Fertility Journeys in Defence

Serving or being a partner of someone serving within the UK’s Armed Forces is a unique, rewarding, but challenging lifestyle. It’s also a job which impacts our family lives due to the posting cycle requiring us to regularly move across the country and overseas, as well as significant periods of separation due to operational deployments.

For anyone in the Armed Forces struggling with infertility, these factors peculiar to the job, may exacerbate the stresses of fertility treatment. This can be physically, psychologically and emotionally draining on couples and individuals. They can also damage interpersonal relationships and undermine productivity at work.

Policy measures in place to help

Fortunately, Defence has recognised this potential impact on its personnel and their partners, and policy measures are in place to try and reduce the impact of military service whilst undergoing investigations and treatment.

Members of the Armed Services can request stability agreements to enable them to remain in one location to provide continuity of treatment and, so long as they meet NICE guidelines, are entitled to funding to encompass three rounds of IVF/ICSI irrespective of where they serve under NHS England.

Measures are also in place to support fertility preservation in the event that an individual is required to deploy to a high-risk area.

Defence Fertility Network launched this year

In addition, the Defence Fertility Network was formally recognised in February this year as an official Staff Support Network. It brings together personnel from across the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and Civil Service, as well as their partners, to provide a forum for confidential peer support and signposting to supporting agencies.

The network was established by employees, for employees, providing mutual peer support and guidance, as well as a centralised resource hub to Defence policy and advice provided by the NHS and other external agencies. Since its launch, the group has quadrupled in size.

Partnering an essential element

Partnering is an essential element of the Defence Fertility Network’s support. We are working alongside the NatWest Group and Bank of England’s Fertility Networks to share best practice.

We are also proud partners of Fertility Network UK’s Fertility in the Workplace initiative which has ensured access to subject matter experts across the spectrum of fertility challenges and provided our people with the best possible guidance in their efforts to conceive.

The Defence Fertility Network was privileged to host Fertility Network UK’s Anya Sizer for a lunchtime webinar on ‘Dispelling the Myths and Engaging your Employer’. Her insight was incredibly valuable, and we look forward to welcoming her back soon.

Working with HIMfertility

As an organisation with a sizeable male demographic, we also work alongside HIMFertility, with their racing driver Ambassador, Toby Trice, also a supporting member of our network.

While Defence actively recognises fertility support is a workplace issue, there are always means to improve the lived experience of our people. We must recognise every fertility journey is unique. There is no such thing as a ‘one size fits all’ solution in supporting individuals and couples in their aspiration to conceive.

Fertility journeys can be a lonely experience and hard to talk about within the workplace. By supporting our personnel on their journey we are not ‘mollycoddling’ them, but actively investing in them, enhancing their ability to serve within the Armed Forces, and our subsequent ability organisationally to provide the Defence of the United Kingdom.