Anyone had IVF with Bupa?

[Bonniexx]

Has anyone used Bupa for IVF recently? What was your experience and how long did it take?

We are just starting the process and based in central London. Decided to go private instead of NHS in the hope that it is much quicker…

Thanks! 😊

Not BUPA but my best friend is currently going through IVF with a company called “ABC”, it was the quickest time line and also one of the cheapest she found, plus does payment plans so it’s not a case of forking it all out at once. Hers is in Sheffield but I’m sure she said they have clinics across the country so maybe worth having a look to see if London has one! X

Amazing, thank you! I’ll have a look x

Hey! I am actually looking into this too and also based in London, looks like the options are TFP Boston Place or CARE London so trying to get reviews of each. Have you found others that you can use with Bupa?

Hey! Nice to speak to someone in the same boat! The other one Bupa offered me was Lister Fertility Clinic. I did a bit of research yesterday and called each clinic for a chat and to ask about costs and waiting times. CARE is the cheapest (around £6k) and the other two are a similar price (around £7k) and that includes everything including meds etc. Waiting times for all 3 clinics are very similar too, Lister did say they could get me in next week and if I was happy to start the process immediately! Which got me really excited 😆 but still debating whether to go through NHS first because I’ve heard if you go private first sometimes NHS won’t offer you it. Have you heard about this? I think it depends on your location so I need to check. Where in London are you? We’re based in Greenwich. How long have you been trying? I’m sick of seeing BFN’s every month x

Ah thanks, that's really helpful. What were the waiting times for each?

Yes, I have heard you won't get NHS funding if you have gone privately so I think you are closing that avenue if you do this so I have been wondering what to do on this too - at least that is what I think from where I am based. I actually live in St Albans but all the BUPA clinics are London so we will head there, I am in London anyway for work so it isn't an issue to do it in London.

The thing that is getting me about the NHS is the long wait times, I am already sick of waiting - I have heard of people going in January to get tests done but not seeing a clinic until this month, I don't know if that is everywhere though. We also paid for some private tests earlier this year and everything has come back fine so I am pretty sure if I went through the NHS and the tests came back fine they would make us try for another year (I think you only get IVF after two years of trying with unexplained) and I just don't know if I have that in me.

We are coming up to a year now without even the faintest sign of a BFP. I am super regular too and can always detect / know when I am ovulating so I know we have been dtd on the right day. I don't even know if I definitely want to go down the IVF route straight away but I want to see if there are any more tests or anything we can do to try and work out what is going on and why nothing is happening.

How long have you guys been trying for?

We went through AXA Health for our second IVF and used Lister. Can confirm that we could start immediately once all the paperwork was approved by AXA and everything including medication was billed back to AXA under their fixed price agreement with Lister so no hidden costs (unlike the first time when we paid Lister directly and it ended up being significantly more than the original estimate once medications, additional scans etc were added in).

Thats so good they let you start straight away! Do you mind me asking, how much did they charge in total? And was this recent? Would you recommend Lister? Did you try NHS IVF after going private? Sorry for all the questions! 😊

So we have been trying for coming up to 2 years now, I’ve had 2 miscarriages, no children. I’ve also had many private tests (18 blood tests!) but everything seems normal. They said I should take progesterone and aspirin when I next find out I’m pregnant but that’s it. I’m also super regular but just having bad luck!

We are going to get a referral letter from our GP next week and then I think we will start the process. I checked online and it says NHS would only offer me 1x round of IVF anyway in my local area because I am 35 years old x

The total cost was 2500 but it was for frozen embryo transfer. If we did another fresh round it would have been around 7k all in I believe but we didn't need it in the end. This was March this year so v recent. I was already over 40 when we started IVF so never pursued NHS funding as I would only have been entitled to one round and wasn't prepared to wait around for that given my age. I have friends that did one or two rounds via NHS but weren't successful so they ultimately went private anyway and then felt like they wasted over 2 years on the NHS process. I was very happy with Lister, there are some annoying aspects (eg long wait times once you arrive for scans/tests as they tend to overbook patients) but in general the important things I felt they did well.

So sorry to hear about your losses.

Best of luck with getting the ball rolling on this! Please do keep us posted on your progress.

I’m thinking of getting a referral next month when we are back from our holiday as it will have been a year then so will be right behind you.

