IVF Abroad - Reccommendations?

[Lily35]

Hi - we are looking at doing IVF abroad after a failed cycle in the U.K. Does anyone have any recommendations for clinics? And how it all works?
I felt pretty daunted at the thought but now having read up on it, it looks simple and these clinics arrange everything for you.

[Maeve88Troy]

@OnePusOne glad to hear that, was there in June. Will that be your first time in Cyprus? When you go - is it straight to transfer or just consulting first?

@SharnaMH I'm happy to hear you are doing well and like the clinic you chose. Good luck in January and lots of baby dust to you! I'm doing very well right now, well the first trimester was terrible. Had a little light bleeding which was scary but everything okay now. I'm 25w1d and counting everyday until we finally have baby in our arms :)

[OnePusOne]

@JeNeBaguetteRien You are right dear, the clinic I contacted is Dunya IVF, way over in North Cyprus. They did suggest an embryo donation. Cycling with them now. Will probably visit them this January.

@Dia12 that is one naughty NHS consultant - she or he should not be there at all! I thought people in that position ought to be more sensitive. I had everything dear - the blood works, the hormone tests, the US.

@Maeve88Troy going to Dunya in January

[domesticgodmess]

Yes @Dia12
If I'd wanted to and been able to stay near my clinic for monitoring I could have re-started stims 2 days after egg collection but it wasn't possible due to work and to be honest I was glad of the respite from hormones.
I used testosterone gel prescribed by the clinic for the cycle before my stims started and decided to do the same again when I got my period after the egg collection so we were pretty much replicating the cycle.

I have low AMH and have never been a great responder, my first ever cycle was cancelled before egg collection.
The egg harvesting will hopefully hopefully give me a few embryos, don't know if I'm capace of making a blastocyst as UK clinic policy was to transfer at day 2 if not many embryos available. So who knows how this will go but I'll give it a go!

[Dia12]

Thank you @JeNeBaguetteRien. Are you egg harvesting? I'm still thinking of doing that, depends how it goes at with this cycle I suppose.
How much time did you take in between cycles?

[JeNeBaguetteRien]

@OnePusOne as you need double donor you may find information about embryo adoption on the donor parenting section, or other useful info

@Dia12 glad you got your tests back with no surprises, I'm 39 too and have recently had egg collection, hopefully going for another in January

@SharnaMH glad your visit went so well and that you feel reassured enough to be starting soon

[SharnaMH]

@maeve88Troy hi I am ok thank you. Came back from Prague Tuesday after a visit to the clinic. Gynem clinic are so lovely. They helped us understand everything a we didn’t feel we were asking anything stupid which is a totally different experience to the UK. In the UK we felt that everything was on the clinic terms and every single breath we took seemed to cost us money. Gynem totally different they would even take a deposit until we were totally comfortable and sure we had all our questions answered. We even asked to pay more than the deposit and they said no need to as it can be done in stages. Was so refreshing as we felt they really wanted to help us. They included a few additional tests why I was there too which was good at no additional cost. I came away with some Med’s to stay on my Jan cycle and then we will travel over for the full 2 weeks to do everything with them. Really pleased with who we chose and scared but excited to start in the new year.

How are you getting on, are things going well for you xx

[Maeve88Troy]

@SharnaMH sorry for the delayed response, but I am wondering how you are now?

[Maeve88Troy]

@OnePusOne it is good to see single moms-to-be here, sorry about not being qualified for NHS though. What do you plan to do?

[Dia12]

Hi @OnePusOne, the karyotyping and thrombophilia profile came through all normal. As grateful as I am about that, still leaves me a bit frustrated as to why it's not happening naturally. Just the way it goes I suppose. The last nhs consultant I saw just told me "it's the elephant in the room - your age". Nice! Anyone would think I was 109 not 39.
Anyway, not had that attitude from the clinic I'm at now.
What fertility tests have you had done? Are you considering going abroad too? The success rates with donor eggs seem very good from what I understand.

[OnePusOne]

@Dia12 how are you now with your tests? I just had my fertility tests done and I am bad eggs I'm afraid. I can't have NHS either as I am already 42. And since I am single planning to be a single mom I would need donor sperm aside from donor eggs.

[Maeve88Troy]

Hi ladies saw this thread and wanted to hop on. We also had our ivf treatment done abroad. We went to Dunya IVF in Cyprus. We knew about it from our OB here in Dublin.

@Chloexox your post was in June so I'm wondering how you're getting along? But to answer your question yes we had our preparations done at home and our local OB helped us, at the same time we kept in contact with our coordinator from Dunya. Communication is not a problem as the coordinator speaks fluent English.

@Viletta how did your FET go?

