Anyone got experience of these IVF centres??

[ellangirl]

CARE Manchester, Leeds centre of reproductive medicine or Edinburgh Shawfair park?

We have to choose somewhere to go, and these places (well certainly manchester and leeds, waiting to hear back from edinburgh) offer satellite IVF linked with the consultant over here because there are no centres where we live. We have no link with manchester or leeds so we would have to stay in a hotel etc, all a bit of a pain really!!
Any words of wisdom would be much appreciated!

Sorry I don't know any of these so I'm just giving you a 'bump' so you don't go unnoticed. Hopefully someone who knows these places will be along soon....

I'd pick the one with the best live birth rate per cycle for your age group - all the stats are on the HFEA website.

Sorry I don't know these either but we have had treatment at another Care clinic and they are very nice and professional.

I think when I chose a clinic for the first time we just went with the closest. When we went for a clinic the second time I did a kind of spreadsheet (sad old me), ranking them on closeness but also other features, but then we were looking for donor eggs as well and capacity to freeze embryos etc so there were lots of things to consider - like how much experience they had of the treatment we wanted. I did not want to go into London and have to go on the tube, I wanted a place with a car park so I could go there by car and not public transport. I felt if treatment had gone badly etc (optimistic!) I would feel happier having a cry in my own car rather than on a tube! Anyway, just a few ramblings. Hope it is all successful for you.

Oh yes, ellangirl, thanks Bagofholly I did look up the stats on the HFEA website but in the end the one we went with had not got any up to date stats. But HFEA website is a great place to start.

I find it's a bit difficult to interpret the stats- they don't all publish them in the same format do they? On the surface of it CARE manchester have amazing results well above average.
Was your treatment successful italiangreyhound? I have to have a serious think about whether I would egg share, and CARE manchester does that.

Ellangirl, that's the beauty of the HFEA site - all the data is presented in the same format so you can compare like with like, as far as possible. Can I ask why you'd want to do egg share? I'm assuming you're entirely male factor then, and under 30?

Yes, I'm under 30 and my DH has no motility and a low count. We already have a child (miracle according to consultant) so as far as I know my eggs are healthy. I suppose I'm thinking of how I'd feel if I were in that situation myself, and wanted a child that much. Do you have particular views on it? I'd like to gather as many views as possible I think, but it's not the sort of thing it's easy to talk about IRL.

Ellangirl our treatment was sadly not successful with Care but to be fair to them they were always very honest about our chances. I have egg problems and so had IUI and one attempt at IVF with my eggs and once with donor eggs. We are now awaiting our final attempt with donor eggs.

Our first treatment was at a different clinic but I did not have all the problems I have now and was a lot younger. Luckily, this treatment (with IUI) was successful and our daughter is now 6.

All the best for your treatment.

Well italian I wish you every success with your next cycle of IVF, sounds like you've really been through it.

Thanks Ellangirl I was lucky that our first IUI was so simple, got pregnant second time around with just one egg. Hvaing our lovely DD made it all bearable. If this round does not work we will stop, re-group (so to speak!) and if it feels right we will look at adoption. We did look into adoption when DD was 2 but she was too young.

If you want to share your decision, as to which you choose, please do, or PM me, or not, as you like but all the very best.