IVF abroad

[CornishMaid1]

Hi everyone.

I am still back and forth between ICSI at Reprofit in Brno (Czech Republic) or here. By the time I add in flights, hotel etc it is only around £1,000-£1,500 cheaper.

I feel drawn to Reprofit and I see lots of people have had great things to say about them on forums. I just keep getting stressed over the little things and wonder whether here would be better (my current concern is what to do if my flight out gets cancelled and I miss egg collection even though I would go 3 days before!).

Has anyone had issues over travelling there, especially in the winter months (was looking at next month or pushing back to January) and any recommendations on where to stay?

Also, how have you managed with travel insurance - all I can find is that if you are travelling for treatment the travel insurance is not valid, so now I'm worried that I will end up falling over and breaking a leg or something with no insurance?

Thank you x

[Pumpkin18]

We are looking at going to Reprofit in January too. I am a little worried about weather and how this might affect us getting there etc but DH just says I'm worrying about things that might not happen - which is true. It will save us around £3k having icsi there instead of UK but it is a bit of a faff. We are going over this month for a consultation as think that will cement our decision. I have seen that a lot of people have used medical travel shield for insurance so we will probably use them - if you Google you will find them online

[YetAnotherThing]

What are the logistics of doing a cycle overseas? Am contemplating it but not sure how the travel practicalities would work out In terms of when to travel (stay whole cycle or travel to and fro during cycle). Do some do shared care with UK clinics for scans etc?

[KatnissMellark]

I've been in touch with reprofit and planning to out next cycle. We had a phone consultation a couple of weeks ago. I've only heard good things about them and they have been pretty good so far at communicating, certainly better than anything we experienced over four cycles at two clinics in the UK.

You stimulation at home and have first scan on day ten, email result to reprofit and they'll give you a rough date for EC. Go out around day 12-13 for further scan then EC is scheduled. ET on day 5. I'm planning to be out there for 7-10 days, with DH coming over to do his but for a couple days when needed, but he'll probably mostly be home with toddler DS. There is a fab Facebook group with lots of support and opinions, it's called Team Reprofit and Future Life. For us I think it will be a decent saving, our UK rounds cost £5-7k each time whereas I think reprofit will be closer to £3.5-4k total.

[Si1ver]

I'm 24 weeks pregnant with a Reprofit baby and I can't recommend them highly enough.

We traveled in May, so I can't comment on the flight cancellations. What I would say is you can always fly to Prague or Vienna and then hop on a train for about 5 euros, if your flights did get cancelled. The flights to those two destinations are more regular.

We stayed in an Airbnb and also here

www.barcelo.com/en-gb/barcelo-hotels/hotels/czech-republic/brno/barcelo-brno-palace/

Which was lovely.

Finally, when buying my meds we shopped with Fertility2u who Reprofit partner with which brought the cost down to £550 rather than £1.2k on the drugs.

[KatnissMellark]

@Si1ver - great to hear a success story, thanks! Hope all is going well with your pregnancy. How many cycles did you do at reprofit? Had you done any elsewhere? Any tips you have would be massively appreciated!

[Si1ver]

@KatnissMellark Reprofit was my first cycle. My GP was unwilling to refer me for IVF on the NHS despite meeting criteria.

I have low AMH (1.2 pmol). The clinic managed to retrieve 6 eggs, 5 were mature. They fertilised all of them - they use ICSI as standard and got all of them through to day 5 which is amazing. I ended up with one highest quality embryo transfered and two frozen. The other two were discarded as they wouldn't have survived the freeze/defrost but we good enough to be used if they were all I'd had.

For me the bonus of Reprofit was not only that we could afford ICSI rather than straight IVF, but it took my odds of success from about 20% in the UK to 40% with them.

I felt at the time that we had to be very on the ball, asking questions and researching ourselves. The more I speak to couples who have had IVF in the UK the more I think that's normal generally. The only difference was having to organise and pay for scans locally, but honestly that didn't make life any harder.

The only direct flights to Brno are from Stansted. If I had to go again I'd fly to Prague and get a train on the other side. The other thing is to remember to be flexible. My protocol was extended when I was out there and my EC pushed back by three days. This was fine as I hadn't booked my flights home until I knew when I needed them.

Brno is a lovely city as well. It's cheap, clean, interesting with great public transport. There's loads of good places to eat. The cinema shows English films, there's a lovely spa a short train ride outside and you can walk most places.

Finally, the clinic and the staff were great. I felt safe in their care. The standards were very high and all the procedures were swift and efficient. I trusted them to do what was best for me.

I've got two embryos on ice with them now and if we decide to try for another pregnancy in the future it'll be with them. The ongoing storage costs for the embryos is €90 a year.

