Why do people go to Spain for IVF?

[CurdinHenry]

Have recently noticed it's popular among my peers (no one a close friend I could just ask) but not sure why it's better than here. Is it cheaper/ more holistic? I'd have thought the travel back and forth would be stressful.

it will be down to the cost for sure. These things are often cheaper in europe

It's cheap and some clinics have a good reputation.

Plus combine with a holiday!

Gender selection

Closer than Turkey

Absolutely not legal in Spain!

I'd be more worried about the wider question of what is so drastically affecting fertility that you have so many acquaintances who need IVF rather than where the clinic is

That sounds like a serious problem for the future

Cheaper, closer, gender selection, combined a holiday and you can use your nhs travel card not for the ivf but along side medical insurance should something go wrong / have an accident.

We looked at ivf abroad
Other than cost, they offered much quicker access, higher success rates.

They had a much broader criteria of who they'd accept, we had a much better sense of customer service.

We were paying thousands and thousands for some very disinterested care in the uk. Clinics that lost details, never called back etc and never personalised the treatment. We missed cycles etc, because of lags.

They tend to offer some treatments, med levels etc that the UK doesnt. Sometimes its because the uk doesnt allow it, sometimes its because its new and doesnt have the evidence base. Our uk consultant was very against trying different things that were "probably" not going to change the outcome where as we wanted to throw the kitchen sink at it

We chose against it because we needed donor treatment and were unsure of some of the ethics of their chosen banks.

I know a lot of women who want babies mid 40s. Not for me (I feel grateful I don't have the biological urge!)

Easier to get hold of donor eggs, less well regulated than here.

I would question why you’re asking this question if you are not considering IVF yourself?

That's interesting - what were the ethical issues?

I think I'd feel weird about a donor egg from a woman who would definitely not look anything like me (but appreciate am not the target market).

Cos I'm a nosy cow I suppose.

I do agree with you. It would be interesting to see figures on what percentage of births have some form of intervention. I also think there are still unknown impacts to come to light. The first ever baby is 48 years old so we don't have a data set for full life span or second generation.

I think it will be impossible to unpick the variables for a long time. Sure they're more likely to have autism but so are older parents etc etc.

I have got to say I don't understand why women choose to do this alone (unless they have a strong extended family network etc)

We are France not UK and we know people who have used Spain as their case is more complicated such as using donor sperm and it seems easier in Spain than here for that case. It would be cheaper too I imagine as everything else is cheaper in Spain in general.

Much cheaper and better success rates than the UK

Im pretty sure this ilegal, I looked at IVF in Turkey and they know the gender of the embryos however they said it is against the law to tell you or give an option, however you cant have IVF in turkey unless your married x

Other countries also accept larger BMI than England so this may also be why and the cost, it definitely isnt because of gender selection this is not allowed unless for medical reasons if its to prevent a gender specific inherited disease

Other countries also more willing to treat older women, 50 plus even 60 plus.

Specifically for us the uk offered clearer caps on sperm donor families from UK banks. Spain (if I remember rightly) is completely anonymous. We wanted id release donors where the child then adult has a right to data and identity as an adult. Personally I dont agree with completely anonymous donation, and think its not possible in this day and age where you can get a postal dna test so if my child did pursue it that the person they found would be aware that they could be found and open to it.

So there's some vague ethics. Should you offer a treatment for a 1000 that isnt scientifically proven? The UK tends to err on no, where as we felt we were paying for it and it was our money to burn for a chance at nudging the outcome. We preferred a more "give us the options and we will decide" others feel you shouldn't even be offering it

Things like multiple implantation. Again it doesnt massively increase your chances, there's strict regulation about it here so our clinic wouldn't let us try, abroad would. Obviously other than a marginal increase in success of a positive pregnancy test of a single pregnancy there's also an increase a risk of poor outcomes associated with multiple pregnancy (eg prematurity, twin to twin transfusion)

My weight and amh is a problem in the uk for ivf. Its frustrating when you cant even try for a baby (we are ivf or nothing) when people around you who are equally as heavy and heavier are concieving naturally. Equally where do you draw the line on how lower amh, weight, age etc?

All the ethics are grey.

I do think its important to raise though that its not always about money or bypassing ethics that people chose abroad

Our treatment here was poor, the clock is often ticking and the uk seemed to move at a snails pace so what took us two months abroad would have required many months here. Ignoring that we had to pause for weight loss, but we had missed appts that put us into the following month, then a missed prescription that meant we were pushed to the following month. Each month feels like a wasted chance but also youre aging each month. They tell you your fertility is dropping each week but for us we had 4 months of delays that were completely clinic delays etc that were un necessary

Spain is much cheaper and some clinics have much higher success rates than UK clinics. When time is of the essence, they also have shorter waiting times.

I was led to believe they were more flexible on BMI but I’ve just heard back from a clinic whose BMI limit is 30 even when there’s no sedation involved. Most UK clinics have a limit of 35.

In my experience it wasn’t actually cheaper, but the quality and service in the clinics was amazing, FYI wasn’t using donor eggs/sperm and i was a healthly weight and early 30s. My dh and I got answers there, in the uk we were told unexplained infertility.

I have feeling this might be. Sneaky ivf bashing thread