‘GIVE WOMEN TIME OFF FOR FERTILITY TREATMENT’

A LEADING fertility doctor says the requirement for most women to take holiday time for IVF treatment is ‘unacceptable’.

Professor Geeta Nargund, an NHS consultant gynaecologist and medical director of the private IVF service Create Fertility, said the failure of firms to support employees with fertility issues better was creating a ‘gender health gap’.

‘A significant number of women have taken annual leave to have fertility treatment, which is unacceptable,’ she told The Mail on Sunday. ‘IVF is not a lifestyle choice, it is a medical treatment to address fertility problems.

‘If we want to address the gender health gap we really need to support women’s reproductive health needs in their employment – giving flexible working options and paid time off for treatment.’

Tory MP Nickie Aiken plans to table a private member’s Bill to ensure staff having IVF receive better workplace protection.

In January, a poll by Create Fertility and Cityparents, a group supporting working parents, found that just one in five women were offered paid leave for IVF, and 48 per cent of companies had no official policy to support staff who were having fertility treatment.