fertility treatment abroad? anybody have advice

[calcium123]

Hi does anyone please have any advice on iui treatment or ivf treatment abroad? We are so worried to find somewhere but prices seem so more efficient and we want to go ahead

[lucieloos]

Hi calcium, I am currently having treatment at Reprofit in Czech Republic. We can't fault it, it's cheaper, success rates are generally better and there's a lovely community of ladies and we all meet up when we are out there. I've found it all very easy to arrange.

[calcium123]

Hi lucieloos may I ask where u live and what made u choose there

[lucieloos]

I live in Wales, I was looking into IVF and couldn't believe how expensive it was. We would really have struggled to afford a couple of goes in the uk and that worried me as I know it often takes quite a few attempts. I think I read somewhere about how much cheaper it was overseas and how much profit the uk was making so I looked into it. Czech Republic had really good reviews, they are very experienced, have good success rates and it's easy to get to and cheap when you are there so we decided we would give it a go!

[calcium123]

Sounds like you are very happy it's so hard to find somewhere and have reviews on a place. It's great to have a little feedback. I live in London and I was looking to gi spain as many net sites come up with clinics here. Ivf prices in the UK are astonishing may I ask what price u have been offered. I am open to travel anywhere. And u have great experience here?

[lucieloos]

Spain is not a lot cheaper than the uk. For a round of ICSI at reprofit it costs around £1400 compared to around £5k in the uk! You have to buy your meds on top but they are also cheaper than the uk. The clinic is great, extremely clean and professional and you get an email address for your doctor so you can discuss anything you want to with them. They all speak very good English. We have a forum over on fertility friends website under Czech Republic - Reprofit friends past and present. Come over and say hi if you like and you can find out some more information. The ladies are all lovely and lots of us have met up on our trips out to Czech, it's like a little community

[calcium123]

Thank you so much lucieloos I will sign up and join you guys on the forum. It's nice to see people sticking together and helping the process. Speak to u soon.

[lucieloos]

Ok no problem hopefully see you over there soon x

[calcium123]

I'm finding it hard to sign up. Says it sent me and email but never received. Perhaps it takes a while x

[lucieloos]

Have you checked your junk mail?

[miamiaMo]

hi calcium123, couple of my friends did, and one girl is having ivf now in invicta in poland. Clinics have high success rate, about 50%, top-rated for more than 2 years, friendly and professional staff. As i understand you are interested in prices, e.g. ivf is from 1 600 Euro (invictaclinics.com/infertility-treatment/ivf-programs/comparison-of-ivf-programs/)

No use in being worried, good clinics, good doctors, cheap country, friendly local people.

[swlondonnanny]

Hi Calcium,
We are going to do IUI next month at reprofit - same clinic as lucieloos. Was there yesterday actually for hycosy and it was a great experience (well as great as medical procedure can be) and feel really positive about the whole clinic, actually. Doctor very friendly, answered all my questions, didn't feel rushed at all...Can't compare with all the test I had on NHS... And even with cost of flights etc much cheaper than private clinics in London where I live. Also very easy to get to from London and Brno is easy to get around and cheap as well.
Please feel free to ask any questions, happy to help if I can...

[Blue2014]

Can one of you ladies tell me how long you need to be away for for own egg icsi? Lucie i think from my lurking on berries chat you flew in and out?

[Vap0]

Hi all, thanks to this thread we have started seriously researching treatment abroad. Can anyone tell me how much time you need to spend over there? Ive been looking at a clinic in Prague (gynem fertility clinic) as we don't live in London so can't fly direct to Brno. I've been reading that they start ovary stimulation on day 2 and then need a scan on day 5 and 8. Day 12 they take your eggs, they cultivate them for 3-5 days and then implant them on day 15-17. I also have read you should rest for a couple of days without traveling.

The time aspect is making it appear impossible for us as I can't take 3 weeks off work in 1 go.

Have I got it right?

[lucieloos]

Hi Blue and Vap, I don't live in London either but I travelled to Brno from stansted. It took a 3.5 hour drive but lots stay there the night before or you can fly to Prague and take a 2.5 hour bus journey to Brno.

