Coronavirus and fertility clinics.

[mabel92]

Has anyone’s fertility clinic told them they will close due to Coronavirus? I’m due to start treatment and now confused as what to do or whether I’ll be able to start. Thanks.

@ivf2020

This final round will be my 5th cycle of IVF and hopefully that will give us 6 blastocysts to transfer. (I have 4 banked from the last 2 cycles) I don't think I would do anymore even if I did have the money. Physically emotionally and financially I'm ready to stop and start to move on. TTC has completely taken over our lives for the last 6 years. I am incredibly lucky to have one DD born amidst the carnage of repeated losses. Perhaps If I didn't have her I would never give up. As it is it isn't fair on her to continue - life has been on hold for years and she was traumatised when I nearly died from my first ectopic- I still have flashbacks of her screaming "mummy" as the doctors were running with me down the hospital corridors. I want to take her on holiday and not have to plan our lives around treatment. With 6 embryos we ll still have at least another 6-9 months of transfers even if I do double ones anyway. as she gets older I also don't want a big gap between her and any siblings. It took a long time to reach some kind of peace with these being our last attempts. But I know I will have tried everything and will have no regrets at stopping

(The discounts appeared on Creates website in the last few days - if you've recently signed up I'd ask them about it)

@itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted So sorry for your loss with miscarriages.
I’m in a similar position we are very lucky to have DD from a successful ICSI round in 2016 and have 5 blasts ready for FET from previous round now just a waiting game for when we can go ahead again.
Due to finances and the emotional impact I don’t know if we’ll go for another round if we don’t get any success from any of the frozen. I’m 37 in a couple of weeks and the frozen emb are 33 so hoping we get some success. It’s all so upsetting.

Lots of love to you and everyone affected by this x

Sorry if TMI but a question For anyone that’s just had cycles cancelled in particular FROZEN cycles does anyone know how long it might take for period to come after going cold turkey on all the meds?
I was coming up for week 3 of estradiol and lining was 9.8 already looking good for FET and then i was told to stop all drugs. This was 3 weeks ago and I’ve had terrible cramps and heavy feeling since then but only some light spotting and now I feel like I’m ovulating it’s really painful (I have endometriosis and always get pain mid cycle) is it possible for me to ovulate without having had a “proper” period. I feel like it’s an endometriosis flare up coming but thought I would have had a period unless because I stopped the estradiol the lining I did have just disappeared? I was told to stop all hormones without any other info from my clinic and now I’m not sure what to expect and don’t want to call them when they’ve got a lot more important things on their plate

@YogaPants4 yes I’m still having mood swings and headaches and now 3 weeks after stopping. I was also almost 3 weeks into estradiol to build up lining ready for a FET and stopped it all and I feel bloated, have cramps and not sure what to expect or how long this will last. Feel rotten!
Hope you start to feel normal again soon.
I know there’s bigger things going on but as if having cycles cancelled and the emotional And mental impact isn’t bad enough we also have to deal with being left high and dry pumped full of hormones too

@Liliclaire
Estrogen based medication always throws my cycle out of whack - I take it as part of natural modified IVF and when my last cycle was cancelled midway through it took about 38 days to get my next period - i ovulated much later too

Thank you x I’ll just have to wait it out

I’m a joy to be around right now, mood swings and flushes from the down reg still plus grumpy due to what appears to be PMS but no period. in lockdown. Ha. You couldn’t make it up.

Could be much worse though!

@itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted thanks for sharing that journey with me, and yes i can understand the toll that can have on someone, especially those flashbacks to your daughter- i cant imagine how difficult this must be for you. i hope the journey can restart for you with a positive outcome. i will check out create for that discount.

