Anyone have experience of IVF/ICSI at Lister or The Bridge?

[confusedcotswolds]

We are trying to decide which clinic to use for our first IVF cycle. Both The Bridge and Lister are reasonably convenient for work although the Bridge has longer opening hours. Can anyone recommend either please?

We have also looked at ARGC which undoubtedly has the best results but very mixed reviews in terms of patient care. Arguably that doesn't matter if you end up with a baby but it is far less convenient for work which is the main reason for discounting it at this stage.

Anyone used ARGC?

Thank you!

I didn't do IVF myself, but have a couple of friends who have tried many clinics in London on several occassions. They told me that Lister would be the clinic of choice. Maybe you should post this in the pregnancy section where people already conceived...

That's a good tip, thank you! For obvious reasons, I am new to mumsnet!

Hi - I was at The Bridge. One cycle, currently 11 weeks PG.

They were great, especially in early pregnancy when I had a few scares. The nurses are just fabulous.

I would recommend tailoring your expectations. I went in as a private patient expecting first class service and as a result got extrememly frustrated and annoyed at late running scans etc. I had one awful experience of waiting for an hour (this was while they were trying me on Letrozole, pre-IVF) I worte and complained and refused to pay. I then learnt they double book most scans...That was it for 'horror' stories

I was under the care of Mr Shaw, who I saw once at my initial consultation and then 'by accident' half way through stimming as I took AGES to respond. The nurses keep you up to date and are always around to anwer questions, even it if means waiting a couple of hours while they call the consultant etc...

Not sure if that helps? Maybe better i you ask what you want to know???

I went with the Lister (got pregnant with my DS, now 11 months, after our first round of ICSI) and I love them. I've always had top class care, and we'll be going back for our second round later this year. Everyone, from the receptionists, to the nurses and embryologists and doctors, are polite and professional and caring.

I looked at a number of clinics, chosen based on success rates and ease of public transport etc and then went to some open evenings. The Lister was the one we clicked with. I liked that it is happy to treat older women, or women with high FSH, as I worried that some clinics massage their success rates by treating "easier" women iykwim. And I was 31 when I had my treatment, and our only issue is my DH's low sperm count, so it's not like I actually needed that sort of care. I just trusted their approach more.

I also think that embryologists are overlooked as a vital part of the whole IVF process. The Lister aims to get as many embryos to day 5 or 6 blastocyst as it can, which to me is evidence of how good their embryologists are, since it's the embryologists who do the actual injecting (for ICSI) and preparing the culture the embryos grow in (we got to blastocyst despite having "only" 4 embryos on day 3).

Once you're down-regging and then stimming, the Lister schedule scans and blood tests for first thing in the morning. So you're in and out pretty sharpish so it doesn't interfere too much with work (I worked right up to egg collection, then called in sick for a few days and put my feet up!).

On the Bridge, I didn't go there but my DH had his initial 3 sperm tests there (as convenient for his work). All I can say is that we suspect they do rubbish analysis due to the difference in figures from his SAs at the Lister! It's not a major deal, but it means that I don't personally "trust" the Bridge as a result (but I know it's a very subjective experience as shown by Vallinnapod's very postive experience there).

The ARGC gets great results, but it seems so full on to me. The daily blood tests and scans and all that would just stress me out even more - getting the time off from work, as well as the expense of it, would be too much for me. We decided that we'd try the Lister and then turn to the ARGC if we needed it (I have it filed away as the clinic of last resort!).

On the IVF front, my two big tip would be

• Asda does IVF drugs at cost price. You can save an absolute fortune by getting your drugs from Asda (for our second round they've quoted us four hundred pounds, about three hundred pounds cheaper than the next cheapest quote we got!)
• acupuncture can really help. I used Balance Acupuncture, during treatment and then before and after embryo transfer, and I got a lot out of it. Not sure how much it helped, but anything that relaxes you during the stress of IVF is A Good Thing!

Sorry, I know this is a bit of a ramble. But my son is sleeping so thought I'd try and scrawl down as much as I can while I have the time!

Hi, thank you both so much for your messages, it is really helpful to hear from people who have gone through this.

Vallinnapod, thank you for your comments about your experience at The Bridge and congratulations on getting pregnant! We have already experienced the waiting game at The Bridge as we had to wait about half an hour for our appointment to discuss DH's sperm test and it was quite frustrating as we had both rushed there during our lunch hours. By the sounds of it I just need to accept I might have to wait, take a good book and try to relax each time.

