FIGURES published by a campaign group show that the Clinical Commissioning Group covering Basingstoke is one of hundreds failing to offer patients three full cycles of IVF in line with guidance from a health watchdog.

Fertility Fairness has found that more than 80 per cent of CCGs, which decide who should receive NHS funding for IVF, fail to follow the recommendations from NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence), with the majority only offering one cycle, and some offering none at all.

The NHS North Hampshire CCG, based at Chineham Business Park, offers a maximum of two embryo transfers with a maximum of one fresh cycle to women under the age of 35.

Couples need to have a known cause of infertility for one to two years before they are referred for NHS funded IVF.

Fertility Fairness states that the south of England is arguably the worst overall area in the country for IVF provision, with the majority of CCGs only offering one cycle of treatment.

Of the CCGs offering IVF to patients in England, 110 fund one cycle, 61 fund two and only 38 follow the guidance by offering three.

One CCG - Vale of York - does not fund any treatment at all.

The figures represent a drop of six per cent since 2013 of those offering the full three cycles.

NICE recommends up to three cycles of IVF for women under 40 who have not conceived after two years, and one cycle for some women aged between 40 and 42.

The success rates for IVF are just under 33 per cent for women aged 35 or younger, 28 per cent for those aged 36 to 37 and 21 per cent for those aged 38 to 39.

Just over one in eight women aged 40 to 42 will be successful.

Having one cycle therefore severely limits the chances of couples having children.

Fertility Fairness said it is "working hard to end this postcode lottery approach to IVF treatment".

It has written to health minister Jane Ellison requesting a meeting to discuss the "urgent and worrying trend in IVF provision in England".

Judith Wright, director of integration and transformation (Interim) at North Hampshire CCG, said its policy was reviewed and updated in September 2014, and approved by the governing body which decided not to fully implement the NICE guidance.

She added: "The CCG does not have the resources to meet all the demands and must make difficult choices about which treatments and services represent the best use of its finite resources.

"It is explicit in national guidance that NICE guidelines are aspirational."