The UK will host the first world scientific congress later this year on natural-cycle IVF - the original form of IVF, in which eggs are extracted from a woman's body without drugs - and semi-natural IVF, which uses low-dose drugs to stimulate egg production.
Natural methods have success rates of between 7 and 10 per cent, compared with an average of 25 to 30 per cent with drugs. Mrs Nargund said: "Success rates of natural-cycle IVF are lower than with stimulated cycles, but I believe as doctors we should treat each woman individually, balancing the risk and benefits of treatment in each case. Drugs can cost far more than the treatment itself, from as little as £400 per cycle up to £1,200. By using fewer drugs, we would make the cycles cheaper and the NHS could offer more treatment cycles.