Prioritising for fertility treatments—the effect of excluding women with a high body mass index

Abstract
The effect of clinical priority access criteria for access to infertility treatment was examined for women outside the body mass index (BMI) range of 18–32 kg/m2. Treatments and outcomes were analysed from 1280 cases referred from 1998 to May 2005. Sixteen percent of women had a BMI of >32 kg/m2. Overall, 38% of these women had a birth from conceiving a treatment-related pregnancy or spontaneous pregnancy, compared with 52% of women with BMI < 32 kg/m2. Weight loss allowed women in the BMI group >322 to access treatment, but women in higher BMI groups were less successful.