Create Health Foundation activities

Tackling infertility at the grass roots: Launch of fertility education in secondary schools in London

• Significant public awareness campaign headed by Dr Geeta Nargund and running since 2015, promoting the importance of fertility education as a means of infertility prevention
• This culminated in direct outreach to (then) Secretary of State for Education, Nicky Morgan, to develop a more nuanced curriculum away from a singular focus on avoiding pregnancy
• Dr Geeta Nargund successfully rolled out a blueprint education module within a South London school in July 2016 to significant media interest and acclaim; the launched was covered by a large piece in the Guardian and Woman’s Hour
• Since that launch, there have been approximately 60 media appearances in lifestyle, national, broadcast media channels relating to this public interest campaign
• Direct outreach was taken to Education Secretary, Damian Hinds, reiterating the need for enhanced fertility education in schools and the campaign paved the way for the announcement earlier this year that fertility lessons would be introduced to some secondary schools as of 2020

Lobbying for a national IVF tariff

• In late 2015, Dr Geeta Nargund with the backing and support of her colleagues, made recommendations to the government to introduce a national IVF tariff to help combat the shortfall in the number IVF treatments offered by the NHS
• The call to action was well received by the public and media and has resulted in a significant number of comment pieces, opinion articles and broadcast interviews since campaign inception
• The term ‘national IVF tariff’ is now common parlance with a number of media reporters and receives regular name checks in debates involving access to IVF funding

Prevention of drug related complications and better monitoring of women’s health (for those undergoing IVF)

• This has been a core focus and resulted in significant shift in public awareness as to the potential risks associated with high-drug IVF and why the better monitoring of women undergoing IVF in the UK is required

The campaign has had a number of pulses, including keynote speeches at ISMAAR (Dr Nargund called for the HFEA Act to be updated in light of health risks associated with high number of eggs collected in IVF Cycles back in 2014) as well as a sustained campaign within the national and broadcast media for the HFEA Act to be adapted to ensure the improved monitoring of the short and long-term health of women undergoing IVF, improved data collection on drugs, dosages and off-label drugs administered to women during IVF and the need to link the HFEA registry with hospital, cancer and death registries to better monitor and record any links between IVF and health risks and implications.