Choosing a clinic in the north-west

[Embri]

Hi,
I would like some advice on where to choose in the north west for ICSI. We are going to our consultant appointment at East Lancs in mid august, and I'm hoping they are going to refer us for ICSI and not order any more tests!! (We know we need ICSI due to severe MFI)

We live in East Lancs and I am aware we can choose from a variety of clinics, eg Leeds, St Marys, Liverpool so please can people tell me their experiences!

I really don't fancy driving in to Manchester in rush hour on a very regular basis (for an 8am appointment I would be setting off at 6am to ensure I miss the awful Manchester traffic jams!) to then have to drive 1hr 30 mins back to work! I just feel this added stress would not be helpful at all.

I have read good things about Hewitt fertility, using the clinic in Wigan and then just going to Liverpool for Egg Collection +/- transfer.

Another option is Care Manchester, I would use the satellite clinic in Bolton, and just go to Manchester for egg collection +/- transfer.

Leeds would be an option, as I work over in that direction, but my husband works over 2 hours away from Leeds!

Did your husbands attend the regular ultrasounds or did you just do all that on your own?

I just wish there was a clinic in East Lancashire!

Thanks in advance, sorry for the long post!
Emily

@Embri hi Embri, I'm in a similar situation to you and would like to know what option you went with. Currently researching clinics but have no idea which to go with.

I went with Leeds... my partner came to ever appointment with me but loads go alone or with a friend as it’s understandable that we still have to work.. not to menstion that fact of how much all this ivf journey is.. mine was successful ive just had my baby 10 week ago...
Hope this helps and very good luck with it all 🍀

Hey,
When we went to our appointment at Burnley they said they couldn’t refer to care Manchester due to CCG funding, so my options were Hewitt, St Mary’s and Leeds.

I did a lot of research and decided Leeds was the place for us, because of their inspection report. Each clinic has a recent inspection report on the HFEA website.

They had a special mention with the Leeds report that their results for ICSI were statistically significantly higher than national average for my age group.

In st Mary’s and Hewitt I think they both said they were statistically significantly lower (may have been for just IVF rather than ICSI) national average. (Now coming up to 2 months since I read them so I’ve forgotten the details)

The inspections use the most recent data, not the redundant old stuff on the HFEA website from 2014/15, but only seem to mention it if they are not within national average (eg Leeds were better, the others were worse!)

Leeds is 1 hour 30 mins from my house, but I’m willing to drive that distance if they get the results! (And It’s then just over an hour back to work!)

Hope this gives you some advice, I would recommend having a scan through the most recent inspection report for all 3, you don’t need to read it in detail, it comes up quite quickly about the results.

In the end everyone has different experiences at each clinic, I’ve read bad and good stuff about Leeds (as with every clinic!), I’ve had friends who have been there, they have both had their children through Leeds helping them, but one has said the difference in treatment from NHS to private in terms of appointment times (which I can understand) and attitude of staff was unbelievable (this not so much!!)
My other friend had prof balen (and we have also been assigned him) and said that he barely gives eye contact, but he produces the results!

We feel lucky that we are going in with that information, we know what I expect and are just going to let that stuff not bother us.

Good luck! Emily x

@Embri Thank you for your advice. I was also seen at Burnley but now being told to look at clinics and ring back to get referred to the one I choose. Spent the afternoon googling all sorts and I know as NHS patient I will have to wait compared to private. Hope the waiting times aren't too long.

I really wanted to go somewhere a bit further like Leeds or Liverpool (heard great things of Liverpool) but when you both work it's so hard. From what I've read there is a lot of appointments to attend.

Sometimes I think it's just luck, statistics tell you one thing but it's all down to each single person.

Wish you success on your journey becuase we only get this one chance!

For my Nhs cycle I had the choice between St Mary's and Care. I chose care based on hearing a lot of negative things about st Mary's in terms of communication / availability of staff on the phone, ability to start cycles (a lot of people reported phoning to start their cycle and being told they were full and had to wait til next month). The IVF process is stressful enough without all that so I chose care and have had no issues with communication etc. Overall happy with them.

One thing I would consider if I was you is which clinic you'd likely want to stay with if your first cycle fails. I only say that because for our first care cycle they did a load of tests (bloods, STD's, sperm etc) that were paid for by the NHS but the test results are valid for 2 years so when we went on to do private cycles with them we didn't have to pay for all of those again. If we'd have moved clinics we would have had to have some of them redone. Just worth a thought.

If you want any more info about Care feel free to ask me.

Oh and my husband came to all my appointments first cycle but since then I go alone to save him having to take time off work too. There's really no need for him to be there for the standard scans - they're quick and easy. And on my cycles I've only had to have the day 8 scan and then one or two more before EC so it's not like I've had to go every morning

@Cariad82 Hi, for me the nearest are St, Mary's and CARE. I really want to go with CARE but on the HFEA website it states they only do egg preservation and it doesn't come up in the search results but on their website they do IVF. I'm guessing this is only for private patients?

Hi @GreenSbades

Care definitely do IVF/ICSI/embryo freezing/donor eggs etc and I've just had a quick look on the HEFA website and their stats for IVF are listed, so it must just be an error on their page.

www.hfea.gov.uk/choose-a-clinic/clinic-search/results/185/

You can make an appointment at care for a free tour where they can answer basic questions (it's not with a doctor so you won't get proper medical info but you can ask about their services and stuff). Maybe it's worth you doing that?

www.carefertility.com/where-to-start/1-2-1s/

Or you could go to one of their information events.

@GreenShades care do IVF/ICSI main procedures at the clinic at Manchester (plus monitoring if you want it there) but if you want you can do the monitoring at one of the satellite clinics, eg Bolton.
The consultant at Burnley told us that east lancs won’t fund for care my only options were st Mary’s, Hewitt and Leeds. I came all prepared to ask for care and she told me no, look at somewhere else!
I did tell her the stats I had read on the newest reports so maybe they have changed their funding options?! If they have I will be very impressed they listened to me!

However I have rung care in the past and they said they accept east lancs patients, so it’s worth a try!

Out of curiosity does anyone reading this know how long the waiting list for leeds is? I have had the letter from Leeds asking for some information about me and my husband so they can allocate us an appointment, but I haven’t heard anything since and that was 2 weeks ago. (I know the appointment isn’t going to be soon but it’s easier if I know an approximate time frame!)

@Cariad82 thanks for clarifying this. I will enquire about this more.

@Embri I was told St Mary's, Leeds, Liverpool and no mention of CARE. But the HFEA website does say they accept NHS pateints. I could ring up the consultant and ask if they will allow CARE if not I think it will have to be St. Mary's for me 🙁