Guys St Thomas London Bridge experience

[Leala20]

Hello, I wanted to hear if anyone has any feedback as I have been told I qualify after the first visit for egg donation but have been chasing constantly for further info and replies, etc. am now thinking of perhaps for piece of mind I should go private. I am worried if this is how I feel now how will the process look when it starts. Thank you.

[justkeeprunning5]

Hi @Leala20. We are with them. They were awful to get hold of to begin with via the switchboard but once you are in treatment the nurses are very responsive on email and phone and I have found them good to work with. We are just waiting on a FET, fresh cycle didn’t work last year but the process itself was smooth. Perhaps it’s worth rocking up at the ACU reception and asking for an update if you struggle to get through on the phone - I nearly resorted to that myself last summer!

[NRW39]

@justkeeprunning5. I'm with Guys: I couldn't agree with you more! Switchboard can be an absolute nightmare and there has been 2 occasions where I left work in the middle of the day to go down to the ACU in person to sort things out, when I couldn't get through on the phone. (I work in Holborn, so it's not a million miles away)

That said @Leala20, I can't say enough about the level of medical excellence we received with the professional staff. They're amazing.

Best of luck x

[Holly147]

Hi @Leala20, we are with Guys and I would say that if time isn't on your side and you can afford it, definitely go elsewhere. We are having PGD there on the NHS (would be £10k per cycle) so unfortunately haven't got much choice, but in hindsight I think we would have gone abroad.

I was first referred there 3 years ago and haven't even completed one cycle yet! It was a 2-year wait from referral until the beginning of my cycle. I then had egg collection in January 2019 and had four embryos suitable for transfer. Despite me doing natural embryo transfer cycles so it's possible to have one every month I have only had three transferred so far, with the fourth being transferred next week. The third one was transferred in November and was unsuccessful and I'm still waiting for a follow-up appointment with a consultant. Delays have been due to administrative errors such as missed emails and ignored phone calls - I made a formal complaint about one error which led to the start of our cycle being delayed by five months.

Although they're good when you're actually there, and all the procedures have been fine (albeit unsuccessful, but I won't blame them for that!), the communication has been terrible. I have been tempted many times just to go there - but unfortunately live a six-hour round trip away .

It was quite stressful at the beginning as I didn't get any of my questions answered and didn't know what was going to happen, but not so bad now I know more. Saying that, my embryo transfer is supposed to be on Thursday but I haven't managed to get hold of anyone to confirm that, so haven't yet been able to book the day off work, book a hotel, etc.

If you look at their reviews on Google, it looks like lots of people have had similar experiences, even those who have gone there as private patients.

[fool11]

We were with them last year but on private personalised care and it happened very fast for us with direct details , number of the consultant and dedicated nurse..saw a consultant and had my ivf short protocol 2w later but it’s probably very different on nhs...

[NeelaBlue]

I agree with most of the comments here, impossible to get through on the phone, but once treatment starts, it’s okay.
Having said that, I was happy with my NHS round (which resulted in my son), but in hindsight, I would probably have gone elsewhere for the private round as it all felt a bit rushed and no one seemed to have time to answer questions etc.

[Leala20]

Thank you all for your feedback! I will go there tomorrow and check up and we want to give it a go at least to see it move to some kind of date something tangible if this doesn’t we will go private. It was mentioned to us that I can go it with them or they cover some private costs so want to just be able to understand this more.