I hope everyone is coping with these difficult circumstances. I wanted to share that there is an update by HFEA that appeared on their website today: www.hfea.gov.uk/treatments/covid-19-and-fertility-treatment/
I'm sorry that it is still vague but they are now saying that they are working towards lifting the restrictions as soon as possible- which wrongly or rightly gives me some hope. I think they are getting a lot of queries about specific dates which they can't give but I think having to listen to despair of people may help them to understand how urgent restarting treatment is. But the bad new is that they are now saying their decision is based on the few of British Fertility Society and the ARCS. The chair of the BFS has previously written on his Twitter account that fertility clinics should be transformed into birth centers to deal with the addition pressure of the baby boom I have been critical of the BFS (in a very polite manner) and they have blocked me. In response to my Twittering the director of a fertility clinic got in touch and we discussed how important it is that we share our stories to ensure that treatment can restart as soon as possible. So if you have some time and are willing to do so- please let the BFS and ARCS know how urgent it is for your medical treatment to resume- you can find them on Twitter Sorry for the long post. Take care everyone xx

@Matilda128
Thanks for this update

There is no way that private clinics will be required to become birthing centres - they are not set up for that or staffed by midwives and in any event are businesses in their own right who cannot be dictated to how they use their resources outside of the pandemic - fertility doctors are not gynaecologists. The NHS would have to pay to retrain them - given that most of them appear to be foreign doctors working in the U.K. they would just return to their home countries to continue to practice private IVF

I've believed all along NHS treatment is at risk and yes these clinics could be reassigned but what's more likely is that NHS patients would be transferred to private clinics and you would no longer get fertility treatment in an NHS hospital

If anything there is more likely to be a divorce boom than a baby one. Given the recent deaths amongst pregnant women/newborn babies a lot of people do seem to be factoring this in and delaying TTC as well as the worries about a recession coming

Fertility clinics won't reopen until social distancing is eased - if we can't stand within 2m of someone at the supermarket then fertility treatment is going to be a bit difficult - crunch time for a decision will be Mid May when the furlough scheme only has a couple of weeks left to run x

@Matilda128
Sorry had to change username as MN logged me out for some reason! (Itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted)

I agree that private fertility clinics will not be turned into birthing centers (nor will NHS clinics). I'm just sharing what I read on the Twitter feed of the chair of the BFS who also wrote he was refreshing his skills doing cesarean sections and how rewarding this was.
In terms of social distancing- don't forget that quite a few clinics are doing frozen cycle until the 15th of April as allowed by HFEA. So they are still treating people despite the social distancing rules.
If treatment can restart in mid to end May then that would be the dream. But as I said I spoke to a director of a fertility clinic and they didn't seem to know either.

@Matilda128
As a midwife, to work in the private sector in a birth centre is actually laughable.

I highly doubt there will be a baby boom. We've been in one for a few years now. People are scared to get pregnant from what I've been hearing. With fertility clinics shut, there's the rest of us won't be able to get pregnant too...

Im devastated that this has put a hold on babies and it's making it worse coming into work and not being able to give the babies here a cuddle either. We would guess they would open again once the lockdown is over.

Also a lot of gynaecologists are fertility specialists but not vice versa so just depends which doctor you have.

@Pinkbunny2811 sorry that I have not been clear. It is absolutely not my opinion that this will happen. This is the imagination of the chair of the BFS and his suggestion of how fertility clinics can be useful in the Covid-19 crisis. I only wrote it here (and I was probably wrong to do so) to illustrate what is going on and to relay the call for women's voices to be heard.
There is a lot going on on Twitter and I understand that this information is not useful for the people on this forum. My apologies.
I promise there will be no further updates from me
Wishing everyone all the best in this terrible situation. Take care

@Matilda128
Sorry, I wasn't saying that about you at all. More that people at the top should not be posting things on Twitter like that without discussing with the rest of the NHS first.

Feel free to voice your opinions, that's what discussions are all about. I think it's actually quite helpful as it will be all change when this all blows over so we may have to face whatever they throw at us!

@Matilda128

Please don’t feel like you can’t post updates - I’m not on Twitter / Facebook so I found it very helpful to understand what other professional bodies are saying and Digesting their views and thoughts .

Thank you

I agree we need to understand what’s going on and ensure there is a voice for those of us who can’t conceive naturally

Thank you for the info, it’s so helpful.
My worry (still) is that clinics won’t open until a approved vaccine comes out.
The UK has been hit much worse than initially thought and I don’t see how lockdown can be eased any time soon, if at all, before a vaccination.

