may 2022

World Infertility Awareness Month 2022: fertility waiting times across the UK

June is World Infertility Awareness Month, a campaign to bring awareness of infertility issues to people across the globe.

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World Infertility Awareness Month 2022: fertility waiting times across the UK
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June is World Infertility Awareness Month, a campaign to bring awareness of infertility issues to people across the globe.

This year, to support the event, we have looked into NHS fertility clinic referral wait times to establish the area that has the best access to fertility treatment.

Our study was based on data collected from over 650 NHS fertility clinics, analysing GP referral times, patient ratings, number of clinics per person, and waiting times for egg and sperm donors.

We have ranked each location according to their GP referral wait times in a league table below:

City

Average Time from GP referral to treatment (in weeks)

Rank

Northampton

21

1st

Twickenham

25

2nd

Croydon

27

3rd

Harrow

27

3rd

St Albans

27

3rd

Brighton

28

4th

Gloucester

28

4th

Tunbridge Wells

28

4th

Dorchester

29

5th

Guildford

29

5th

Leeds

29

5th

Sutton

29

5th

Peterborough

29

5th

Kingston upon Thames

30

6th

Blackburn

30

6th

Medway

30

6th

Bromley

31

7th

Carlisle

31

7th

Lancaster

32

8th

Slough

32

8th

Southall

33

9th

Nottingham

33

9th

Luton

33

9th

London

34

10th

Crewe

34

10th

Newcastle upon Tyne

34

10th

Walsall

34

10th

Doncaster

34

10th

Blackpool

35

11th

Oxford

35

11th

Warrington

35

11th

Liverpool

36

12th

Sheffield

36

12th

Reading

36

12th

Torquay

36

12th

Stevenage

37

13th

Darlington

38

14th

Dudley

38

14th

Teesside

38

14th

England

40

14th

Truro

40

15th

Southampton

41

16th

Swindon

42

17th

Wigan

42

17th

Wolverhampton

42

17th

Stockport

43

18th

Derby

43

18th

Coventry

44

19th

Colchester

44

19th

Ipswich

44

19th

Lincoln

44

19th

Salisbury

44

19th

York

44

19th

Harrogate

45

20th

Chelmsford

46

21st

Halifax

46

21st

Portsmouth

46

21st

Shrewsbury

47

22nd

Telford

47

22nd

Cambridge

48

23rd

Manchester

48

23rd

Birmingham

49

24th

Bath

50

25th

Exeter

50

25th

Plymouth

50

25th

Oldham

51

26th

Chester

53

27th

Norwich

53

27th

Enfield

54

28th

Hull

56

29th

Worcester

56

29th

Canterbury

58

30th

Preston

59

31st

Bolton

62

32nd

Bradford

62

32nd

Hemel Hempstead

62

32nd

Leicester

73

33rd


Recent ONS figures show that fertility rates in England are at an all-time low, falling from 1.66 children per woman in 2019 to 1.59 in 2020. One of the main reasons cited is the postponement in childbearing with women waiting until their late 30s and even early 40s before trying to conceive.


In response to this, our in-house team of midwives have worked to develop an information hub and not-for-profit conception kit to help people maximise the chance of getting pregnant naturally.


The hub, which is completely free to access, features clinically accurate information for men and women and aims to educate people on the science of conception and how to better understand their bodies and cycles.


The not-for-profit Trying To Conceive kit includes:

  • a book entitled ‘Your Guide To Trying To Conceive’

  • three months’ of ovulation sticks

  • a thermometer to measure basal body temperature

  • ovulation chart and pregnancy tests