Anyone used IVI in London?

[Weedance]

Hi, I know IVI have clinics all over the world, most famously in Madrid. We have considered going to Madrid but I see they have a clinic in London now, opened last year. Obvs the clinic is so new they don’t have any stats to offer yet, but they say they have replicated their Madrid clinic in its entirety so essentially their methods, equipment etc is exactly the same. I’m 41 so this is last chance saloon, I need to choose carefully as I can’t go through this again - I’ve had 3 failed natural (drug free) cycles this year with Create who were just a nightmare to deal with and I feel as if I’ve wasted precious time and money on a crap, Stone Age clinic. IVI London want to cut to the chase, use high stim (425 iu) and get as many eggs as possible. My AMH is 3.6.
Does anybody have experience of using IVI either here or abroad? I’d be so grateful if you could share a bit about your experience with them.

I’m using IVI Cheshire, iv only just started treatments but they are lovely and very helpful, Iv had a scratch and daily scans which I know aren’t included in most clinics x

Thanks for answering pugmum, good luck with your cycle! yes I heard about the clinic in Cheshire, IVI are rolling out in several parts of the UK right now. Yes they are lovely and totally attentive. I guess my dilemma is whether to throw the kitchen sink at it and fly to Madrid for treatment there, or take a chance with the London clinic here even though they have no stats to offer as yet but insist the treatment is the same. Oh dear. Whatever I do I don’t want to have that niggling feeling I should’ve done something else... it’s impossible all this!

It’s got to be down to personal choice, I think the treatments are the same, the biggest differences will be the embryologist experience and the technique of the implantation. Saying that any extra stress and cost involved with travelling may put weigh any slight improvement on experience x

If money is no object iv heard the best is ARCG in London, but runs at about double the cost x

I went to Madrid ivi

Had 2 failed fresh cycles in uk. Spent £12k and feel the same as you did - wasted my money. Both cycles they put back at 3 days. Neither had any to freeze - all 4 embryos failed

3rd cycle failed in Madrid BUT aWith extra drugs and imo better technology I got 6 frozen

4th fet failed

5th fet creates our miracle baby who is almost 8mths

I was 42 when had 3rd cycle. Almost 43 when had fet. Was 43 when had bfp and 3mths after I gave birth was was /am 44

Chose MADRID as Cheaper abroad. So guess if there isn’t much cost diff in London and MADRID and they say they are the same then heart would say try LONDON

Tho mind would say MADRID as they have the experience there including the embroyoligists

FWIW we flew in and out MADRID maybe 7/8 times over the months

Cheap flights. Easy ride to clinic in taxi. Nice hotel near clinic to stay if prefer that for ec

blondes do you mind me asking how long ago that was? What was your AMH? My FSH is 14.7 which is high. IVI Madrid insist on having the first consultation in person so they can scan and then design the protocol after. I’ve skyped with 3 overseas clinics (Reprofit, Institutue Marquès and Genea) who have offered me protocols simply using blood test results and asking questions during the Skype call. I’m unsure if this is a good or bad thing!

It is wonderful for you to have your miracle baby at 42, it really offers hope for the rest of us! Ive spoken to 4 clinics in total and opinion is clearly divided into 2 camps. 2 clinics are suggesting low stim protocol using clomid, expect just 1 or 2 eggs. The other 2 clinics are suggesting high stim, force body to produce as many eggs as poss. The high stim clinics are shinier and more expensive (although one of them is IVI London) so I’m expecting a better result from them! All of the clinic are of the option that my bloods are showing lower than average reserve for my age.

hi yes we went to madrid aug 2015 for a chat and 3 days in the sun, i liked them and felt reassured, they showed us round their clinic and everything is done there

we had to renew all my and df blood tests due to being over a year old,plus df also gave a sample

this is so 1) they check all ok, 2) they freeze it so if/when you do ec and man cant get it up (it happens) they have some back up

they also do a mock transfer (unlike uk clinics i used) to check all ok

turned out my cervix had shut so needed a dilation before could have ivf

if they hadnt of checked this, then when they did et they wouldnt have been able to get thin cathatar up my cervix

tbh i think was shut in uk and why ec was so bloody painful, they dont give general and i was screaming in pain, df heard me in next room and ssaid it was awful :(

many clinics dont do a mock

had the dilation in madrid follwing month (was think 500 and flights of 40pp compared to uk at £3.5k)

started to down reg and then flew over late dec (between xmas and ny, didnt bloody think about it) dont down reg in oct lol or you fly out for ec xmas /new year time fr ec, and then flew home as hotels silly money as xmas plus no one knew we were doing 3rd cycle so didnt want to be away

flew back jan 2nd 2016 for et, sadly that failed but as said previously they pumped me full of drugs, the highest, did say possible ohss but didnt effect me - if it had then only diff would be they freeze all while you recover

but as did super high drugs and their technology is brilliant they cultured them and i got 6 to freeze, 4 day 5 and 2 day 6

feb 2106 did fet, failed

saved more money/put on credit card and went back in july 2016 for fet - this worked and gave birth march this year and as i said shes almost 8mths

will need to check my amh fsh to be precise, tho i rem they said i had very good eggs for my age, hence why we did own eggs for 3rd time, tho if that had failed/none frozen we would have tried one last cycle with de

sure it was 5.5/6 amh and 7 or 8 fsh

yours at 14.7 would mean reduced ovarian reserve and possible embryo reduced quality

and amh satisfactory

but it can really chnage in a matter of months, esp when over 40

i would get them to redo bloods and see what results say

if this is last chnace saloon i would with your numbers seriously think about donor eggs tbh

oh and if you use own eggs i would go for the super duper high stim lets get as many as we can option

FYI- IVI in Cheshire do a mock transfer and scratch prior to egg collection x

thanks pugmum and blondes. So i've decided on London. Partly because it's easier but also because I've had several conversations with them and they insist the equipment is all the same, the only difference in Spain is regulatory, for example you can transfer up to 3 embryos, donors are anonymous etc but on the clinical side, everythings the same. My AFC today was 8 and I burst into tears as I was expecting it to be worse! I know it's not great but honestly, it was much better than I'd hoped. Any idea when your egg collection will be pug?

