Access Fertility or Assured Fertility Plans - Any experiences?

[MorgenMuffel]

DH and I are looking into privately funded IVF and a couple of clinics we are looking at are partnered with either Access Fertility or Assured Fertility plans. These seem much cheaper than paying the clinic direct, but they almost seem too good to be true? We get they will be working on a model of a certain % of people getting their BFP first round and technically overpaying, but still seems like there is a catch somewhere?

Has anyone used these and happy to share their experience? What was and wasn't included, were there any surprises and would you recommend it? TIA

My experience is that you need to have a fairly "good" medical history - we weren't accepted due to history of recurrent miscarriage and ectopics

Obviously at the end of the day these companies are there to make money so they tend to more readily accept those that do have a higher chance of IVF working in the 1st/2nd cycle

We've recently signed up for 2 rounds through access fertility. It's our first go at ivf and am going into it assuming it won't be successful on the first go. It works out a lot cheaper per round through them, especially as it includes the time lapse embryo photo thing (that's a lot extra as an add on at our clinic, but not compulsory obvs). I'm of course hoping we won't need round two, but it's kind of reassuring for us to know we've got that paid for. If we are successful first time (unlikely I know) then I think worrying about wasted money will be low down on the worry list.

I'm with Access Fertility. It is a bit of a gamble. You might end up paying way more if it works first time but actually I would have rather overpaid and only needed one round then more. We did the 3 cycle, 50% refund (were also offered the 70% refund). I've done 1 fresh cycle (MC), 1 FET (MC), 2nd retrieval no transfer (as we were pgs testing, so freeze all), 2nd FET so far. We did do pgs which we paid extra for and obviously we've spent a fortune on drugs.

I went with Access Fertility and I have to say it's been a breeze. We went with the two cycle package because it made me feel less under pressure for the first cycle to work. We got our bfp from out first fresh cycle and I genuinely didn't care that it meant we'd overspent. Unfortunately it ended in mmc but knowing I could do another round without worrying about more money (except for meds) gave me real peace of mind. We did an FET (they include as many FETs as you have embryos for) and I'm currently 11+6. The extras we paid for were the initial screening tests and the meds. Also, if you fall pregnant you may want additional re-assurance scans after the initial one. Good luck!

@Marmite83 so nice to spot you on here. So glad you're/the pregnancy is doing well

Thanks @seven201, lovely to hear from you. I'm nervous for my nhs scan which isn't for another 8 days. I really hope IVF is the answer for you.

Thanks @Marmite83 . Everything crossed for your scan!

Access fertility were fantastic, highly recommended.
i paid for the 3 cycle 50% refund package. After one failed NHS cycle which was negative.
could not fault them, i ended up paying over the odds because i became pregnant first time (5 month old baby girl) but so worth the over payment.
It took the worry out of finding money for more cycles i was so much more relaxed.
The medication wasn't included.
Good Luck !!!

We went with Access Fertility. If you do the refund option make sure you read the t&c very carefully! Because if you do something against the clinics recommendations it invalidates the refund. Our clinic wanted us to do ICSI but we didn't think it was necessary (and it wasn't, we had good fertilisation rate) but because they had said we needed it and we didn't do it it would have meant we didn't get the refund. They neglected to tell us this, it was only because I asked that we avoided paying the premium for the refund option. Anyway we went for the non refund option as we thought it would save us money if we needed multiple rounds or transfers.

Hi all,

Could anyone possibly share Access Fertility's T&C's, please?

The reason I am asking is that they could not provide us the T&C before we would have done the initial consultation and the initial screening at the clinic, and that's effectively already paying-out substantial sums of money, without even being able to know whether Access Fertility's T&C would suit us.

I have got Assured Fertility's T&C and they actually mention that if you have two miscarriages, then they kick-you out of the plan and don't refund the retail cost of any procedures already performed. Given my wife has a history of miscarriage, that's a no go for us. I wanted to check for the same clause in Access Fertility's T&C but they won't send us one without us having started the process already, and paid out some money (as mentioned above).

Many thanks,

We used access and found it straightforward. Just be aware drugs are not included - mine were about 2k for this cycle. Also some blood tests and scans are not included. However still much cheaper than going direct with the clinic x