IVF abroad

[Bubblegumbitch]

So, me and my husband have been trying for a baby for 10 years hes 48 I'm 35 I have one daughter now 15 and he has three children 11, 16 and 23. Together we havent caught once, ever! We had some tests I had lots of eggs each side. My husbands sperm was a little low with bent tails but alive. So the clocks ticking and I'm about to start looking for ivf considering abroad mainly due to the cheaper prices. Iv thought maybe praga medica?? Thing is me and my husband have never been abroad before and I'm little confused how we get from a to b. Is it included in the price and do they sort all that out. Do you go once for tests and then back for the procedure a 2nd time. And can they do the initial ivf at any point of ovulation or do I have to time my trip? I have a lot to learn and need to know as much as possible before I go in blind. Please help. Thankyou

Hi OP, you might be better posting this in the Infertility forum on here - you’ll likely get more detailed replies. I’ve only done ivf in the uk but from what I gather you cover your own travel and accommodation costs.

Your egg stimulation (where you have all the injections to stimulate egg growth) usually happen here in the uk over the course of 10 day or so and you go to a clinic here to have your progress scans. Then you go abroad for egg collection and stay there while the eggs are fertilised and developed, then have one (or however many) implanted 3-5 days later.

That’s it in a nutshell from what I’ve read online but I know all clinics had their own way of doing things. Hopefully someone with experience will come on and offer some advice.

Good luck! X

Gah that should say you go to a clinic abroad to have egg collection.

Also they will likely give you medication to control your cycle as ovulation is medically induced during ivf (unless you’re doing ‘natural ivf’ which is a whole other thing).

I completely recommend going abroad. You tend to pay for a package that includes all information and consultations, whereas in the UK you have to pay for every consultation individually.

I highly recommend Serum in Athens. We were quoted €3000 for 1 IVF cycle or €4000 for 2 IVF cycles if the first failed. We went for the second package but got pregnant the first time. The reason for this is that it seems like Serum puts everything in to that first IVF cycle. Medication was additional and probably came out to around €1000 for the whole pregnancy. If we had this done in the UK it would have costed around £10,000 to do it privately.

Basically the first step is to email clinics. Email a lot of clinics and see if they are attentive to you. The second is to check how they are reviewed on sites like Facebook or fertilityfriends.co.uk

You should get a free phone consultation before paying for an IVF package. You should probably expect to be in the foreign country for 2-3 weeks, where you are monitored, eggs are retrieved, then you wait for the embryos to grow over 5-6 days.

Thank you so much. All very helpful. I did look into the Athens one, I have filled in the questionnaire and sent it. I did notice the clinic need certain papers like std tests- which we can do, marriage certificate we have but how on earth do you get an ecg test? They claim they can do it for £110 each but I want to keep costs down as much as possible can you even get free ecg tests?

Thank you so much. All very helpful. I did look into the Athens one, I have filled in the questionnaire and sent it. I did notice the clinic need certain papers like std tests- which we can do, marriage certificate we have but how on earth do you get an ecg test? They claim they can do it for £110 each but I want to keep costs down as much as possible can you even get free ecg tests?

I believe you can do the ECG test in Athens and the reason they want it is to see how your heart reacts to general anaesthesia. They use general anaesthesia to put you to sleep during egg collection (I think other clinics might have you awake during this). It's something you'll need to decide and discuss with them if you want to do, or maybe you can explain that you have been under general anaesthesia before.

Previous poster is wrong....you don't pay for all consultations individually in the UK

You pay for a package the same as you would abroad and that includes everything. Most clinics are very careful about giving you a quote and forecast of costs before you start now due to criticisms levelled at them previously

Foreign clinics dont organise flights or transport - Czech Republic is very popular for IVF but you have to hire a car to get to the clinics. If you've never travelled abroad before I don't think I would want the stress at this time to be honest

Any slight changes in medications or additional scans are difficult to arrange when you're in a different country. Also by the time you factor in flights and hotels it isn't that much cheaper especially as you'd probably want your partner to accompany you every time as a new traveller