[Dia12]

I thought I'd update on this thread that I had a consultation over the weekend with Newlife in London. I understand they visit London quite regularly to have initial consultations in person. There was no charge for this.
I found it really helpful and they came across very professional, understanding and knowledgeable. What stood out for me is that from the potential protocols they discussed it does seem that they very much tailor it to the individual. I know other uk clinics claim to do the same but from experience from Care Fertility, it was not the case at all. So I definitely feel better about this.
Before we can progress, I've been asked to have my karyotype tested and a full immunological profile done as we have a history of chemical pregnancies.

[Maeve88Troy]

The customer service rep should fill you on the details you need for the procedure. You should try contacting my clinic DunyaIVF in Cyprus. Super friendly staff plus their facilities are amazing. They were affordable too. I had a successful sperm donation treatment with them back in late June. It was really worth the travel!

[Chista]

Dia12 Reprofit was cheaper than Newlife but DH wanted to tie up the treatment with a relaxing holiday so Greece trumped Czech. Halkidiki is only an hour or so drive from the clinic so we had an amazing relaxing holiday at the same time with nice hot sunny weather to top up my vit D.
For me it has been about silently watching DH come to the realisation that hes going to be a dad after 30 years of being told he will never father a child.

[Dia12]

That's really helpful, thank you. Must have been heartbreaking to hear those words from an expert.
What a lovely happy ending for you both.

I'm just trying to make up my mind between reprofit and newlife - i know all the scrutiny still may not amount to anything as it feels like it's just the luck of the draw in the end. Hopefully a chat with both clinics can help make up our mind. Both will still be considerably cheaper than uk.

Can only try can't we, rather just grit my teeth and go full throttle again whilst we are still able to.

[Chista]

Dia12 sorry to hear that, I hope all goes well with this time. We had to have TESE with ICSI as DH was completely azoospermic, not even one little swimmer in any sample. NHS told him he could never have a biological child. So our cycle cost at Newlife was €3800 that was including the TESE, daily monitoring, ICSI and my trigger shot, and we chose to do a freeze all cycle so froze our day 5s and went back a few months later so my body had time to recover (no additional cost). We had to pay to keep the additonal frosties and sperm on ice, I think it was €150 for the sperm and €200 for the 2 frosties.

[Dia12]

Thanks @Chista and congratulations on your pregnancy.
This would be our third ICSI and I'm thinking of including either picsi or macs to our treatment this time as we have had 4 chemical pregnancies.
Can I ask how much you spent at newlife?

[Chista]

Dia12 we got on fantastically well with Newlife. We had as many Skype consultations as needed. We are now 34 weeks pregnant after our first full round, 2 frosties in the freezer and 2 vials of sperm too. Cannot recommend them enough especially when UK clinics frowned at me being 37

[Dia12]

I'm thinking of using Newlife too @AniSL
How did you get along there? I've emailed them to arrange a Skype consultation and had a look at their success rates which looked too good to be true for my age (39).
Any info you have to share about them would be helpful.

[SharnaMH]

@Maeve88Troy Congratulations on your success. I have emailed a couple. Had emails back from Prague, Madrid and Alicante. They all ask for the tests to be done at home, do we go to the GP to do this or do I need to find a local private company. We had tests done 3 years ago but only remember having a scan and sperm check nothing else like bloods etc?

[Maeve88Troy]

@SharnaMH you will do the preparation stage at your home country and then you travel abroad for the egg collection embryo transfer.........then you can take your beta pregnancy test back in your home country already...........i had IVF abroad back in June and am now 7 weeks pregnant, have you contacted any clinics already?

[SharnaMH]

@viletta thank you so much for this. I am very nervous about it all and not a clue where to start. Hope you don't mind me asking you questions. I am presuming I would need to be checked over again? Do you know if my husband would need to be checked too. We have both been checked 2 years ago and they can't find anything, the results came back unexplained (as in not a clue why we can not conceive). We have been to a local fertility clinic recently to check the processes and they say we need to have a consultation (£250), nurse planning (£200) hormone profile (£180), Blood test (£125 each) and a semen analysis and this is just the beginning. Just seems a lot to be checked over when we have already had these tests done and they all came back as we were fine and they don't know why we are conceiving. Do you know if we would need to have all these done abroad. Again sorry to bombard with all the questions.

[Viletta]

@SharnaMH you'll get a schedule from the clinic in terms of when and how to take your meds and when you need a scan. They'll also send you a prescription. Allow about a week to order everything you need. I used fertility2u online pharmacy, it's not very expensive. You will need to arrange scans privately and send results to your clinic. They will then amend your dosage if required and confirm the egg collection date. I think I did 2 scans altogether in the UK prior to EC. You then travel for about a week for EC and transfer and then back home for 2ww. I found it tricky to find where to make fertility scan but then found a private pregnancy ultrasound that can also make fertility scan.

[SharnaMH]

Hi, I am looking for advice on IVF abroad. How does it work. I have read the feed and see that people go for implantation stage but how does it work leading up to that? Very confused as so much to think about. Please can anyone help? X