ABC Infertility

[Bubblegum89]

Looking at potential IVF options and to stay with our current fertility clinic, we’re looking in the region of about £6k for IVF including medication. I have come across ABC in London a few times and I’ve also seen women on ttc/infertility fb groups talking about having their IVF done there.

I understand it’s known as “shoebox” IVF which is why it only costs £2500 including meds, scans etc. Which is amazing to be honest when you don’t have thousands and thousands to spare like we don’t. I was just wondering if anyone on here was considering going, is currently or has been through IVF with them and if they’re worth it? I feel like it may be a “too good to be true” situation but if it’s not, it would really be a step in the right direction for us money-wise

Hey guys hope you don't mind me posting on here, we're starting treatment with ABCivf in oxford next month, and I'm just wondering when it is exactly that you ordered meds? We have our initial consult booked for the 16th and our med consult booked for the 20th. My periods due the 27th and they assured me everything would be done in time to start then. We've paid for semen analysis and bloods to be done on Monday as my consult said they needed doing before we start. Thanks for any help!

@naylor19 I had the meeting that told me how to do the injections etc a week before my period and the medication was ordered 6 days before. It came quickly though, a different company contacted me to arrange delivery and I think I had about 3 days to spare

@Ro198 ah that's great, Thankyou! Did you get a slot for delivery or did you have to make sure you were in all day?

@naylor19 It was delivered during work hours so we had to be in during the day. I’m not sure if there are other options though.

Hi all

A update on my journey with ABC ivf.

Background
26, good ovarian reserve, no idea on infertility cause(maybe pcos who knows? In 5 years I have never been diagnosed by doctors nhs etc.)

Cycle 1 -September
Was on tamoxifen and bemfola.
Made it to day 4 scan which showed a cyst. So I had to stop treatments and take the contraceptive pill and was advised to start next month. Paid an additional £250 for the scan for cancelled cycle.

Cycle 2 - October
On tamoxifen, bemfola and cetrotide
Made it to day 10 but unfortunately cancelled.

Day 8 showed loads of good follicles already hitting around the 16mm. They said I could be having egg collection within a few days and my day 10 scan should tell me when.
Day 10 scan showed I had already ovulated and i would have to cancel my cycle again as the follicles were now deflating. They advised on the next cycle, we should start cetrotide earlier. Absolutely gutted.

I dont like going to the clinic and having to speak with someone new all the time. Each time, I have to tell them what meds im on. Surely they must know this.

How is everyone else getting on?

Hey everyone. Hope you're all getting on okay!

I had my second embryo transfer this morning at the Bristol clinic. Doing frozen cycles.

Just a quick question... Did anyone get a little amount of spotting the same day of the transfer? I had the transfer done about 4 hours ago and I've just noticed a small amount of pink spotting when I went for a wee (just on the paper, not enough to be on a pad or anything). Didn't get this last time so wasn't sure if it's common?

Thanks

@Hopeful1990

Hey please don’t worry about tiny spots of blood during transfer day as we were Told that was normal also please don’t compare your feelings to your first transfer attempt as things will always be different. Here’s us praying this one is successful for you.
Also can I give a tiny bit of advice please don’t try to google in the middle of the night and try to research things as this will cause major distress I can only look back and can now see that it’s wrong to do that, I have now made my wife stop researching things as you get lots of information along the way and if you google or research it makes your mind tick and wonder bad scenarios please just try to relax and go with the flow.

@Lindors thanks for your reply. Oh trust me we have a no Google rule in our house haha. I learnt that one from the first cycle. Everyone experiences this differently so Google won't give any helpful answers at all!

It is really hard to not compare it to the first time. I currently have quite bad cramping that kept me awake last night, which happened the first time. It does set my mind off thinking that it'll be the same outcome. But I know there is no way to really know that. Its just a very difficult time isn't it. The 2 week wait is the hardest part in my opinion.

@Hopeful1990
the 2 week wait was long but then the 6 week wait was even longer looool and then getting to 12 weeks felt like a lifetime and I don’t even want to think later then this as time just drags lol. Here’s hoping everything goes well for you, us and everyone on here.

Oh my gosh, only 1 more day until test day. Cannot wait to just find out now. Definitely feel differently to our last cycle, which was unsuccessful. I'm trying not to read too much into that, cos I know my body could just be reacting differently this time around. Last time I had already started bleeding a bit, but nothing this time. Just some cramping, and in the past 24 hours waves of nausea (but I had nausea last time). Only one way to find out now. Roll on Friday 13th to find out!! Getting nervous now for sure.

How's everyone else doing? Xx

The very best of luck for test day @Hopeful1990 how exciting and nerve wracking. I really hope it's great news for you this time round 🤞☘️ xx

@Hopeful1990

Hey hope you are ok.

@Lindors unfortunately it was another negative for us. Feel so deflated. X

I'm so sorry @Hopeful1990. I know there's absolutely nothing I can say that will make anything feel any better. Take good care of yourself lovely and sending you hugs xx

@Hopeful1990

Oh no, we were all hoping for positive news, again nothing more that can be said for now please just Look after yourself and silver lining is with each attempt you are getting one step closer as odds will be more in your favour. You will always be in our prayers. Take care

@Lindors thank you, that's very sweet of you. We are going to take a little break now because we just did 2 fet cycles back to back. So emotionally and physically we just want to take a little time out. We have our follor up with the clinic on November 30th, so it will be interesting to hear what they have to say, and see if they want to change anything next time around.

This one has emotionally hurt me more. I think it not working the 1st time wasnt a shock but I think 2 failures very close together has just worried me. Xx

Sorry to hear your news @Hopeful1990 I can imagine how devastating it is.