FlipFantasia, thank you for your detailed message which wasn't rambling at all! You must have been so thrilled when you got pregnant with your DS. We will also be having ICSI which I hadn't heard of until we started going to open days - it is such an incredible procedure, it's mind blowing.

It's interesting what you say about your DH's sperm tests - mine had his first one at St Helier (NHS referral by our GP) and a private one at The Bridge and they were pretty similar results. He was planning to go back to The Bridge for the final test before we start treatment as it is also convenient for his work but hearing your experience makes us think we'll try somewhere else just to double check. He has been having acupuncture for the last 3 months to see if that will improve the % of normal shapes and motility as that is our problem.

I have also been having acupuncture - originally to try to make my cycles more regular and now that they are more regular, more for general health and getting me into as good a position as possible before starting treatment. Like you, I don't know if it really works but it is quite relaxing and it is something I can do which helps me feel a bit more in control and I definitely intend to do it during treatment and particularly after embryo transfer (fingers crossed we get to that stage).

Thank you very much for the brilliant tip about the Asda drugs! Our acupuncturist had mentioned that the drugs can cost different amounts at different hospitals but it's so hard to know what the actual costs will be as the clinics don't seem to provide that info and it's impossible to know what you'll need anyway. Did you get a prescription from the Lister and then take it to Asda's pharmacy? How does it work?

Thank you!

Hello

The Asda thing was in the press after we had our first treatment (eg see here).

We had a consultation at the Lister back in January and got a prescription then (it's the exact same as the first round). I got various quotes (from Asda, Central Homecare, Healthcare at Home and Pharmasure) and Asda was by far the cheapest. We were planning on cycling before I go back to work in March, but have decided to delay it a bit as I'm stil breastfeeding and want to wind that down naturally rather than feeling like I have to stop. The advantage of going private is that you can be in charge of timings...

Anyway, Fertility Friends is a great resource for getting to grips with the whole process, including helping to decide on a clinic and where to buy the cheapest drugs and things like that. That's where I learnt that it's best to not use the clinic's pharmacy for your prescription as it's generally way more expensive. Of course there are times when you may have to use a clinic pharmacy (eg they up your stimming drugs and you need to get them that day) but I figure if that happens to us then using Asda for the bulk means it'll still be cheaper overall.

The Assisted Conception thread on MN is another font of knowledge. Both myself and Vallinapod are graduates (along with lots of other ladies!). The women on there are lovely and kind and knowledgeable and supportive, which really helped me as it's hard for folks in RL to fully understand what it involves.

Best of luck with everything. IVF is a total rollercoaster, but I personally found it much better than the hamster wheel of trying, and failing, to get pregnant naturally!

Thank you FlipFantasia, that is really helpful.

I couldn't agree more about the benefits of being able to choose your timing when you go private (not that we have much choice as the NHS waiting list is 2 years long).

We have now decided to go with Lister - at least for the first cycle and had our first consultation with Lister this week. We were going to go straight ahead next cycle which will start next week but are now going to wait another month so it fits better with work (who I am not telling).

About the drugs, you can also ask your GP if they will fund your drugs. Some GPs do it even if go private for your treatment. Mine did 3 times, saved us tons of money.

Would not recommend Lister Hospital. Not what was expected. I went to Lister hospital for egg freezing. I had Dr Jaya Parikh who performed the surgery. On the cycle I was due to start, my follicles were low compared to the previous cycle. I was concerned but Dr Parikh seemed very commercial and money driven and persuaded me that l never know if the next cycle is going to be good cycle in terms of higher number of follicles. So l went ahead. She also said there was a polyp in my uterus that needs to be removed. In fact l never had a polyp and Dr Parikh proliferated and the dialator went through my uterus and l had to do an emergency laporoscopy to check for internal bleeding. I also only had 2 eggs retrieved. Very disappointing. I went to private thinking that I will get better service but please be cautious. I was otherwise healthy now l have scars from laporoscopy and a damaged uterus. Be warned of Dr Parikh, she is not good doctor, and she became very defensive, no apology at all from her. My social life I want to write this, so that other patients do not go through what l did. I also asked for refund and they refused to give me back the £5.8k I spent on the egg freezing. My social life is taken a bad turn as a result.