[KatnissMellark]

That's fab @Si1ver, in feeling really positive about it. Your description of IVF in the UK is very much our experience with a little bit of 'we don't give a shit' attitude from staff and some admin cock ups thrown in If I knew at the start what I know now, we'd have gone private straight off, and I'm hoping I'll say similar about reprofit once we've been out there. We're so lucky to have our lovely DS and so hopeful to give him a sibling and so reprofit have made things very easy.

Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy, those baby snuggles are so special, especially when they're so hard won.

[Si1ver]

Good luck with your cycle @KatnissMellark, I hope you have as good an experience as we did.

I remember my husband trying to book a cab to take us to the clinc on our first visit and everyone looking blankly at us and telling us where the tram stop was. The public transport is so good that no one really uses cabs at all. It was a bit of a mental shift.

[Letsdothis42]

Hi All,

I am also looking at reprofit, reading this has given me hope, just had all blood results back so about to fill out my questionnaire, @Si1ver your story is uplifting thank you for sharing it and the places you stayed!

[Si1ver]

Good luck @Letsdothis42. What surprised me was the speed at which things move once you fill in the questionnaire. They'll send you a suggested protocol nearly straight away and then if you decide to progress they'll let you have a prescription. The assumption is that you start on your next cycle. I had to delay for a month because of work travel issues.

Reprofit will only issue you with the start of the protocol - so for me on a short protocol this was the first four days I think, then I had a scan and called them with the results. They told me the meds for the next couple of days and when to book my next scan. This means they can adjust your protocol as you go, depending on your scan results.

I would recommend using Fertility2u to fill your prescription if you use Reprofit. You can just send them your electronic prescription and they have an online verification tool set up with the clinic. Physical pharmacies in the UK will need a paper, signed prescription. Czech prescriptions don't have your dob on either which UK pharmacies need. Using Fertility2u not only negated all of that, but they were half the price too.

The above about DOBs is worth knowing for progesterone suppositories prescriptions too, which are issued after treatment. Meant I was more on the ball about filling that script in a local pharmacy before I came home.

[Letsdothis42]

@Si1ver Thank you so much can I PM you just with a few questions I'm a little confused about?

[Si1ver]

Of course you can @Letsdothis42

[Letsdothis43]

Looking for help as I've been so upset all day, I had chosen the a clinic (after much searching and asking) I wanted IVF done at (Reprofit in BRNO), had all the tests they required done, hoping to start the process at my next cycle which is in a week.

My results came back and are with ranges for my age 43, and after a lot of to-ing a fro-ing for over 2-3 weeks where they kept asking for my results again and again the clinic has told me I have a 0% chance of conceiving with my own eggs. I had to create a new account as I can't remember my log in or email address for normal one! Damn updates on computers wiping saved logins off!

I'm not quite sure what to do now, I have an AMH of 2.0, is this really bad? @Si1vr how did you get on with your visit to the clinic?

[Pumpkin18]

@letsdothis43 I'm sorry to hear this, it must give you a lot to think about if you might have to use donor egg or donor embryo. Have you been out to Reprofit? We went out last week for initial consultation and it really helped to meet the Dr and see the clinic. I had AMH test while there and mine came back at 1.32. I am 38 and she said it was only a little bit low so yours doesn't sound too bad, but I'm no expert.

[Letsdothis43]

@pumpkin, hi sorry I lost all my private messages and can't log in, thats right you were going out, how did you find it all, the clinic and Dr's etc? Yes everyone i've spoken with about my results say they seem fairly okay for my age, did they try to put you off at all? I really wanted to try with my own eggs first, there have been so many stories i've read saying it can and does happen with levels that are lower than mine, i'm just so upset that they decided i had no other options than donor eggs.

[Cherries101]

Consider the Netherlands. They have shorter protocols for approx £3 a time. Not sure about success rates though.

[Pumpkin18]

@letsdothis43 the clinic was very professional and comfortable and the Dr was very nice. She was a bit negative about our situation but didn't try to put us off, she was just realistic. They have emailed over my protocol and prescription and we are looking to go back in January for treatment. Although they speak English I think the slight language barrier can make things come across wrong. I would definitely recommend going out there for 2 or 3 days and having a face to face consultation if you have any concerns. We stayed in a nice apartment which we will book for January too, and it was good to see Brno and familiarise ourselves with it all first - takes some of that anxiety away.

[Letsdothis43]

@Pumpkin, I think I may do that, we've already taken some time off in November will see if I can get flight and go out for a few days, can I PM you with some questions about your accommodation etc if thats ok?

@Cherries101 thanks! never even considered the Netherlands, is there anywhere in particular you could recommend? TIA!

[Pumpkin18]

@Letsdothis43 yes feel free

[Letsdothis43]

Hi @S1lver

Am I right in thinking you only have a few weeks to go with the pregnancy? hope you are doing well!