NHS patients will be given free at-home fertility kits as part of a trial to explore methods beyond IVF that could be used for those struggling to conceive.
Currently the only fertility treatments funded by the NHS are IVF, when a fertilised egg is inserted into the womb, and intrauterine insemination (IUI), which involves directly inserting sperm into a woman’s womb. Access can depend on location, relationship status, BMI and sexual orientation.
But from August, GPs at South Fulham primary care network in south-west London will be able to refer patients seeking fertility support to Béa Fertility, where they can access kits that allow them to perform ICI, short for intracervical insemination. The method is approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) and involves placing a small cap of semen at the cervix using an applicator.
The cap is left in place for an hour, during which time users can go about their day as normal. Two weeks after treatment, users test for pregnancy.
The kits will be given to patients in Hammersmith and Fulham for the pilot. After this, Béa will work with the NHS to determine how the scheme could be funded if introduced more widely.
Hannah Allen, an NHS GP who is also medical director at Béa Fertility, said the trial would be small, involving about 20 patients at first, with a view to providing more kits pending the results. Each patient will be offered up to three treatment cycles.
She said that IVF could be challenging for patients, and some were looking for “natural, hormone-free alternatives”. While ICI may not be as effective as IVF “because of the other interventions that go with it”, IVF carried huge “psychological burdens and risk factors”, she said.
Allen said that ICI would be more of a “first-line treatment before considering stepping it up”. She said: “From a GP perspective it can be very frustrating seeing a patient and having no option but to offer lifestyle advice and telling them to come back in two years.”
Béa Fertility has raised £2.5m in venture capital investment to fund its UK launch, with products also on sale to consumers on its website. The £2.5m, raised from Octopus Ventures, Forward Partners and JamJar, the venture capital firm started by Richard Reed, the Innocent Drinks founder, will be used to make the first kits available for half the usual £700 cost for three months of treatment.
Tess Cosad, who founded the company with George Thomas in 2020, said: “Not everyone needs highly intensive care but sometimes they just need primary care, and a little support in the early stages of the journey.” Dr Isobel Neville, a GP at Sands End health clinic, part of South Fulham primary care network, said the clinic was proud to be working with the company to offer more services to patients.
ICI has been shown to have 50% efficacy over six cycles of treatment, and was recently included in the Nice clinical guidelines alongside IUI and IVF. The UK’s IVF success rate is 27%.
Sharon Martin, business development manager at the charity, Fertility Network UK, said they welcomed new treatments. However, she added they would “only recommend treatments which have been through RCTs [randomised control trials] and have been shown to improve the chances of having a baby”.
She said: “As Béa Fertility is an applicator that places the sperm in the vagina close to the cervix, it is basically replicating intercourse. We will await with interest the outcome of the trail.” She stressed that ICI and IVF were “completely different” and that the Fertility Network would not advocate any delays in referrals for IVF.
The first people to buy a kit will be contributing to the world’s largest at-home fertility treatment study. Béa Fertility will collect observational and efficacy data. More than 1,000 people have so far signed up to take part.
