‘It preys on guilt when we are in an emotional state’

COMING round from the anaesthetic, after having her eggs harvested for IVF, Hannah Vaughan Jones was first asked about add-on treatments.

Woozy and vulnerable, she agreed to pay for extra interventions, fearing she would blame herself if she did not try everything. Now the 39-yearold feels she was exploited.

The CNN broadcaster and husband, BBC news presenter Lewis Vaughan Jones, spent £80,000 on 15 gruelling rounds of fertility treatment.

When they finally conceived son Sonny, now one, it was with no add-on treatments, but they previously opted for several of them over five years.

Mrs Vaughan Jones said: ‘I feel sick that I was sold these treatments when I was hugely hormonal and emotional.

‘The clinics would come to us offering the add-ons, which always seemed to cost around £500. When you are presented with something you are told may give you the edge in getting pregnant, you feel dutybound to say yes.’

The news anchor began trying for a child in 2014, before discovering she had a misshapen womb, and her husband had a fertility issue.

The couple, who live in southwest London, spent their life savings on fertility treatment including add-ons. One of these was an ‘endometrial scratch’, in which the lining of the womb is scratched to apparently release chemicals that make it more receptive to an embryo.

‘I cried every time I had that done, from the intense pain,’ Mrs Vaughan Jones said.

‘When we finally conceived, the clinic did not mention any add-ons because we told them not to dare offer us anything like that. But I worry other women at the start of the process may feel under pressure to hand over huge sums of money or undergo unnecessary procedures.’