Good/Bad experiences with IVF

[AHedgehogCanNeverBeBuggered]

Hi all, I'm interested in hearing about others' experiences of IVF and ICSI - what was good, what didn't you like?

We started at Kings, but the clinic was incredibly disorganised - they lost our notes 3 times, didn't do a blood test that should've warned them to up my Gonal-F dose, then when IVF failed refused to offer a follow up appointment for 2 months.

Guys and St Thomas on the other hand were amazing - we were under the brilliant Yacoub Khalaf, and he was so kind, making sure we were fully briefed and answering all our (sometimes stupid) questions. He genuinely cares. The nurses actually read our notes before seeing us so understood what we were there for, and everyone from nurse to embryologist took time to ensure we fully understood all aspects of our treatment so we could make informed choices. We felt listened to, something completely lacking at Kings.

Anyone else happy to share?

Hi AHedgehogCanNeverBeBuggered!

My hubby and i are doing IVF/PGD through Guys at the moment. We are starting our stims injections tonight actually :)

Guys have been amazingly helpful and fast to respond. Each visit with them went really well. It has all flown by. We are a bit nervous about the injections, mainly because we don't know what to expect BUT we are so excited!

Glad you got a better experience with Guys as well!

Any tips on how to do the injections that worked for you?

xx

Snap we had IVF and FET at guys with Mr Khalaf, he is brilliant as are all the staff. We were lucky and now have an 8 yr old daughter and 3 yr old son. I hope it worked out well for you too!

I had ICSI at the BCRM. The facilities are lovely and the consultants are excellent. Dr Uma Gordon is an expert and she is so incredibly caring. Also, the embryologist we had was fantastic, so lovely and reassuring.

The nurses were all different. Some of them more caring than others. I wasn't very happy with them because they stopped my pessaries after 15 days and when I questioned two different nurses about this and explained that I felt incredibly anxious without them and it was really worrying me, I felt as if they didn't really care too much about my welfare because they could have just prescribed me more considering they wouldn't do any harm.

The fact that you see so many different nurses is a negative in my opinion. I think that it would be more beneficial to be allocated one nurse or two even, not about five different nurses.

Sweet - I think that you'll probably find the injections a lot easier than you think, I couldn't feel anything and they are so tiny. Also, I don't remember feeling any side effects from them. Good luck!

leanandgreen - thank you! i do think ill be absolutely fine once i do the first one tonight, its just the nerves and excitement. Thanks for the advice x

@ilovewillow and @zzzzz did you do fresh transfer?

We've found out we have 7 frozen embryos :) and are now just waiting on the test results to see how many are unaffected! We should know in 2.5 weeks - feels like forever!

I am due to start the FET cycle on my next period which should be first week of April. Any tips/advice on what the Buserelin nasal spray and the pessaries are like??

Good luck to everyone on this journey!! xxx

I was/am with Oxford fertility unit. I would summarise it as "the science is good but the patient care is shit". They have loads of people passing through. It's not very personal or friendly. They've got me pregnant 2/2 but the first one was a mmc (anembryonic) and the debrief was awful, i had to go back a second time because i realised i didn't know anything i should know. I find they baulk when you ask them for more information. Like "trust us, take the drugs but don't ask questions about your treatment, you don't need to know".

I'm 10 weeks with the second. I always said if it didn't work this cycle I'd change clinics because after several failures I'll want someone who will actually talk to me about what's going on!