IVF in London through NHS

[PlumWriter]

Wondered if anyone has experience of nhs ivf at UCLH and what the waiting times were like please? I was referred to their reproductive medical unit by the GP in June 2024 and just had a letter through for our first referral appointment for May 2025.. so not holding out much hope in terms of the actual process starting soon after.

My husband and I are trying to decide if it is worth waiting another 3 months for a potential free cycle, or if there will be 2nd waiting list to start the treatment, if they do approve us. Any details on this would be super helpful please. Do we bite the bullet and spend the £££ on going private or hold out?

I was referred to the RMU at uclh back in 2017 so my experience re waiting times is out of date. What I would say is that I'd be surprised if you do straight to ivf. In my experience we had to undergo various tests (some synced with my cycle) most of which I had to wait for/ attend further appointments, then further appointments thereafter to review results and agree next steps.

Once you get to IVF, UCLH has a contract with CRGH opposite the Portland Hospital.

In terms of funding, I'd carefully check your area's funding criteria. In my area we were entitled to 2 rounds. However had I opted to pay for any rounds myself BEFORE UCLH ivf started, then the rounds I paid for would have been factored in (ie I would have lost some funding). At the time, ivf wasn't time critical for me so we waited.

Thank you for sharing your experience, that’s really helpful. We’ve had tests done privately as well as a few on the NHS, and have been told by private clinic we will need ICSI due to poor morphology. So I think my main worry is even though we know that it might take them a few more months to decide that too because we’ll need to follow their process/testing protocol. Do you know where best place is to check the funding criteria/details for each area?

This website fertilitynetworkuk.org/access-support/nhs-funding/ was handy at the time although I am not too sure how upto date it is. Might give a good start. Or maybe see if you can get the info from your ccg direct.

I had my appointment in July last year and could have started in October, although I needed up delaying to November/December due to a work trip and period dates not lining up.

They have been pretty good. It seems fairly quick once you are approved. But they let us go straight to IVF without tests due to my age and husbands low morphology. If you are younger they may want to do more tests.

Great thank you. I am younger (29, been trying for 2 years) but private clinics have said chance of natural pregnancy is very low due to morphology, so it’s tricky to predict whether we will be less of priority because of age and they may just want us to keep going naturally for now.

If you don’t mind me asking, how has experience been with them since you started the process? I know some have mentioned the first cycle is seen as a bit of a test and medication not always optimised until 2nd cycle.

It was an up and down process in a lot of ways.

First scan then said they were worried about my number of follicles and needed to put me on a high dose of stims straight away. I would then have one scan where they said I was fine, followed by one scan where they would be really negative about how I was responding- seemed quite dependent on who was doing the scan.

They made me stim for an extra day and switched me to a freeze all cycle the scan before EC, which was the right thing to do but was communicated in a way that again made me worry about how I was responding.

Appointments at UCL generally ran late by around 30-60mins, worst on a Monday.

On the up side they monitored me really regularly, including full service at weekends which a surprising amount of clinics don't seem to do. The weekend treatment, egg collection, embryo development and transfer is all done by CRGH which has the best results in London, everything they did was excellent, and we will go private with them if the NHS cycle doesn't work.

Ultimately I had 11 eggs collected, 9 mature, 7 fertilised, froze 3 embryos on day 6 (3B+B+, 3B+B-, 1-2 B+B-). Considering I am 40 i think this was actually a great result. And the whole way through, looking back, I think I had great results for my age, but maybe felt they were comparing me to other patients, rather than a realistic result for me, if you see what I mean? That being said on the medical time they were great. Very good at responding to email queries etc, just not the time to give the emotional support that a private clinic might offer its customers.

We are having our first FET this month so we will see how it ends!

In the end I am glad we went through the NHS. We did look at going private first, but I don't think I would have chosen a the best clinic based on my knowledge at the time. As you say the first cycle is a bit of a trial, and having had the experience has been so helpful in preparing for potentially going through it again. I'm much clearer about what is going to happen etc. I know it's frustrating but I think it's probably worth waiting, especially if you will presumably qualify for three cycles- it is a saving of c.20k vs going private.

I would also recommend getting your DH to work on his sperm quality and ask for a referral to Urology in the meantime. My partner did the following:
2 units per week alcohol limit
Vital DHA
Vitamin D
Ova Advanced Sperm tablets (might not be the actual name!)/ the Zita West for men tablets
Might add an antioxidant if we go again.

Went from 0% normal morphology to 2% which is still less than normal but a big improvement, and the embryologist said they were able to get good sperm for ICSI.

That was a bit of an essay but I hope it helps!

Sorry will just add what happened after my first appointment as that might be helpful

First appointment was end of June I think. We both had to attend, took a history, assessed our eligibility and approved for treatment. They could have done investigative tests (tubes blocked etc) on me at this stage but skipped this due to age and male factor.

I had to do a blood test and scan on day 3-5. DH had already given a sperm sample and brought the results.

I then had a dummy transfer and maybe another blood test.

Had another appointment to discuss results. At this point we discussed starting at the end of August, but DH was waiting for a urology appointment in October, so decided to wait for that (the one thing I regret is agreeing to this as it was cancelled the week before!)

Plan was to start in October but I had to travel and period didn't line up so delayed to November cycle.

Separately they booked DH a scan to check for varocele and another sperm sample (urology should have done this, but they bypassed the system for us after the cancelled appointment to speed things up) we went ahead in the end without having the full results although the scan was clear.

Then I had a phone consultation with the nurse, meds were prescribed and I was told to email on 1st day of next period to start.

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this all out, really kind of you and so helpful to understand stages of your journey.

Those results sound amazing! I can imagine they’re always a bit pessimistic with things like that but sounds like you had a really successful run of it. Wishing you all the luck for your transfer, got everything crossed!

Hear you loud and clear on the supplements for DH, he’s been taking a cocktail of them for about 8 months now and has a Urology appt for March (I have to laugh he got referred in Oct for this and has come round quicker than our main referral in June!). Lots to discuss now thanks again 😊