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.

You could say IVF, particularly when combined with genetic screening, functions as a modern form of eugenics.

Ridiculous

I know a few in their 20s.

There are aspects of the IVF business that are unethical and exploitative unfortunately.

I couldn't care less what other people do (as above I'm just pleased I don't have the powerful urge - I know it's part of the human experience for a lot of people) but I'm surprised by Spain as a destination. I genuinely would have expected people prefer to be close to home for all the checkups (but take the points above that actually care in Spain seems better anyway).

I mean you could also say women shagging tall blokes is a form of eugenics. People need to chill a bit.

We went to Czech Republic for IVF nearly 10 years ago. Much cheaper and more advanced technology.

There are some absolutely excellent fertility clinics in Spain and world renowned doctors working there.

Much, much higher success rates and better patient care (the latter being terrible in the UK).

As opposed to other jurisdictions, it's not massively cheaper than the UK. You go to Cyprus and others for cheap.

It is concerning that the pay for clinics whether here or overseas are more likely to push for IVF etc as it's higher profit, when most women could conceive after hycosy or with IUI etc.

It’s a major multi billion dollar global industry for a reason!

Its not always simple though.
We were heavily encouraged to try iui (and if you pursue the nhs pathway you have to, lesbian couples imy area have to self fund 12 regardless if you are good iui candidate)
I know someone who was told that it wouldn't work for her but it was a hoop to jump through and they shrugged when she pointed out she was expected to spend a year and tens of thousands of pounds on a treatment that no one thought would work

For us there was the success rates of iui and the practical cost of it as well as the time cost. Iui for us was quoted as about a 10% success rate, while ivf was closer to 40. We were encouraged to space out iui so it would have easily taken us 8 or so months to do 3.

Or we could go straight to ivf. Which was a similar cost to 3 iui cycles.

Iui Is especially expensive so for us because of using a donor so time cost and financial cost for us meant we skipped it

Its a good example for us of where we felt we were wasting lots of time, we missed one because the clinic appt schedule, the next one our iui was poorly timed because i personally felt they were right on the edge of the window because of a bank holiday, there was no variation when a cycle didnt work or curiosity, we were just expected to keep repeating and throwing money at it while knowing i was aging

Its completely reasonable why you should offer iui but its where we wanted to make our own decision and wanted the power to skip steps at our own financial and health risk

I get that there's an ethical dilema in offering things that maybe only nudge the needle (eg scratches, washing etc) but its frustrating to be told that you cant even try.

@CurdinHenry re: ethics- Sadly for the poor babies born , there is complete anonymity for donors in Spain. The Uk has moved away from donor anonymity for very good reasons. You should never take the option away for donor conceived individuals of finding where they come from .

Maybe babies should only be conceived naturally? Should we be over medicalising human reproduction? What about the child's psychological welfare by cutting them off from their medical and genetic heritage?

Idk I think making people exist at all is kind of a ballsy move in an era of absolute choice

I agree, but for some strange reason the majority of people want the human race to survive!

I also thought you could sex select embryos in Spain - in fact I'm sure I read an article about this in the Observer. It may well have changed though? This article must've been abouy 10 years ago as I haven't bought a physical newspaper since the pandemic!

It’s more offering expensive extras when there’s no evidence that they work at all. There was a Panorama programme about this some years back. It’s still on YouTube.

Whatever my own opinions, knowing couples who have pursued IVF for fertility problems and lesbian friends who have used donor sperm, i absolutely understand why people go down the route of donor gametes …but it’s an ethical minefield and the very least you can do if you choose that route is to consider how the needs of your future children. Anyone who pursues IVF somewhere like northern Cyprus or goes for surrogacy abroad , or deliberately chooses anonymous donors, crosses a line for me.

I agree with you. The child is not being put first.

We had IVF in Spain 15 years ago. After a few failed attempts in UK we were advised to try with donor eggs. In countries where they don’t allow anonymous donors the cost and wait time was much higher / longer and at 39 I didn’t have time to waste. Our consultant said to look primarily at Spain and Italy as there regulations were very similar to uk (eg number of embryos implanted, no gender choosing). We went with a clinic in Valencia as it was easy to get to from where we live and the airport wasn’t too far from the city clinic. We had a wonderful experience and now have a teenage son.

My sisyer went there. Its MUCH cheaper and MUCH better than the UK. She had her baby 3 years ago in her late 40s.

Does she worry about the donor anonymity side of things?

Got to say I hadn't really thought about it but it must be a hard conversation to have as your kid grows up. As a fairly weak sauce maternal energy woman I can't imagine wanting to grow someone else's baby so had never really put myself in those shoes.

I think non-anonymity must be hard too tbf.

@CurdinHenry “As a fairly weak sauce maternal energy woman”

This made me laugh, thanks!

I haven’t heard of Spain being a popular destination but 2 girls I know are gong to Greece.
About £10k less than UK
One girl is over 40 and about 4st overweight - UK drs wouldn’t help her
The other is 40+ and was denied because of age.

This is not accurate at all. Spain is highly regulated both at national level and through EU legislation.

They do tend to have more accessible prices, offer IVF until later than the UK. NHS funding ends at 43, which then you might want to go somewhere else as it’s cheaper.