LOOKING after test tube twins Josh and Luke is hard work, but Jackie Brown can't think of anything she would rather do. The 35-year-old went through the hell of three years of test tube treatments - seven cycles of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) - before she became pregnant.

And her joy at finally having a family is unconcealed. "They are absolutely wonderful. I am thrilled to bits with my babies," she says.

It took the treatment to do the trick.

The mother, from Jarrow in South Tyneside, is full of praise for the skills of the infertility specialists at the Centre for Reproductive Medicine in Newcastle, though she is still seething at the way she feels she was discriminated against for marrying a man who had children from a previous marriage. Because of this the couple were denied infertility treatment on the NHS.

"We couldn't even have one go," says Jackie. "I felt like I was being punished for being with Kevin. "It wasn't my fault that my partner had children from a previous marriage, so why should I be denied NHS treatment?"

Josh and Luke's arrival, after the seventh round of treatment, cost the couple £12,000 - and they feel strongly that the service should be available to all, not just those who can raise the money to pay for it.

IVF treatment using donated sperm or eggs now accounts for 2,000 births a year. Not everyone who has fertility treatment is suitable for IVF but where it is appropriate, patients soon find that the way ahead is far from straightforward and many in this region face a maze of rules and regulations.

Apart from strictures about children from previous relationships and reversed vasectomies, couples can be barred by age limits. While younger couples may be entitled to two free courses of IVF, older people are penalised, depending on where they live. In North Yorkshire the upper age limit for IVF is 35, on Tyneside and Wearside it's 38, the limit is 39 on Teesside, and in County Durham couples may be entitled to treatment up to the age of 40.

In the IVF lottery, the best place for infertile couples is Sunderland, where treatment is almost immediate because their local authority has decided to put more resources into the service. Women from County Durham can expect to wait two years for treatment while those from North Yorkshire wait about a year.

Dr Alison Murdoch, medical director of the Centre for Reproductive Medicine, appreciates that in the Northern and Yorkshire region patients who would qualify for IVF treatment are entitled to two treatment cycles.

In many other parts of the country couples are entitled to just one cycle or, in some cases, they have to pay for the treatment out of their own pocket.

Like most infertility consultants working in the NHS she would like to see the service fully-funded, but successive governments have given infertility treatment a low priority when it comes to funding, arguing that resources should be concentrated on acute services for the sick.

Infertility specialists argue that the condition they treat can cause enormous anguish and human unhappiness.

While there are hopes among infertility specialists that the Government will divert some of the extra millions it is spending on the NHS into infertility services, it could be the passing of the Human Rights Act this autumn which will change the service forever.

Some families could use the new legislation - which becomes a part of UK law in October - to force health authorities to fully fund infertility services.

"The idea of using the new Human Rights Act to improve access to services is something that people are just beginning to be aware of," says Dr Murdoch.

About two-thirds of the patients Dr Murdoch sees end up paying for their own IVF treatment at £2,000 a cycle, even though it is an NHS unit.

"They are all people who I think are suitable for having IVF on medical and social grounds. So they are all people for whom I would say the NHS ought to produce treatment. And the only reason it doesn't is because of funding issues," says Dr Murdoch.

"Perhaps the new Human Rights Act is going to be an opportunity for people to challenge whether that is a situation they want to continue over the next five or ten years."

Certainly Jackie Brown feels that she was unfairly treated and would like to see the present system of funding overhauled. "I don't know how they come up with these rules," she says. "Everybody should get at least one go."

Dr Murdoch says it is important for aggrieved couples to appreciate that the restrictions are based on the availability of cash. "The bottom line is that these rules have been brought in because of rationing," she says.

But she agrees that the present system can seem to be personal to someone who falls foul of the rules. "It is certainly unfair to penalise the woman for the mistake the man may have made in the past," she says.

In Australia couples can have six cycles of IVF treatment paid for by their equivalent of the NHS, says the consultant. "The system in Australia is the most liberal, but there are plenty of other places where access to IVF is better than in Britain," she says.

And she argues that the peculiar status of infertility services within the NHS needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. "The UK is unique in that infertility services are the only thing within the Health Service which is not anything like fully funded. A great deal of other things are provided within the NHS and therefore we should provide infertility services."

The story of Jackie and Kevin Brown - along with 37-year-old intensive care nurse Katy Cook, another patient of Dr Murdoch's - will be told in tomorrow night's Lifelines programme on ITV.

Katy, from Gosforth, Newcastle, has already had one attempt at IVF, which didn't work. The Lifelines cameras are with her as she undergoes a second attempt to have a test tube baby.

Ironically, Katy qualifies for NHS treatment, but because she will reach the cut-off age of 38 by the time she reaches the front of the queue, she and her husband Ian decided to pay for the treatment themselves.

"People don't appreciate that IVF has only a one in five chance of succeeding," says Katy.

l See Jackie and Kevin's story on Lifelines, Tyne Tees, tomorrow at 10.30pm