IVF on the NHS?

[Newbie14]

Hi there, I wonder if anyone can help. My husband has just been diagnosed with a low sperm count and so now we will have to go the IVF route to have our first baby. We are both 31. We have been referred to the fertility clinic by our GP and are waiting for an appointment. I wanted to ask if anyone had any experience with IVF on the NHS? I'm worried that it will take a very long time, and though we don't have a lot of expendable income, I wonder whether we might be better off going directly to a private clinic rather than join a long waiting list. I would be very grateful if anyone was willing to share their experiences. This is entirely new and daunting to me and I'm feeling quite overwhelmed and frightened at the thought of the process. Thank you in advance.

Hello, we had IVF on the NHS although we started off privately, found out that we were eligible for so e NHS funding (even though our GP had thought we were ineligible). We had the choice of 3 rounds of IUI or one round of IVF. We paid privately for one round of IUI (about £6/700 I think) and then on medical advice we went straight for IVF, which was funded by the NHS but would have cost us around £2,800 - 3 years ago, at Guy's Hospital).

So it all depends on your finances.

If the fertility issue is with your husband and not you and you are only 31 then it might be worth waiting (we had unexplained infertility but then I was 39 going on 40) - but it might take a couple of years.

Or you could pay for a private consultation and get an early view of your choices (with tests could cost up to £800) and then decide to go private or stay on NHS. You would also need to understand your local health authorities policy around funding IVF following a previous unsuccessful round, for example, paid for privately.

It worked by the way - we have a DS 2.2 years old!

Thanks so much for your response. It's very reassuring to hear success stories. Around about how long would you say it all took from start to finish - as in, the starting point being the point at which you were told you needed the IVF? Thank you again.

Well, about a year from doing all the GP tests and deciding we would need a specialist referral to IVF, actually make that around 9 months. But we got referred on a private basis, we didn't have to wait on a NHS funded list.

The answer also very much depends on where you live - waiting lists differ massively from area to area.

When we first went on the NHS IVF waiting list in London Borough of Sutton (this was 2004) we were sent a letter telling us that the waiting list was currently running at 2 and a half years.

This was part of the reason why DH jumped at a job offer in another part of the country and when we moved the following year the waiting list in Cheltenham was running at 16 weeks.

So as you can see a massive disparity - although as I point out this was 10 years ago and things may have changed drastically since then.

So I think when you go for your first appointment the length of the waiting list should definitely be on your list of questions to ask.

Really don't want to frighten you into thinking you don't have time (for a start you are younger than we were), but really just would hate anyone to get the same fright I got when I got that letter saying it would be 2 and half years. I'm fairly convinced that if we'd stayed where we were and just sat on that waiting list that we wouldn't have our beautiful children today.

Good luck

Thank you. Really appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Would be interested to hear others' experiences too, so if there is anyone else glancing through this conversation, please do drop me a line if you have a spare five mins and you're willing to share.

Hello

Sensible advice from the others, what area are you in? I'm in Manchester, I'm on my 3rd nhs ivf now, 1 failed, 1 cancelled and now moved to donor eggs (menopause at 30 due to endo)

It differs hugely depending on where you live, it's less than a year here and whilst there's no waiting lists there is long gaps between appointments and tests.

Also not sure if its every area but some knock off any private cycles from your nhs allowance so check that out, always wiser to save the private cycles for after the nhs although hopefully you wouldn't need that

Thank you, everyone. We live in Islington in London, so I will have to talk to the fertility clinic when we have an appointment and find out how long the waiting list is. If it is as long as two years, I think we will decide to go private. I've always wanted a big family and really just kicking myself now that we didn't get started earlier as at least any problems would have been identified sooner.

Go on fertility friends forum, find the board for the clinic nearest you and ask about waiting times the girls are amazing on their I'm always on, great support

Or if you don't want to sign up you could pm me the clinic and I can ask them for you? Up to you

I would also say if you get to choose you're clinic do your research - there is a wide variety of success rates. A lady who spent half a day at the desk next to me at work with whom for some reason we immediately started sharing our experiences of IVF (I was quite pregnant and I've always been open about my IVF pregnancy as I had a lucky escape from leaving it too late) and she said it's all in the frequency of blood tests and adjusting the drug doses - I went to Guys, so was in every other morning during the cycle for blood tests and sometimes more.

So, proximity to work is also an important consideration!

It's not so much the waiting lists at the clinics but the waiting list for funding on the NHS.

Thanks, everyone. I think our clinic would be CRM London, which isn't ideal for work, but not ridiculous either. Not sure about waiting list and that sort of thing but I suppose these are all questions I need to make sure I ask.

