Professor Dame Clare Gerada advised there was an excessive amount of effort being put into “destigmatising” the life stage.

She additionally admitted she tells sufferers who have been experiencing infertility to hunt personal assist as a result of ready lists are so lengthy.

Describing the menopause, she mentioned: “On the whole it is not an illness, it’s just a process you go through.”

She added that she had “never considered the menopause to be a stigmatising process”.

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The president of the Royal College of GPs was talking at an occasion hosted by infertility charity the Progress Educational Trust.

She mentioned: “We are in terrible state around fertility treatment for men and women in this country.

“Sadly, with most of my patients, I have to advise them to go privately because of waiting times on the NHS.”

Infertility impacts one in six {couples} making an attempt to conceive and analysis reveals it impacts each women and men equally.

Official NHS pointers state girls aged underneath 40 with infertility must be provided three cycles of IVF remedy.

But a postcode lottery means simply 13 p.c of areas provide this, it was mentioned.

Restrictions in several areas imply sufferers who're overweight, people who smoke or whose companions have beforehand had kids is probably not eligible for remedy, relying on the place they stay.

Dame Clare mentioned that in her expertise “nobody gets three cycles”.

She added: “It’s fairly lucky if you get one cycle. And over the years that I’ve been a GP, the rules have changed so much that even I’m confused.”

Sarah Norcross, director of the Progress Educational Trust, mentioned: “Even those patients who do eventually receive treatment have their chances of IVF success jeopardised, either because of delayed NHS investigations or because they are having to save up and go private.”

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is reviewing its pointers on fertility remedy, which have been printed in 2013. A revised guideline is anticipated in 2024.