@Pinkbunny2811 I'm so sorry I misunderstood. I'm just really worried that I'm causing people additional stress when it is already such a horrible situation. This guy from the BFS is just one guy- he's probably one of those doctors that has that has excellent medical skills but doesn't really get the heartbreak that is associated with fertility treatment.
I'm totally and unhealthy obsessed with this thing. I really hope that when the social isolation rules are relaxed that clinics will reopen. The organisation in the US equivalent to the HFEA has also closed clinics but assures that they understand the medical need and urgency to reopen these once lockdown rules can be relaxed - I really want the same in the UK.
I'm not sure about the vaccine but I understand your worries @mabel92 I think there will be more talk about exit strategies in the coming weeks. HFEA also says they are working on a guidance in terms of reopening the clinics- maybe this gives more clarity? Xx

It really is causing so much stress. I had some bloods done and my GP was just rude. She told me nothing is open at the moment so I'll just have to wait and see. I asked for a copy of my blood results and she said 'I don't have time for that today'. I would never speak to a patient that way!

She then told me to stop making excuses when my HbA1c is borderline and that it's 80% diet and I said actually I don't even eat that much and my BMI is normal... It made me so sad that I then skipped dinner which is even more unhealthy! She didn't take into consideration that I've got PCOS or even indicate that might be contributing.

Sorry to offload, it's just obvious that if it doesn't affect them, then people don't think. It's so stressful and this lockdown is bad enough as it is without people having any compassion. Doctors often have little bedside manner and I don't know why. I just hope the big bosses make a decision ASAP so we can resume some normality.

That's awful @pinkbunny2811 My concern is that when it is was already so hard to get treatment for infertility under normal circumstances- now everything will be even harder. I was in the pharmacy the other day to get codemol to deal with the horror of period pains these coming months and as the pharmacist asked me what I needed them for I explained my infertility treatment was cancelled and my consultant suggested I take this for the time being. He was so kind about it I almost burst into tears. As they say: a little kindness goes a long way.

Take care

It absolutely does. Stay safe. Priti Patel is on the tele right now saying they're putting online services in place for mental health support. I don't think it's enough but at least something is happening.

I just got a letter through to book an appointment for infertility which I obv can't do right now

How is everyone doing? 😘

@mabel92 I don’t know about everyone else but I’m struggling quite a bit worrying about when services are going to recommence. When I didn’t have my first iui in March I thought ok that’ll be 2-3 months delay but now I feel it could be 6 or more. The thought of living with this daily anxiety for that long is a huge weight on my shoulders. I’ve even started to think - if say Denmark comes out of lockdown and reverts to normal sooner, would it be possible to go there given the speed bank is there anyway? I know lockdown here will probably ease off in a few weeks but we have no idea how long services will be cut off. I feel bad when so many people are ill and dying of corona and of course see that this needs to be prioritised but it’s very hard not to be anxious when you’re in your 40s and fertility is so time sensitive. How are you doing?

Hi everyone

I try not to think about it too much but it's starting to get to me a bit....I'm furloughed and had to accept a 30% pay cut even after furlough ends and also at risk of redundancy if we go into a recession - I've been doing all sorts of doomsday scenarios in my head of continuing IVF if I didn't have a job (I'm the main earner - I earn 3x DH) but reached the conclusion f*%ck it we ll just go for it anyway (it's all paid for upfront etc)

I think crunch time will be 3 weeks time - I know there has been loads of publicity in the media about suspension of fertility treatment so hopefully clinics will be lobbying to get open as soon as possible x

Hi all, I've seen that there's lots on the news websites about IVF being postponed..its a good thing that the media is highlighting the issue but they all seem to be saying that it could be a year before treatment is resumed (and this is not just the likes of Daily Mail..Guardian are also saying this).

Could clinics be closed for a whole year? This would result in untold suffering and for clinics to go bankrupt..

What do you all think? I was hoping for six months..

This is SOOO stressful
Xx

@hopingforIVF I find it difficult to comprehend that they could be closed for a year - especially the independent private clinics (i.e. Harley Street and the like - not affiliated to the NHS) as, as you say, it would cause financial hardship. Also if that were the case I think that people would start trying to seek treatment abroad in countries that lift restrictions quicker.