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Women rely on their parents for help with the cost of IVF
Anna Davis, Education Correspondent4 Aug 2009
WOMEN in London are more reliant on their parents to help fund fertility treatment than anywhere else in the country, it was revealed today.
Almost one in three trying to get pregnant receives financial help from would-be grandparents, compared with a national average of 13 per cent.
The latest fertility survey also shows more women in their twenties and thirties in the capital are panicking that they will be unable to have a baby, with 77 per cent concerned about infertility, above the UK average of 70 per cent.
The survey highlights how London women are paying above average for fertility treatment, researching more clinics and borrowing money from their parents to pay for it.
Nationally, 34 per cent of women experience fertility problems. A decade ago the figure was estimated to be just 14 per cent.
It comes after research found women with demanding careers could be damaging their chances of having children because pressure causes hormonal and body shape changes.
Professor Elizabeth Cashdan, an anthropologist at the University of Utah, claimed stress from working long hours can lead to a drop in oestrogen and an increase in androgens such as testosterone.
She said this affects the female body shape, reducing curvaceousness and making it harder to conceive.
In London, women will pay more than £16,500 for fertility treatment, compared with a UK average of less than £15,400, and they are more likely than women in other areas to have considered at least three fertility clinics before going ahead with treatment.
The new statistics, commissioned by RED Magazine, also highlight the growing cost of fertility treatment.
British couples are now spending £2.9 billion on fertility treatment, up from £1.8 billion in 2007.
Sam Baker, editor-in-chief of RED Magazine, said: "Britain may be in the middle of the worst economic crisis any of us can remember, but the fertility industry appears to be crunch proof. What other sector can claim a rise of over £1 billion in revenue in two years?"
The survey comes after a study said couples trying for children should have sex every day to increase their chances of becoming parents by improving the quality of the man's sperm.
Dr David Greening, from fertility treatment centre Sydney IVF in Australia, said daily sexual activity improves sperm quality by reducing the risk of DNA damage.
Existing advice says couples have the best chance of pregnancy by having sex on the day of ovulation, having abstained for a few days beforehand.
