As part of a review of No5 Barristers’ Chambers’ Parental Leave Policy, feedback we obtained suggested that we needed more support around IVF treatment and fertility challenges. As a Chambers, we had already decided to make a monetary payment available for people taking time-off for fertility related treatment or bereavement leave; a step that I think is probably rare. However, it was clear that we could and should be doing more, and as a result No5 have stepped up and led the way in chambers around the country tackling this crucial issue
1 in 6 people are affected by infertility, all of whom are of working age when they are affected. Whilst often considered to be a ‘women’s health issue’, infertility isn’t gender specific. The physical nature of treatment will often predominantly impact women and their careers, but it is a people issue, that intersects across the workforce. Fertility treatment and alternative paths to parenthood also need to be recognised and supported within the workplace for the LGBTQ+ community looking to build their family.
Once we began to seek information, it became clear that infertility challenges have a massive impact on barristers, as well as our clerks and other staff. This impact is exacerbated by the fact that it is so often a subject that people don’t want to speak about, especially at work. Hiding something so huge going on in your life, alongside managing the very real practical challenges it throws up, is emotionally and physically exhausting. For many, managing the grief and emotional turmoil of not getting pregnant, failed IVF, and/or early pregnancy loss (or all three, one after another), will have a huge impact. One barrister told me “I was really struggling emotionally before it even began, from not getting pregnant” and another that, “it’s like a kind of trauma, how difficult it is to have an experience of infertility. I still have a reaction, even after having my child, when people tell me they are pregnant. I don’t think it will ever go away”.
However, there are substantial and specific practical difficulties for barristers too:
- IVF treatment will usually involve dozens of medical appointments, most of which are dependent upon their cycles and the development of eggs and embryos. This makes the dates of these appointments unpredictable, and often means they are booked at very short notice. Juggling this with a busy practice, travel for work, deadlines, and court hearings can be almost impossible.
- Medications taken will often need to be injected at specific times (and kept cold until this happens) which can be a challenge for those travelling or engaged in long Court or mediation days.
- The hormones taken during IVF cycles will have a major impact on how women feel; mood, anxiety, resilience, and this can affect confidence, productivity and interpersonal relationships.
- The mental load of arranging appointments, collecting and taking medication, endless phone calls with clinics, etc. should not be underestimated. It is exhausting and hugely distracting.
- People want to feel well, get good sleep and be healthy for their treatment. This can affect the pace they want to, or feel they should, work at. It might not be possible or sensible to work ‘flat out’, or take on particularly stressful work, whilst undergoing fertility treatment or trying to get pregnant.
- The financial pressures of the expense of IVF treatment, coupled with the need to take time-off and, as a self-employed person, not earn, mean making difficult decisions and often feeling pressured to take on work that doesn’t fit.
- Many people will now look at undertaking treatment abroad, which brings its own financial and logistical pressures.
The real-life impact of this is that barristers, especially those who do not feel empowered or willing to share this private ordeal with their clerks, will end up blocking out long periods from their diary, or turning away work, around the time of potential appointments, without any explanation. This reduces their earning potential in those periods and runs the risk of them appearing ‘flaky’ or ‘less committed’, which in turn brings its own anxiety about possible impact on career progress or not being taken seriously by clerks. One barrister told me, “there is always a slight trepidation of being ‘left behind’ if you take too much time off”.
For many, IVF will be something that they have to undertake more than once, meaning that these challenges and career setbacks can continue not just for a few months, but over several years.
So, what have we been doing?
Firstly, raising awareness. We understand that we were first chambers to offer fertility awareness training to all clerks and barristers. We particularly encouraged attendance by clerks, practice managers and members of chambers with leadership roles. We worked with Fertility Matters at Work, one of a small number of organisations who offer such training. They gave in person and online sessions, skilfully bringing to life the scale of the challenges being faced by so many in our own chambers, almost invisibly. We were hugely grateful to brave members of Chambers who shared their own stories with us as part of those sessions. The sessions have been recorded and will now also form part of core training for new staff and clerks.
Raising awareness makes a difference; it’s instrumental in creating a culture where barristers, and staff members, feel able to discuss their ongoing experiences and needs with (at least) their senior clerks. Knowing that clerks already have some understanding, and the individual in question doesn’t have to explain it all to them from scratch, can make it easier to talk about and to seek support. Training also helps clerks and chambers to develop and shape the practical support that can be offered. At lot of that will take the form of diary management. Depending on an individual’s practice and needs, that might be more flexible working, less travel, more papers, more led work (so they don’t necessarily need to be at hearings and can work as part of a team, so it’s not all on their shoulders), or having a single point of contact for bookings so they are not having to explain themselves again and again.
One barrister commented that “once you are pregnant people get it and automatically are supportive and want to take pressure off. That needs to happen for IVF too.” Others have commented to me how raising awareness might improve an understanding of the need to have less events with alcohol and a better understanding that if someone isn’t drinking that might not be because they are pregnant; if choosing not to drink during IVF, the ‘knowing’ smiles of people thinking that means a pregnancy can be heart-breaking.
Secondly, we have introduced a team of mentors within Chambers, who can now provide a fantastic and much needed support network. We have also encouraged the creation of mentoring schemes outside of chambers, and as a direct result the Chancery Bar Association are also setting up an informal scheme. Someone who has had a really difficult IVF journey told me “It’s so helpful to talk to anyone who has experience of IVF, but to talk to someone who had experience of IVF and being a barrister was really nice.”
Thirdly, we are continuing to review our policies. We have become acutely aware that couching fertility support in terms of ‘pregnancy leave’, or within a ‘parental leave’ policy, can be soul destroying when someone is unsuccessfully trying to get pregnant. We intend to set up a separate stand-alone policy, promoting Chambers’ desire and commitment to providing support and flexible working. Moving forward we will integrate fertility into wellbeing and flexible working initiatives instead of amalgamating it with pregnancy and parental leave issues.
Authored by Louise Corfield, a member of No5’s Equality and Diversity Committee.
June 2026
- A version of this Article was first published in the April 2026 edition of Counsel Magazine.
