Anya Sizer is a prolific campaigner for fair IVF treatment on the NHS. She has spent the last seven years working in fertility and IVF support. She is the London regional organiser of Fertility Network, a national charity dedicated to helping people with fertility problems.
Anya’s next project is Fertility Fest, a four week-long celebration of the science of making babies and modern families at the Barbican Centre. She lives in Stoke Newington with her husband, three children and three cats. Speaking exclusively to the Hackney Post, Anya tells Imogen Cooper about her own IVF experiences, her political ambitions and why couples need to stop struggling in silence.
My husband and I have had two children through IVF, and another through adoption.
Our first and fifth cycles of IVF were successful, so the entire process took six years. It was really, really hard. Every moment of the process is so emotional. It takes you over, completely infiltrating and absorbing every part of your life.
It was because of my own experience with IVF that I decided to get involved helping other couples. I initially trained as a councillor, then I worked at a fertility clinic for seven years, supporting couples through their treatment. That was a really emotional job.
For the last nine weeks I’ve been running support groups. They’re a fantastic way to offer support during the IVF process – there’s nothing like talking to your peers to know you’re not alone.
It can be difficult to find a balance between being understanding and remaining detached enough to properly help.
The trick is to not over-empathise: this is about their treatment, not my reaction to it. But of course, every now and again there’s a particular story which really gets to you.
I couldn’t be prouder of our ‘Scream for IVF’ campaign. We were fighting for NHS hospitals to follow national guidelines and provide three cycles of IVF treatment for each couple. At the moment, 86% of units in the UK don’t do this. London hospitals run on a one-cycle-per-couple policy.
1 in 6 couples are affected by fertility issues, and yet it’s a silent problem. But the ‘Scream for IVF’ campaign changed that.
We collected 102,000 signatures on a petition, which we handed in to Downing Street. We ran a national campaign, and I went on the Victoria Derbyshire show on the BBC. ‘Scream’ allowed us to represent patients in a really unique way.
My next project is to help improve support for fertility treatments in workplaces, to make it as easy as possible in the workplace for couples undergoing IVF. I’m currently in talks with a range of employers, including Transport for London.
I’d really love to get into politics, and to bring what I’ve learned into the political arena. I’m going to keep fighting for fair, free IVF for all.
We’re getting dangerously close to a two-tier society, a split between those who can afford to have treatment to have a baby, and those who cannot. It’s a principle of social justice that everyone deserves to have children, and one I’m going to carry on fighting for.
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