Access fertility for IVF

[GandTisgoodforme]

Hello!

Has anyone had experience with access fertility and their refund packages at all? Trying to weigh up clinics if my NHS round doesn’t work..
Any info would be great!
Thank you xxx

I signed up for this - 3 cycles and if no baby at the end money back. I'm pregnant first cycle though so financially hasn't really worked out. However, nice having th reassurance if anything goes wrong I've got many more opportunities paid for and the doctors had told us only 10-15% chance per cycle so it made sense to do it that way - we've just been lucky!

Thank you hoping for sharing your experience, that sounds like the type of reassurance and financial back up we need to be honest. if my NHS fails. (Just trying to be realistic at the moment!)

Wishing you a very happy and healthy pregnancy! 😀

I signed up for Access too, but with the multi-cycle package (so no money back, but 2 cycles of ICSI for a discounted rate, including all the frozen transfers). Like hoping, I was also lucky enough to get pregnant on the first transfer of the first cycle, so financially it would have obviously been cheaper if I'd just paid the clinic's normal rate. Equally, I got 4 frozen embryos on the first cycle, so if I'd ended up having to work my way through all of them and then go onto a second cycle, I'd have ended up spending way more on pay as you go.

However, I don't regret doing it because I was really keen not to have to think about money once we'd started, and not to get sucked into lots of discussions about 'maybe we should just pay for this one extra thing' or 'if we just do one more cycle maybe it will work this time). With the Access package I felt that I'd made a commitment up front to a certain number of cycles and a certain sum of money and I then wasn't going to think about it again until that was all over. And having mentally committed to 2 cycles did also take the pressure off the first cycle which I found really psychologically helpful.

Access were pretty good to deal with as well - the paperwork was straightforward and all sorted fast.

Completely agree with @rainylake

Psychologically it was great - we'd had our nhs cycle and knowing we were committing to 3 more made me feel I was giving it my absolute all and felt like finances were removed from the equation (once paid) which made it all much more bearable

How much does it cost?

It depends on your age, which package you go for (multi cycle or refund, and 2 or 3 cycles), if you're having IVF or ICSI and I don't know if different clinics offer slightly different rates to reflect their internal pricing. The younger you are the cheaper it is, and obviously ICSI is more expensive. Basically they are gambling on enough people like me and @hoping2018 paying more than they would have needed to in order to cross-subsidise where they end up making a loss for people who end up having the maximum of treatments they're entitled to (that was another reason I didn't mind having gone down this route - since I've been blessed to get pregnant on cycle 1 I'm glad if that will help make the package a bit cheaper for another woman who needs more attempts).

My packet, for 2 cycles of ICSI aged 38-39, was just over £9k. That didn't include the drugs or the blood tests you have to have before starting treatment but did include all the scans and blood tests once you had started on the drugs, egg collection and embryo transfer, culture to blastocyst stage, the freezing costs of any unused embryos, all frozen transfers as you needed, and also included embryo glue and embryoscope. By comparison my clinic would have charged about £7.5k (also not including drugs) for what I actually had (one cycle of ICSI with embryo glue and embryoscope and freezing and storage costs) and then £1.5k per frozen cycle. Also they define success as a live birth not a pregnancy so if you get pregnant but then miscarry later then you can still use the rest of your package.

Hope that helps

Thank you @rainylake. That sounds really good. Which clinic are you with?

Thanks all for your comments, I think I’ll phone access on Monday to get some more info, after a chat with my other half! X

Whaaaaaat? How is this possible? Is it a scam?

Hi all, min was just shy of £12000 for three cycles of ICSI and all frozen transfers (but you had to use these before going onto the next fresh cycle). If no baby at the end it was your money back. But I'm 32 so younger =cheaper. They're promotional
Material/website will have all these details

@AliceScarlett no not a scam. Works as per @rainylake and I that we got lucky first time so they made money. It's basically like paying travel (or any) insurance - you don't mind spending the extra because if you end up needing the extra medical treatment you'll be incredibly grateful you're not worrying about the money.