Declining fertility rates is a global problem. For many women factors such as types of employment, housing tenure, and access to high quality childcare may delay fertility decisions. Delaying fertility may increase the risk of fertility problems. In the UK, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance recommends that women under the age of 43 are offered 3 cycles of IVF on the publicly funded health care system if they have not conceived after two years. However, after 15 years of reductions in funding across the UK government; IVF is a service that is cut by many local health trusts. This may create inequities in access to reproductive health care and impact on who is able to conceive a child. Drawing upon Levesque’s conception of accessing to health care we hypothesise that due to the nature of access and funding for IVF treatment in England, those with more resources have a greater likelihood of being able to fund additional (or fully private) IVF leading to positive outcomes (e.g. a live birth) conditional on other important factors such as age and health status. We test this hypothesis using data from Waves 1-13 (2009-2022) of the Understanding Society Survey and estimate a random effects logit model to determine that socioeconomic factors associated with a live birth in the previous year via IVF.
Presented by:
Professor Heather Brown - Lancaster University
Date & time:
October 23, 2024 12:30 pm - October 23, 2024 1:30 pm
Venue:
ISER Large Seminar Room 2N2.4.16
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