Liverpool Hewitt center. Sperm donor.

[MarthaArthur]

Hi has anyone got any experience using this clinic for sperm donation conception?

How does it work and do you get to pick the donor the way the london fertility center does?

Thanks

Obviously i mean i know you get to choose donor i meant do i get the same details as other clinics like potential pen sketch or photographs etc.

Hi I'm going to follow this as me and my partner will probably use this clinic in the future so would like to know aswell. We might import sperm from Cryos. As they have a lovely selection of healthy donors.

Hi there. I dont think this thread will get any attention sadly. Oh can the hewitt center import the sperm from elsewhere? I didnt know that. How far into your journey are you if you dont mind me asking?

@MarthaArthur only second month, trying to conceive our first. We are using a donor from Manchester. The Hewitt centre is on the list of clinics that can receive imported sperm, I don't know how it works to organise it but from what I've read you pay the shipping fee, pay a fee for the Hewitt centre to store it for you for a certain amount of months. And then I think it's about £40 for IUI. This is just going from the website. They have the treatment costs online. For one cycle of sperm with a high motility we are looking at about £800 to £1000

Hello I'm using the Hewitt fertility clinic at the moment with sperm transferred from the London Soerm bank.

( my first child was conceived when I was in London using London clinic and London soerm bank and I would like them to be full siblings)

You can negotiate on price of storage- I'm not paying any as I argued only bought two and using in next two months ( first two iuis didn't work so now I'm ok third go but got lsb to transfer up when I started period and no mention of storage costs )

Iui not £40 though! It's around £750 plus hepa fees. ( although if you are doing it through nhs maybe you only pay hepa??)

Good luck xxx

@OneMoreWish Thankyou for the info, so if you don't mind me asking, how much all up, including choosing a donor, meds, scans etc and everything else. Did you refer yourself? Or did you need to go to GP?

No worries though I'm not sure we are in quite the same position. I'm doing this as a single parent so pay privately.

I went to one of their lunch presentations. ( which was free and a lovely lunch!)

I already had bloods done in London and t was under the year so I didn't need to pay again for that - I got my doctor to do most of them the first time . Just get the list of what needs to be checked and double check they understand - I paid about £60 for bloods for one as doctors office had missed it off.

Sperm is cheaper through Hewitt I think about £750 but check that. London sperm bank is £950 .

I do non medicated iui ( no fertility issues just no partner ) so I don't pay for them. I think scans are included in the iui price but I said I didn't want to do them ( I know I ovulate and can get pregnant as I did last year. Also it would have been a faff organising babysitter each time I had to go in and I prefer less fuss. I know some people like scans as they feel more in control)

So with taxis, car park fees, pregnancy tests hepa fee ( lol) I kind of round it all up to £2k a try.

Hope that helps x

@OneMoreWish thanks for sharing that, we are just thinking about it now but I find the whole treatment costs
List a bit daunting. I have no idea what they mean when they say IUI is £40. I might have a chat with my partner about at least going to an open day and seeing what we think. So is it £2000 per cycle or for three cycles? You have done so well as a single parent to do this I might add. Incredible.

Wow thanks for the info thats amazingly helpful and mine will be as single person too. Good luck please feel free to let us know how it all goes

I wish it was £2k for three cycles :) nope that's for each cycle.

Not sure where £40 is on their website but I know hepa fee is around that I think?

I know when I used London women's clinic they had offer at time that basically worked out price wise as 3for 2 BUT you paid in full and if you got pregnant on first go you lost the rest of the money...

I weighed up odds and decided to do one iui at a time but it's personal choice. I guess that makes it around £4K for three cycles. I don't know if they still do that offer or if other clinics do it.

@OneMoreWish hey girl, how are you getting on?

My partner are using the Hewitt Centre they have been brilliant. Partner has a polyp which she is getting removed next week. They are also giving her a lap+dye+flush as well (for free, 4 weeks after initial consultation!) we are NHS referred but because partner is very fertile with loads of eggs left we will pay privately for IUI.

So hoping to start that in June/July clinic says we will wait longest for a donor match, I'm hoping that no one chooses ginger donors so we will be matched quickly 🤪🤪

@dosmanas @onemorewish

My girlfriend and I recently had our initial consultation and implications counselling at Liverpool Hewitt Centre. We hope to start IUI very soon (once I’ve had a polyp removed).

