Two stories this week emphasised the lengths people will go to have longed-for children. The first involved three sisters from Somerset. Alex Patrick's three-year-old son Charlie was born after her twin donated her eggs, and her third sister carried him. This week the trio announced they were going through the process again.

Then there was the story of new arrival for a couple who had tried for a baby for seven years. Ian and Rebecca Bloomer, from Cwmbran, Wales, had baby Evie thanks to the NHS and a new technology called “vitrification”, an IVF technique in which the embryo is fast frozen. The couple said they hoped Evie would inspire other couples not to give up.

Although these stories offer comfort for infertile couples, they come hot on the tail of a worrying story last week. Doubt was cast over two fertility methods recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) before undertaking IVF - artificial insemination and a drug called clomifene citrate, which is designed to regulate a woman's ovaries. A study published in the British Medical Journal suggested that couples who use such treatments do not have significantly higher chances of falling pregnant than those who simply keep at it in the bedroom.

At the end of the study, there had been 101 live births; 32 among the 193 women trying to conceive naturally (17 per cent), 26 among those on the drug (14 per cent) and 43 among those having insemination (23 per cent). The researchers said, however, that these differences were not significant enough to be attributed solely to treatment or lack of it.

So, considering how desperate infertile couples can be, how do they know which treatments work? This BMJ finding may sound worrying, but it doesn't cast doubt on the effectiveness of IVF, although its success rate does decrease with a couple's age. What is particularly frustrating is that the NHS may have been wasting money on unsuccessful treatments such as artificial insemination and fertility drugs, while IVF, which is known to be successful for many couples, remains hugely underfunded.

NICE advises that, when other options have failed, all eligible women should receive three free cycles of IVF on the NHS. But government figures showed that in June only 9 out of 151 primary care trusts in England offer this, leaving many patients to pay up to £2,000 per cycle for private treatment. It's the availabilty of IVF that's worrying, not its effectiveness.

David Rose is a Times health correspondent

Vivienne Parry is away

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