Hi! I have a question if that's ok ladies. With bupa and axa do you need to have health care insurance with them for a certain time period before being eligible for ivf? Have any of you looked into access fertility programmes?

Lister were great. Had multiple rounds, 3 with own eggs and then 2 separate rounds resulting in 2 DE IVF ICSI babies. I would really recommend them. You don't need GP referral for them. They make you do tests again and an intro meeting but that's standard in private health care

It's highly highly unusual in the U.K. for a private medical company to cover IVF or any other basic fertility investigations. So the OP may work for an American company where they have similar levels of insurance to that for USA employees (where IVF is often covered as standard) or she is very very lucky to have an employer which covers it - some big investment banks and law firms are starting to but it's incredibly rare

Hey! My Bupa covers me for £15,000 worth of IVF treatment, so that’s probably two and a half rounds? My partner has it as a benefit with his work, he does work for an American company but he is based in the UK. There is a policy with Bupa that covers all fertility costs so it’s worth exploring but it isn’t cheap. I was added to his policy a few weeks before claiming so I don’t think the timeframe matters x

@lazysummerdayz yeah, he works for an American banking firm x

Aww thanks! Do you mind me asking how many rounds you had until a successful pregnancy? X

i did three rounds with my own eggs nothing worked. Then did one round with DE. Got pregnant that round. Had my daughter. No embryos to freeze. Did the process again 9 months later with a different donor. Got one embryo. That resulted in my son. So DE worked for us. I was diagnosed with low ovarian syndrome. Possibly related to a lot of x rats as a child. (I had congenital dislocation of the hip)

@Bonniexx i think your husband and I might work for the same American banking firm! I also get the £15k Bupa fertility benefit which is so amazing. I feel very fortunate.

My husband and I have been TTC since July 2023 with no luck, not even a faint positive. We’re now on track for tests through the NHS. I had an ultrasound and vaginal scan two weeks ago, got bloods if my cycle comes again (probably more a when than an if!) and my husband is booked for tests but not until October.

I spoke to a very helpful lady at Bupa who told me that the best thing is to do the initial tests with the NHS then get referred into Bupa by your GP

I didn’t realise it was so rare to get all IVF costs covered! I just assumed anyone could get that benefit. I feel very fortunate too.

We did the same, got all our initial tests done with the GP and now have our first private consultation next week with Lister. Although after speaking to the private clinics I don’t think it makes much difference getting the initial tests done with the GP first because it’s only a few hundred pounds and sometimes they package this together so you’re not actually saving much. Have you looked at which clinic you might use?

@Bonniexx

Unfortunately not - you are so very very lucky! . 99.99% of employee work provided health insurance won't cover fertility treatments - it won't even cover fertility investigations. When I had an ectopic pregnancy and nearly died I begged my insurer to do tests to check for scar tissue or whether my remaining tube was blocked ....they said no as it was classed as fertility investigation. Next pregnancy another ectopic which ruptured and nearly died again.
IVF cost me £40k to carry a healthy baby to birth x

Oh I’m so sorry, that sounds terrifying! 😢 I really had no idea it was so rare to have this cover, I feel very grateful. I’m pleased to hear you finally got your healthy baby in the end ❤️

@Bonniexx we haven’t looked into any of the clinics yet in any detail. I’m close to London and work in the City and thankfully there seems to be quite a few options nearby 😊

Good luck with your appointment this week. Let us know how it goes!

Hi @Bonniexx - how are you getting on with the Lister?

We had our appointment at Care Fertility London last week so starting to think about when we are going to get started with the IVF process as that was their recommended next step for us. Quick question - just trying to understand costs involved - do you know if the IVF allowance covers the drugs too?

@ToomanyBFNs hello! Hope you’re well. Did you go straight to starting with Bupa or did you have any tests with the NHS? I’m also in St Albans and my husband has been waiting since early August for a sperm test. If this is the waiting time for any further help I don’t know what we’ll do…

Hi @Limmers14

Ah I’ve been wondering about the wait times in St Albans. So I have gone to my GP and I have some blood tests booked and husband is getting a sperm test, we’ve only done this recently though as we paid for some privately and I was hoping we could just use those (which we can’t). I’m thinking we aren’t going to go forward with NHS as it’s just too slow so at the moment I think we will go straight with Bupa.