ARGC clinic London - your experiences please?

[Dalesgirl16]

Please can I hear from anyone who has had fertility treatment at ARGC clinic in London? I am looking for a clinic that will offer highly personalised treatment and this one was recommended. I did a Google search and read a terrible paper article about it . I would really appreciate any honest feedback from people who have been treated there.

I think you need to look at the results very carefully, they are not all that they seem as they have several centres and depending on where you have your transfer you are not included in their official
Statistics, all completely legal, I checked with the hfea, but the real statistics are not Those presented on their website. The other clinic is the Rgi, results still impressive but not so dramatically so. That said, it's a good clinic and they do cover all the bases, it's not for the faint hearted as it's full on and very expensive. I personally don't understand why they meddle about with the stats as their combined stats are very good anyway!

My experiences are probably out of date (2005) but fwiw - it is more expensive than you can possibly imagine - think hundreds to thousands racking up on the credit card every time you visit which during stims can be everyday. It feels utterly chaotic & rushed - if you can hand yourself over to the process great but don't expect any hand holding (or discussion about how/why/when) your instructions will be telephoned to you everyday by a nurse - they won't be able/willing to answer any questions (or will give the standard 'Mr T has looked at it' answer to everything). They treat many women with multiple failures/older/complex etc if you are apparently 'straight forward' it can feel as if you are somewhat overlooked. Patients can be evangelical about it which is slightly disconcerting. When you get past all that though it can work really well.

I got pg with twins on my first cycle - it wasn't an ideal stim despite all the monitoring, I was triggered early due to risk of overstimming. Unfortunately (again despite thousands spent on immune therapy - given only after transfer even with my history of recurrent mc) I miscarried both. Next cycle I did a simple very low stim cycle - couldn't afford another full IVF but wanted to take advantage of the immune drugs - with trigger & timed sex. Got pg with my lovely ds & the ARGC that time around were brilliant & I saw the right them way through the pregnancy. I subsequently had s natural pg & again they were brilliant & saw me right the way through.

Total cost for testing, full ICSI cycle, low stim medicated cycle, monitoring & treatment through 3 pregnancies (2 full term) was about 35k not including all the travel into London etc. If you don't need immunes it is much cheaper.

(I had another unexpected pregnancy which we went to the NHS for & got their standard aspirin, lost that one at 17 weeks. After that I managed to persuade them to pay for a modified ARGC regime - dex, aspirin, progesterone, heparin (everything except the IVIg) and that one was successful)

Thank you both for your replies. I don't understand everything you have mentioned as I haven't started any treatment yet and have lots to learn. I do have some personal health problems which will make me a complex case and I would prefer a kinder approach.

My experience is also out of date as my two ARGC children are almost teenagers.

Medically it's excellent but I agree with the comments about their strengths not being hand holding or patient communication. We actually made a complaint about one of the doctors there (not Mr T) and asked not to see him on subsequent visits. To be fair, they handled this really well and we were happy to keep going there (first round of treatment resulted in an initial positive test, but this miscarried very early, the second round resulted in my DD and the third in my ds).

So I am very thankful to the clinic and would recommend it - but with the caveats about emotional care & communication .

I would agree it's actually not personalised in the way you are looking for it feels like a factory versus most private healthcare where you see the same
Consultant and they have time etc. It's eye watering my expensive, a single
IVF round can be £25k with immunes, again it's hard to get this info from them, I knew because I had done some research! Put round failed but when I got pregnant naturally a month later I went back and they monitored everything and I have my much longed for dc2 so I am grateful to them. That monitoring alone was probably about 6k! You get the picture. So I would recommend them but only if you know what you are getting into.

Why is it so much more expensive??

Daily blood tests and scans as well as immune treatment

Daily blood tests? What for? You have to go there every day?

I had a great experience there but I'm years out of date now. Part of it might have been that the particular doctor that I mostly had contact with was amazing and very good with communications - I suspect without him it would have been very different and he's left the clinic now.

I have 2.5yr old twins from the Argc. We went nhs first round of ivf which was a total disaster from start to finish and left me traumatised. Argc we're amazing, I had full immunes treatment due to stage 4 Endo which the NHS refused to consider treatment for. There's no mollycoddling on an emotional side but they monitor everything. Yes you have to go in every day during stimms to get your bloods taken and they adjust your meds daily to get the best result for egg collection. Also they'll monitor you for months before stunning to get you on an optimal month for stunning. I was overseas so had to fly to London once a month for about three months before they said my hormones were optimal to start. Also beware the immune system treatment can take ages before you start all in it took me the two rounds of humira before my immune system were down enough to even start the monthly monitoring... total cost about 35k with ingoing immunes to support the pregnancy. Best money we've ever spent

stimming not stunning!!!

when I cycled the nhs clinic I was with had a success rate of 28% for my age range, the Argc had an 85% (30-35yrs)

Have you joined fertility friends? Great online support forum with desperate boards for each region, each clinic, each circumstance (endo/recurrent mc/secondary infertility etc) of highly recommend it. I made friends on there I went through the worst of the worst and the best of the best with and still meet up with with our growing band of skitters

Ok thanks everyone. I don't have 30k to spend on one round of IVF and would be devastated if it didn't work, at that price. I think I will have to find somewhere else!

dale are you entitled to any cycles on the NHS? If so take them first before you go private unless times not on your side. Research the clinics in your area that are funded, HFEA website will have all the most recent stats. Good luck!

We're planning to have IVF at ARGC and we would be grateful if you could please advise on affordable hotel accommodation in London near the clinic or short-term accommodation (a small flat or a house) for 6 weeks?
Thanks a lot :-)

I am going to ARGC in jan, has anyone from there had recent success?

Thanks everyone for your advice about ivf journey.
Please I want to start ivf treatment January, but I am really confused about which clinic to choose for a positive pregnancy result. I have had previous negative result with NHS hospital
Please if any one has any advice regarding making a good decision for a successful treatment for me, please feel free to advice me.
I live in London., I don't mind going to outside London for best treatment

@dalesgirl16 - did you look elsewhere

Abroad is much cheaper then uk

Hi there, sorry for not replying sooner. I haven't really done anything yet but don't think I will be going to that clinic. I must admit I have not researched the option of treatment abroad.

Serum Athens
Reprofit Prague
Ivi Alicante or MADRID

Plus another one in Prague - havevmindbkank - always get mentioned

I used MADRID ivi and have a 9mth old dd

So are they much cheaper? Do you have to stay over there for a while?

We went to Hammersmith and Mr Lavery was very open about how they study how argc get the success they do personally argc wouldn’t have treated me because my fsh level was borderline high Hammersmith did and we have a child
I got very personal service and felt it def wasn’t standard
Good luck

I have bit more recent experience with ARGC (5yo ds) but only costed about 12 K as my immune panel wasn't the worse. You can be luckily and pay even less
They are brilliant, no words how close the monitoring is ...

What helped me is that I prepared before hand by having a 'fertility' diet so anything antiinflammatory.
Good luck x

Depends. Some do packages so you have a holiday and chill /stay there between ec and et

We flew in daily as both se and can’t afford to take time off when not a holiday iyswim

And one of the reasons we chose MADRID. It’s 1.5/2hr flight. Would get 7/8am flight / land 10 and be at clinic by 11

Have fet and fly home

Think We did stay one night for ec and flew home next day

Also ended up having era and cervical dilation so stayed a night after op as had a general

Had all scans locally and they emailed to clinic abroad for me