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.

Just for info: Gender selection in Spain is only allowed
for medical reasons now and it’s always been the case.

Not a hard conversation to have with a child at all. I managed just fine to explain to MY son that the egg we used to conceive him came from somebody else. Just the same as adopted children come from someone else, and all same sex parents children’ who might only share dna with one parent.

as someone bought up in the care system, I can assure you that DNA does not a parent make.

The whole process usually lasts around 10 days

Nonetheless the ethical position in the UK is that children should know their parentage. I remember when the law on that changed and I wasn't sure it was right and I'm still not (what if the kid tracks down the donor and things go badly etc) but it's clearly not straightforward.

The embryo was hers and her husbands so she didnt have to worry about that fortunately.

I know someone in her 40s who used a Spanish clinic as she was single, needed donor eggs and the criteria were more relaxed there.

I think the people criticising IVF often forget that this is often the case. I don’t know the statistics so can’t say if it’s the majority or not but at least in our case we used own eggs and sperm and ended up doing IVF simply because it wasn’t happening naturally for whatever reason. I don’t think there is an ethical dilemma in that case.

We did ours in the UK and it cost £11k for a multicycle package plus meds which were another £1-2k. I wouldn’t have bothered going abroad just to save a couple of grand but I’m guessing that is often the reason, plus they might have less strict requirements around weight etc.

Absolutely not true. Gender seleccion in Spain is banned for family, personal or social desires. It only allows it for strict medical reasons - catastrophic genetic disorders passed only to one gender. The law was introduced in 2006 so it's not new.

OP, one of the reasons is that IVF has an almost 90% success rate in Spain. Their health system is one of the best in Europe and compared to the UK, the clinics are also more affordable.

Unless it’s for a first child I don’t know why you anyone put their body through that in mid 40s! If nature decides it’s time, why not accept it! Some people still manage to conceive naturally at that age. I’d leave it up to nature to decide.

Because people are curious about other humans and life. Its sort of how humanity functions.

This is incorrect.
Gender selection is illegal in Spain.
You can't use your NHS card abroad, you have to apply for a GHIC or EHIC (in entitled).

And to add: medical care in Spain is advanced and heavily regulated.
It's not some sort of unregulated land of dodgy practicioners.

I had 2 x colleagues that went to Spain. Main reasons were cost, sucess rates and customer attention.

A friend went to a very prestigious clinic in London and her experience was subpar compared to those who went to Spain.

I agree. Spain is one of the most heavily regulated health systems in the world, and IVF clinics performing genetic testing for strictly no medical reasons is a very serious legal offence.

I often wonder why posters on MN talk out of their arses without a minimum idea what they're talking about.

She had donor eggs.

Late 40s, baby conceived in Spanish IVF clinic. Donor eggs for sure.

It's cheaper 🤷

There is no law in the UK that makes a parent tell a child that they were conceived from donor gametes, the same way as if the child was the result of an affair.

The lack of anonymity for donors in this country means that the waiting time is very long. In Spain, there are more donors available so no waiting time & cheaper costs. I’m not saying that donor conceived children shouldn’t be able to trace their parent, that’s a different discussion. But donors vote with their feet and are more common in Spain where they remain anonymous.

Yes this, no ivf clinic is going to recommend a late 40s woman has ivf with her own eggs. That’s the reason 40+ women are going to Spain, it’s often for the donor complete anonymity.

IVF is not only for donor gametes. It's for couples with fertility problems donating their own egg and sperm to be able to conceive when natural conception is not possible for medical issues.

Of course. But that is not the main reason that women in their 40s go to Spain. And have amazingly better success rates than if they used their own eggs in UK clinics.

You are being ridiculous and rude, making assumptions about someone’s situation you know nothing about.

Totally possible the embryos could be theirs with a younger age from a previous frozen cycle

If anyone doubts the psychological impacts on donor conceived children then please have a read of the info that is out there, particularly stories from the people themselves. https://donorconceiveduk.org.uk/welcome-to-donor-conceived-uk/. https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/donor-family-matters/202409/bypassing-trauma-in-donor-conceived-people There was a heartbreaking video circulating a while back posted by a gay dad who‘d conceived their child via surrogacy, he was saying „my child is crying for mummy every time they get upset.They have never even had a mummy so why are they doing this?“…seeing as he is unable to recognise that this child does have a mum who carried them for 9 months, it shows how detached parents can be from the reality of donation. Bearing a child with a donor egg or sperm is obviously not at this level but being open and honest and accepting that your child may have challenges coming to terms with this at some point or have curiosity about their biological parent is really crucial , hence why the UK is ahead of countries like Spain who still allow anonymity ( even if their IVF and health system may be really good). There have historically been ethical scandals around anonymous donation, including IVF Dr’s themselves providing the sperm, sperm donors being used many , many times and producing large numbers of off-spring (with resultant increased possibility of people unknowingly having a sexual relationship with related partners) , or single donors with genetic faults passing these onto multiple offspring ( recent case of a man with a gene predisposing and leading to early cancer development in his multiple donor conceived children)

Bless. Totally possible, totally improbable.

I think the people criticising IVF often forget that this is often the case. I don’t know the statistics so can’t say if it’s the majority or not but at least in our case we used own eggs and sperm and ended up doing IVF simply because it wasn’t happening naturally for whatever reason. I don’t think there is an ethical dilemma in that case.

One unethical aspect is clinics offering expensive add ons when there is absolutely no evidence that they increase success rates. Exploiting desperation. As I said there was a Panorama programme about it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jAroTaYZQV8&pp=ygUMcGFub3JhbWEgaXZm&ra=m

There’s also this place in Northern Cyprus where staff were accused of misleading patients about donor eggs and sperm.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c75gv9xnr3po

I do have experience of IVF btw.

Yeah but it's also nature that creates the urge to do it. Stupid evolution.

Not legal there.