Does anyone know how long the waiting list for donor sperm is? So far we’ve found it hard to get someone to clearly explain the process to us and answer our questions. Speed is crucial for us as I’m 42. We’re confused as to whether to use online donor bank.

Any advice or stories welcome 🙂

@dosmamas @onemorewish My girlfriend and I recently had our initial consultation and implications counselling at Liverpool Hewitt Centre. We hope to start IUI very soon (once I’ve had a polyp removed).

Does anyone know how long the waiting list for donor sperm is? So far we’ve found it hard to get someone to clearly explain the process to us and answer our questions. Speed is crucial for us as I’m 42. We’re confused as to whether to use online donor bank.

Any advice or stories welcome 🙂

@Soc119 we are waiting for our follow up after my partner had her polyp removed, our follow up is with gynae and then if gynae sign my partner off as ready for fertility treatment then we go back to Hewitt for further planning. So basically we aren't eligible for funding due to my partner having no known fertility issues apart from a polyp. Hormone wise we are good to go. Our next appointment with hewitt will be in June to talk about costs and what they can offer us, they want us to try 6 IUI's before being eligible for NHS funded IVF. So after 6 IUI's it will be over £10000 so it's not happening for us we can't afford it and I think Hewitt are a rip off pretty much because the standard is 3 IUI's and then refer for NHS IVF but because Merseyside have very little funding for IVF they make you pay more and do more IUI's I mean it's so unrealistic to charge £10000 for 6 IUI's when I can go to Spain or even Manchester fertility and get IVF for that price which includes have loads of embryo's frozen and waiting to be used for siblings. ...but if we were able to then we go to a planning appointment and part of that appointment will be seeing a donor practitioner who will take down our preferences. Depending on availability of your preferences you are put on a list. The more features you want your donor to have, the longer the wait, or so I'm told. The nurse laughed when we asked what about ginger donors, and she said that not many people want ginger donors so we might have a quick wait lol! All in all it's been 5 months. From start to our follow up in June.

I used sperm from London sperm bank as I conceived my first In London and wanted to use the same donor.

If you have had a consultation ( so you count as actual client of Hewitt ) then you can start the process which is contact between Hewitt and London sperm bank to confirm Hewitt is hefa related and you have had necessary counselling before iui.

From memory I phoned Hewitt and got contact in centre who deals with bringing sperm from another sperm bank then I emailed London sperm bank and her together and then kept chasing both to check everything progressing.

Relatively quick, I think from six weeks after consultation I had my iui. The sperm is meant to arrive by the time of your first day of period ( when you confirm iui) for second and third iui obviously I had started bleeding which is how I know iui hadn't worked but because all forms and checks done I was allowed to go ahead with iui with sperm coming before I ovulated rather than by first day of period ( at my own risk but I spoke with lady at Hewitt to keep up to date and she was lovely)

No idea if they have 'in house' sperm bank you would have to check with Hewitt.

I would think sperm from sperm bank abroad may not be as timely ( so Hewitt knew days of delivery in uk) but you could check. I think there going back there was an issue with USA sperm bank and verification of hefa registered uk fertility clinics so sperm not being sent but that might have been resolved now.

Finally I think there was one nhs style sperm bank in Birmingham if I recall where sperm is cheaper but hardly any donors so you could be waiting a long time potentially for donor sperm from there...

Hope that's helpful, good luck xxx

Hhmmm@Dosmamas that's annoying, most literature I've read says after three tries of iui clinics tend to recommend something else... does it say that anywhere in Hewitt literature that you could challenge them with? good luck xx

Just to add you can log onto to London sperm bank and take a look at sperm donors and availability to get an idea.

Some people are less fussed re donor and happy to have healthy sperm donor, others want certain characteristics and so may wish to wait until that type of donor appears - it's not a guarantee though.

I think with my preferences I still had a bit of a choice though and there were enough I liked that I picked as soon as I was ready to go ahead with treatment.

@OneMoreWish I'm not sure, it's a good point, if they want three then that is more reasonable cost wise for us, I got confused as well, being same sex the nurse said they would use me as well? So does that mean 3 each? These are questions I should ask next time lol.