Hi, that’s exciting for you! So you are fully on your journey then? My EC is scheduled for 6th December although it may move as I’m high risk of OHSS I have an AMH of 117! When’s your EC booked for? Xx

wow that is pretty awesome, i've never heard of such a high amh! can only be a good thing, lots of follies and like you say, as long as you don't get ohss, you're rockin'. Drink loads of water, apparently that reduces chance of ohss. Are they scanning you daily then? do you have pcos? My ec is also scheduled for around the 6th, just 12-14 days of stims x

Ooh that’s exciting, sounds like we are on the same time scale, we start injecting on Friday.🤞 well I’m not so sure it’s a good thing, everyone seems very unsure about how I will react, as they weren’t expecting it to be anywhere near that, so I’ve been put under the director of the clinic and daily scan, sounds wierd I don’t care about OHSS, I just want some embryos! Let me know how it goes good luck x

All crossed for you both

Hi wee dance hows everything going? I’m
On my second day of injections, not that bad so far x

hi pugmum sorry for the radio silence, how are you going? any news? i decided to have a go at Reprofit in Czech and it was disastrous, egg collected but not suitable. i hope you have good news, thinking if you x

sorry pugmumfornow i always abbreviate the names then get it wrong!

@weedance. Sorry your recent cycle didn’t work out 💐💐

thanks blondes. I'm licking my wounds for now, then on and upwards x

Hi!
Not sure if you guys are still looking for answers here but I wanted to share my experience. I went with IVI London. I have had a very positive experience as everyone is lovely but most importantly my Doctor (Dr. Lower) seems to not want to leave anything to chance, so has been super careful and has checked every single thing that can affect the treatment. I had my FET today and now just have to wait and see but I think even if I don't get a positive result from this one i will continue with the same clinic and doctor as I have found everyone very professional. Gives me peace of mind.
Hope you are all good ladies and best of luck for whatever stage you are on.

Thanks AliceRi really appreciate your reply! Glad you are having a good experience and they are being thorough. Best of luck with your transfer! Did you do a freeze all cycle? The clinic recommended i do that with PGD testing to check egg quality. I thought the stims they recommended were a bit high though, 375 gonal F! They suspect thats why my embryos haven't been implanting. Makes sense i guess, seeing as I'm 41. How old are you i you don't mind my asking? Did you get many embryos? x

Hi!

Of course I don't mind :) I am 34
I had 19 eggs collected, 4 became embryos and went to PGD testing. Of those unfortunately only 1 came back good.

My doctor recommended to freeze the embryos even before we had agreed to do the test because he said lately there has been proof that if you let the body rest for at least one cycle and get "detoxed" from the injections etc they have better success rates, so that's why we had decided to freeze regardless.

My little warrior survived very well the transfer yesterday and now just waiting.

Im all pro-checking everything as my doctor insisted on checking every single thing and I'm glad he did as reduced the risk of miscarriage.

Hope you are doing well and best of luck!

is that Adrian Lower? i've heard of him, didn't realise he was linked with IVI.
Wow 19 eggs! were you on high stims?
good work!
listen it only takes 1 and you know it's good so you have a really good chance. Good luck and try and take it easy during your 2ww. I heard you have like a 40-60% chance of success with a PGD tested embryo. Really good odds!
I've had a load of immune testing done, results back next week. My clinic are hoping to understand why none of my 3 embryos transferred last year implanted so they are double checking. I keep being told it's probably down to egg quality but they are doing the tests in case it explains anything.
I really hope you get a good result, best of luck with it! x

Yes that's Adrian Lower. He really has been very good. I would say maybe a little bit over cautious and checking every single little thing even tho is my first cycle. Which has been weird because I don't really feel I need that much checking yet but it also gives me confidence that he just wants it to work from the start.
I was on Gonasi HP 5000 (1ml) and the other one I totally forgot the name just now! (Sorry)

I was excited about the 19 eggs (although terribly uncomfortable and with mild OHS) but quite disappointed with the only 1 embryo in the end. But as you said it only takes one so fingers crossed.

I'm glad they are checking everything for you. I think is the way to go, that way you are super sure about everything that's going on in your body and makes it easier for the doctors to make decisions re dose etc. I'm sending you all the best energy for this new cycle to be the one! I'm sure it will be!!
Fingers crossed! X

Sorry I got that wrong. I checked just now ;)

Was on Bemfola x 150 and Cetrotide 0.25mg

I triggered with Suprecur (Buserelin) 1mg instead of the Gonasi as I had OHS

Now I have been on 8mg of Progynova a day and 2 pessaries of 400mg cyclogest a day. As well as a 40mg Clexane injection a day (as apparently I have some gene that clogs my blood making it high risk of miscarriage)

Written all together sure looks like a lot lol