ARGC versus The Lister Clinic

[ttcrainbowbabypatel]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to Mumsnet and really hoping you guys can help. I've learned a lot from mumsnet after lots of googling and am excited to join the community.

To make a very long story short, I am in my thirties, as is my husband. A year and a half ago, I had an ectopic pregnancy after trying to conceive for only a few months. Unfortunately I had to have an emergency operation and had my right tube removed. After not being able to conceive for months later, I took a suggestion to visit a diagnostics centre on Harley Street to have cycle tracking done. In October of 2017, I conceived again but had a miscarriage when I was 5 1/2 weeks. Both have been heartbreaking losses for us.

I have continued on at the same diagnostics trying to conceive and have been put on Clomid for my second round. I'm also taking progesterone. I haven't been able to conceive again and although the doctor associated with the centre didn't think it was necessary, we insisted on having my husband's sperm analysed. We got the results yesterday. His count, mobility and motility are all great - no concerns there. The results did say he has agglutination of the sperm, currently at 48% which was a shock to us, most likely after an infection we weren't aware of.

We have been given the option to wait for ten weeks and test again, which we will be doing. We are about a week away from ovulation so we've asked about trying IUI which seems to be one of the various recommended treatments for people in our situation. We didn't want to waste this cycle, especially after taking clomid and responding well, and we're currently waiting to see if we are good candidates for IUI this cycle.

We are fed up with the diagnostic centre. They've made mistakes or oversights and we don't feel 100% confident about them. With one tube, this potential issue with my husband's sperm, our age and two losses under our belt, we'd like to look into IVF.

We're considering both the Lister Clinic and ARGC. I know ARGC has a very high success rate but they are very expensive. I know that the Lister has a very caring approach, is less expensive and also has a money back scheme if you don't deliver a baby.

I have read a lot about both but much of what I've found are comments online from years past.

Does anyone have a specific recommendation about one of these two clinics or another we haven't considered? We don't know which direction to go in but want to make a good choice.

I'll continue to search the forums and read online, don't want to waste anyone's time but feel really lost and hopeless. All of this added onto working a very high stress job has really broken me. I hope I can find some support and guidance in this community, you all seem to know so much!

Thank you!

Hiya,

I can't help you to decide but I have just completed my first IVF cycle which was at ARGC. We went there because we believed them to be the best place - as we are older we didn't want to waste time elsewhere.

Sadly our cycle ended with a chemical. But ARGC were great. You get very personalised care because they blood test you daily. They do everything very thoroughly - you will be given the best type of meds, have lots of scans etc and they are really nice - you will mostly speak to nurses by phone but they were really supportive of me all the way through and especially when we were having our clinical.

The downside. It is sooo expensive. I won't tell you what we spent but think what most people say IVF costs then double it and add a bit more. They also cover all possibilities so will want you to have a hysteroscopy and to test your immune system etc which all costs even more (but of course it could just mean the difference between success and failure so some people). Sometimes it feels like overkill.

They also don't recommend IUI although if that is what you really want, I expect they could do it.

So really it depends on the level of care you think you need and whether you think you may want to check out your immune system...and whether you can afford it

Good luck xxx

Thank you so much for responding. I'm very sorry to hear about your chemical pregnancy, I suspect my very early miscarriage was one as well. If you were to try again, would you go with the same clinic?

I really don't want to do IUI because of how low the success rate but my husband, who is devastated by the news of his semen analysis, doesn't want to waste this cycle of clomid, which I understand. I think he feels bad about something he simply can't control.

Current doctor has said since my husband has a very high sperm count, we could of course get pregnant on our own but with one tube, I'm not sure how great I feel about our odds without help or further testing.

Did you end up checking out any other clinics or go straight for ARGC?

Thank you!

IUI won't give you a worse chance of conceiving than natural so why not do it especially if it makes DH happy. You never know!

We would definitely go to the same clinic but we've now been unexpectedly offered an NHS cycle which is elsewhere.

I'm still not 100% what to do - ARGC is stupid money so a free cycle is amazing. But at my age, I don't want to go somewhere that has a lower chance of success and waste precious months.

Incidentally ARGC won't give you the hard sell as they have more than enough business - they recommend I take the free cycle.

So we shall see...