What most of us do for own egg is to arrange the scans in the uk. You normally need one on day 8 and 10. They cost around £100 each and they will measure your lining and follicles so that you can send the results to your doctor abroad and they can tell you the next steps. This saves a lot of time so technically you then only need to be in Czech the day before egg collection. Once they have retrieved the eggs they will then cultivate them for 5 days and transfer them back so you are looking at around a week stay. It's fine to travel etc after transfer.

I am doing things differently in that I am not have fresh transfers. I am trying to freeze a number of embryos before I begin transfers. I'm hoping we may possibly have something left over for future use for a sibling that way. It may suit you better too as I fly in the day before egg collection and fly home the following day after collection so I am only there one night. This may be a little quick for some but doing it that way you could easily get away with going for only a couple of nights. You can then pop back again for another couple of nights when you are ready for transfer.

[Vap0]

Hi lucie thank you for the info, you have put my mind at rest that we can still do it. This sounds much easier. I would expect we would go to Prague rather than Brno due to minimal travelling and it would make flying over for a night or 2 much easier. The chances are id have to go on my own most of the time unless we were lucky for my cycle to fall in school holidays, which in the last 12 months has only happened once in the summer. One last question, if you don't mind, they say they like to use semen produced immediately after egg retrieval. Would it be possible to have some on ice as DP probably won't be able to be there on the right day?

[lucieloos]

Hi Vap no problem, we had one fresh round of IVF which didn't work. My dh left a sample there which was frozen incase we needed to go back again as he is not able to take as much time off as me. I have been twice since without him and have used some of the frozen sperm. They told me it makes no difference fresh or frozen and we have had 100% fertilisation with the frozen so I'm very happy with the sample! Definitely go over together the first time to check it all out and so you're happy you know what you're doing and get a sample frozen will make it so much easier for you then the next time.

[Vap0]

Thank you for all of this. We are waiting until after Xmas before we do anything. We have an appointment with nhs in jan to hopefully be put on the IVF waiting list but I expect this will be a long list and will take at least another 12 months from appointment for treatment and so private seems to be the only option as I'm turning 34 in April and are in our 27th cycle of trying. The clinic I've been looking at asks for blood tests and another hycosy scan to be done before they will begin treatment, I know my nhs Dr didn't take any pics when they did my hycosy and trying to get any form of results out of him will be a massive battle, he won't even tell us the numbers from the SA, just told us it was a good specimen. Did you have to have another internal scan? And another SA? I'm thinking we could do this on our 1st visit and DP could leave a sample for IVF too. Does an IVF sample have special rules like when being used for an SA? Do they have to abstain for 3 days or anything? I'll be back with more questions nearer the time. Thanks again.

[lucieloos]

Yes I was going to say go out for an initial visit and get all the tests done again out there. It will be a lot cheaper than here. You need to abstain for 2-3 days for the sperm sample so it's top quality. Sounds like you are getting everything sorted and will hopefully be able to tell the NHS you don't need the treatment by the time you get around to it.

[lucieloos]

Sorry meant to say when they take the sperm sample to be frozen they will carry out an analysis on it anyway and will give you the results so you won't need to have two lots done while out there

[alockie]

a friend of my friend recommended it, then my friend recommended it to me: eggdonationfriends.com easily you can compare fertility clinics worldwide: prices, success rates, opinions, stars, tips, legal issues, etc. If any doubts- there is free consulting

[Jelliebabe1]

We used Gennet in Prague. They have a sister clinic in London that we used for consult, plan, meds and scans. They liaised with Prague and well it was all easy. We had two oe ivf and an now snugged up with my de twin girls (3.5 weeks old)! Good luck cz is a great country with lots of great clinics. Look at the boards on fertility friends, there's Heaps of advice there!

[miamiaMo]

Vap0 - standard ivf procedure in Invicta is 3 visits to a clinic: the first one (1-2 days), the second one (about 7 days), the third one (1-2 days). So, Although each case is individual one.

[Vap0]

Thank you for all the info ladies.
We seem to have a work obstacle in the way for Easter which was when we were planning on going but I think we will be going Feb half term maybe for 1st appointment.
maimo are they open on weekends?

[miamiaMo]

Hi, Vap0 - on Saturday yes, from 7 a.m to 3 p.m.; Sunday- possible to agree, they are rather flexible

[lucieloos]

At my clinic in Czech everything can be done in one visit if you want it to.