Just wondering also, if anyone can tell me how many monitoring appointments they had before EC, and what cycle days those were on? We're starting stims next week and I have my med consult Friday. But just want to work out when we roughly have to travel upto oxford for them.

Hi.. Just wondering if anyone had the blood clotting tests? They've suggested I have them after multiple failed attempts and told me to ask my gp if they would do them. He doesn't think he's allowed to under NHS criteria, but he said they are very expensive usually. I'm wondering if anyone here has had them and how much it cost?

Thanks.

Hey all!

Not much of an update from me and I can't really answer anyone's questions of late cos we aren't upto where you guys are.

My Wife has been taking Levothyroxine and her TSH levels came way down to 1.03 which was good news as she was initially above the 2.5 required, she is suffering something terrible with sweats at night because of it! We were lucky to get a free scan just to check everything was still okay with follicles and lining etc we were worried that we were going to be put back over the Christmas period which would take us outside of our '3 month limit' scan and since the consultants following appointment was running a little thankfully she gave us a scan and said she wouldn't charge us. I still stand by that our patient coordinator has been pretty blank with us? The only time she has ever gotten in touch with us was for the final cycle payment of £2,500 and for the payment of bloods yet when it came to filling out the forms and needing information, my emails weren't responded to nor my phone calls answered. So that side of things has been quite poor, but I appreciate we can all be busy at work, just thought it would be courteous to answer a few questions and settle our minds. But anyway, I digress...

We are still waiting for my Wife to start her cycle day 1 which should be tomorrow (before 12pm) to start injections on Thursday but that's our absolute deadline as the lab here 'closes' for maintenance and a deep clean over the Christmas period so we wouldn't be able to start again until Feb time if it doesn't arrive in time, so we are cutting it real fine with treatment over Christmas, starting to feel like we are making some headway now. I'm pretty concerned my Wife will experience OHSS, she seems to be so sensitive to medication.

How is everyone else getting on so far?

Loads of luck to you all, looking forward to your updates and hopefully, maybe over Christmas/New Year, we might have some wonderful news!

@MrsRandMrsR I hope you managed to get everything started before the cut off period! I know how anxious we were to start this year. I'm currently cd6 and have been doing stims since CD2. I had a scan yesterday and have another tomorrow and Friday. I'm also worrying about OHSS as I have polycystic ovaries but drinking plenty of fluids and having acupuncture to hopefully avoid it! 🤞🏻 good luck with your upcoming journey!

@MrsRandMrsR try not to worry too much about OHSS - I think think type of IVF is the least likely to cause this problem. Plus they will track you very carefully and change your medication as needed - I had the opposite problem and they tweaked my meds half way through to get a better result

[quote Naylor19]@MrsRandMrsR I hope you managed to get everything started before the cut off period! I know how anxious we were to start this year. I'm currently cd6 and have been doing stims since CD2. I had a scan yesterday and have another tomorrow and Friday. I'm also worrying about OHSS as I have polycystic ovaries but drinking plenty of fluids and having acupuncture to hopefully avoid it! 🤞🏻 good luck with your upcoming journey! [/quote]
Ahhh thanks, we didn't quite make it today, Flo has kind of arrived, very slowly but no where near what is needed to be classed as CD1. She's been in floods of tears this evening with frustration and disappointment and I'm helpless to make her feel any better so I'm gutted for her; just trying to keep positive for us both, plenty of hugs and maybe a chance to gather some positive thoughts and encouragement for when the time is right. Think the anticipation of a deadline has worried her and so mother nature has reacted to that. She's like clockwork typically! So we will route through till Dec 28th in the hopes that Flo won't arrive before then and we can go forward. Really difficult as her Sister is expecting in Feb, and we are so made up for them we'd never take that away from them and the joy we feel for them, but can't help but feel we wish it was us.

Please keep us updated, wishing you well with scans and collection/transfer and let us know if the accpuncture is worthwhile!

@MrsRandMrsR try not to feel guilty about your feelings about other people's babies. I've had the same experience this year. My brother and is girlfriend had their 1st baby whilst I was going through egg collection, my best friend had her baby whilst I was going through my 1st fet and my sister is over due with her baby now and we had our 2nd negative fet 2 weeks ago. It is really hard when it's someone so close to you and you have these conflicting feelings. I don't know about you but sometimes I feel the need to be over the top happy in front of them because I don't want to make people feel uncomfortable around me, but you have to be kind to yourself. It has hard and that's okay to feel that way.

Hope everything works out okay for you guys, it sounds like you're being extremely supportive. I know you say you feel helpless but to be honest the best support my husband gave me was just being there in the journey with me, cos its comforting to have someone who understands exactly how you feel. X

So, we actually started our injections after getting in contact with the clinic. Fresh blood so long as it wasn't spotting/brown or stop and start, it was enough to have it classed as CD1. We had our second scan today after a great first scan on Monday, we had our second jab of Cetrotide today too. Told our follicles are looking perfect and growing at a nice rate, uterine lining is 'beautiful' and the blood flow is really good. She suffered a really bad headache on Day 2 of the jab but since then no symptoms of anything else with either jabs. We have another scan on Friday and it's looking like egg collection will be Monday and then take it from there. Crazy how quickly it all seems to snow ball once things get going, but I'm really excited ❤️ Is accpuncture safe during this process, my Wife is into all of that good, natural, and healthy vibe stuff, so I'd love to treat her if I could.

When is your egg collection @Hopeful1990 are the jabs and scans going okay for you? How are you feeling in general?