Lauren83 - thanks for your kind offer too. I couldn't work out how to PM you, but as I've just posted, I think our local clinic would be CRM London. Thanks again.

Hi, I live in bath and was almost 35 when I originally went to the doctors. Within 2 years I am now pregnant at 28 weeks. I didn't have a referral as it was unexplained but doc say you need to just try normally for a year without success. Being almost 35 , I got refered to the fertility consultant after 6 months. One free round here but luckily it worked. Since you have already been refered it might not take as long but on the other hand you are a bit younger. I would also about timescales if I were you. I agree that on the nhs you have to jump through a few hoops and have a few test before you can progress. Good luck.

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Oops sorry.....

I will find out and get back to you, are the fertility tests at CRM or are you having them at the hospital with view to going there after? That's what happened with me I went to GP, to gynae at the hospital then to ivf

We swapped about from private to NHS, private consultations, NHS IUI x 6, we then had a wait of approx 2 yrs for IVF, we joined NHS waiting list, meantime we had an unsuccessful private IVF, then went on to have a successful NHS IVF, We saw same consultant through out all treatment so it is worth asking if you are able to swap around without affecting your NHS IVF. Good luck x

Thanks for sharing everyone.

Hi newbie, just nosing on your thread if you don't mind as I've also just been referred to a clinic after hubby's sperm came back bad. I'm in Bristol and I know we only get one nhs funded cycle :-( Chatting to others who have had ivf at my local clinic the wait doesn't seem to be that long. 4-5 months from referral to first consultation then ivf a few months later. I'm 34 and worried about my age. Going to start saving to fund a private cycle if the nhs one doesn't work. And if it does we will have saved lots of money to buy baby things :-)

Good luck. Maybe we could be waiting list buddies?

I live in South London and we were entitled to one round of NHS IVF. I went for initial tests at the GP after ttc for 6 months in the May. Mr euro had his first SA in the June. Results were normal so we were referred to our local hospital's fertility clinic in August. I had a consultation, scan, HSG, more blood tests and another SA for mr euro in Sept/Oct and then a follow up consultation in November. All results were normal again, so they referred us straight for our NHS IVF round at King's. I got the paperwork in December, had first consultation at King's in January, some more tests and they were ready for us to start in March. However, I was not mentally ready and so pushed it back a few months! All in all it was about 10 months from first seeing GP to King's being ready for me to start.

Good luck!

Hello, DH and I had IVF on the NHS. Timeline roughly as follows:
Started TTC Jan 2010.
Various tests/investigations through 2010-2012 until diagnosis of unexplained infertility May 2012 and advised to wait until we qualified for NHS IVF (3 funded fresh cycles were available to us so waiting was preferable to self funding).
My periods went haywire autumn/winter 2012, went for more ultrasound - this time suspected blocked Fallopian tube so got referred to gynae for that as well as IVF Dec 2012.
Laparoscopy May 2013 - identified severe endometriosis which was all removed along with the damaged tube.
June-August 2013 I had hormonal implants to treat what remained of the endometriosis.
Started IVF September 2013 - BFP on first cycle which has stuck and I'm now 39 weeks pregnant.

So once we qualified for treatment on the NHS (clocking up three years TTC) it was all fairly quick - having to investigate my blocked tube and treat endo slowed us down by a good four months or so, but the clinics didn't hold us up with waiting lists or anything. Because where we live (near Cambridge) the clinic is very new it doesn't have the NHS contract, so our treatment was shared between that clinic and one in Oxford. Travelling was a bit of a hassle, but worth it. Both clinics and our hospital were lovely throughout - we are going to send cards to the clinics and my endo surgeon once the baby is born. We never in a million years thought IVF would work for us so easily; it has taken a very long time to believe it. Even though baby is due next week, DH and I are still looking at my belly in astonishment.

Oh, other detail - we were both 30 when we had the IVF (31 now). I would not be surprised if being relatively young helped with the success of the treatment. DH passed all his tests with flying colours, so it was just me that needed dealing with, which also probably helped.

Good luck :)

Hello Everyone,
My ivf was planned at nhs in March and then they realised that my hemoglobin is low. Then they started decapeptyl injection to suppress my cycle.
Just wondering if anyone of you have had three decapeptyl injections? I'm really worried. Now they have planned to start gonadotropin injections from next week.
But really didn't understand why three months of supression of cycle?

Please share your experiences. I have been taking ferrous fumarate tablets to increase hemoglobin but it's working very slowly. I'm already 37 now have been waiting for long time on NHS list.
Your reply will be appreciated
Thanks