Red tape 'robbed me of motherhood'

A young woman whose body grew old too soon said NHS red tape had "robbed her of motherhood".

Aged just 18, Catherine Storey was told by her doctor she had gone through the menopause - something usually experienced by women in their 40s and 50s. It meant the administrative assistant, now 20, could never have children naturally. Her only hope would be to get pregnant through egg donation.

But fertility experts at Newcastle's Centre for Life said she did not meet the criteria for treatment, because her fiance Martin Sear, 42, already has children - though they live with his former partner 300 miles away. Since then Ms Storey has spent £13,000 of her own money pursuing her dream of receiving fertility treatment abroad.

She said: "When I found out I couldn't have children I was totally devastated. I still don't think I have come to terms with it. I had not known what was wrong. My periods had stopped and I was depressed and lethargic, and I'd been getting thirty or forty hot flushes a day. I was just 18 but I felt 80.

"My doctor did a blood test and found my hormone levels were all over the place. She explained what had happened and said the only chance I'd have to conceive would be by egg donation. My mum hasn't gone through the menopause and she's 45. It was like my teenage years had been taken away from me and I was old before my time. Infertility affects every aspect of your life and I think about it all the time."

Faced with a four-year waiting list for private treatment in Newcastle, the couple gained a bank loan and travelled to Barcelona, where Ms Storey had IVF. But after spending £13,000 on her first round of treatment, she is still not pregnant and the money is gone.

Ms Storey, of Dudley, North Tyneside, said: "I had not planned to have children immediately but when I learned how long the waiting list was for private treatment I thought I had better get my name down - because even if I have saved the money to go ahead I will be 23 by then and there is no guarantee the first round of treatment will be successful.

"I feel robbed. I work hard and pay my taxes and then when I needed the NHS they have turned me down. If I had fallen in love with a different man or lived in a different part of the country I would have been able to have IVF for free."

A Newcastle PCT spokeswoman said: "We understand it is distressing for patients to find out they are not eligible for specific treatments, in this case In-Vitro Fertilisation is not available to them.

"The local NHS policy for receiving fertility treatment says to have access to IVF treatment, couples must have no other living children in this or any previous relationship for either partner, have had a minimum of three years unexplained infertility and no history of failed sterilisation reversal in either male or female partner."

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