aware of their options,” Nicole adds.

“One of the most important things is that we will have medical device regulation under the UK regulator,” she explains. “All of our evidence, procedures and manufacturing will be approved in the same way that a device used in a clinician’s office is approved.”

A future partnership with clinics across the country could mean that the ICI home kit would be directly recommended by doctors to those patients who can’t afford IVF.

However, a problem remains unsolved. The UK law for single people or those in same-sex couples means that they will not be eligible for this kit because sperm bought from a sperm bank must be processed through a private fertility.

Nicole explains that unless the law is changed there is little companies can do. “Making sure that all couples can build the family they want is very important to us, but so is obeying the laws of the country that we operate in,” she adds.

“We are actively trying to help people understand fertility better and we are exploring making care accessible to everybody.”

The kit is set to launch later this year and will be priced between £250 and £300 estimated to be around five times cheaper than one round of IUI. The price includes two artificial insemination devices, as well as 20 ovulation tests, a few pregnancy tests and two semen containers.

For more info visit Béa Fertility.