Women over the age of 40 may be getting free NHS fertility treatment in the coming times. This has been suggested by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). But some health experts feel that all the women should be getting this treatment regardless of their age. They stress that if these measures are adopted then younger women may face discrimination.

It is pointed that women should be provided infertility treatment based on the number of eggs in their ovaries. The number of eggs decreases with age and the timing of this varies in different women.

Some feel that the new procedures will make the treatment more complex and expensive. According to the current guidelines, all the women aged between 23 and 39 years, who are infertile, receive three cycles of treatment for free from the NHS.

National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) also wants to make these treatments accessible to all the women regardless of age and it is also contemplating providing lesbians and single women with the same right as normal couples. It also wants to provide this treatment to people, who already have children.

But some health experts feel that women should be treated according to their needs and putting any restriction is not the correct thing to do.

Even if these measures are adopted, they will come into effect from the year 2012.