Abc IVF

[computersaysso]

Has anyone recently had IVF with abc IVF? They have approved me for a frozen cycle only at the moment.
Do you know if they are only doing frozen cycles in light of the pandemic.
We have mainly chosen them due to low cost. I appreciate that the low cost means cut backs in certain areas, but I'm often waiting for 1-1.5 hours on the phone to speak to a central phone line for all branches.
It's tricky as I know that IVF is really down to the individuals body response, but I still feel that decisions made by doctors about medication doses etc are important.
Keen to hear about others experiences.

I think the problem at the moment is that none of the ABC clinics are actually open at the moment - I'm with Create their sister (and more expensive!) clinic and one of the nurses told me they were having to pick up some of the work load from ABC patients

The are nurse led rather than consultant and also the bits requiring theatre eg egg collection/transfer are done at sister clinics I believe which is why it's cheaper.

They do have good success rates though but that's because they have fairly strict criteria of who they take on as patients eg have to be under 37 etc

I imagine the frozen cycle bit is for patient planning if they are sharing resources with create and there is obviously a cap on the number of patients they can see at the moment due to social distancing

Hi.

I am with ABC IVF and have found them to be amazing. I am hopefully due for egg collection in the first week of July, and if it works out well a fresh embryo transfer.

I had my initial scans at St Pauls too but I am now with a clinic near to me.

I find email is a really good way to communicate, and calling between 2 and 6pm is a good way to get through to someone. The mornings are full of scan appointments and monitoring etc.

The nurses have been lovely. I went to Lister to have a consultation and I found them very matter of fact and not thorough. ABC have been lovely so far and happy to answer any more questions!

Thank you @ivfgottostaypositive for the insight. We are still trying to buy a house and have paid for a private fibroid op and other cycles privately over past two years at more expensive clinics, but we are trying to balance my need to try further IVF vs. not getting into debt. My husband doesn't want to borrow at all, so we pay as we go. my concern is that my one Nhs cycle at create wasn't great at all- got no embryos as they where very into low doses of stims. At Cambridge IVF I did well on bemfola 225, but abc start everyone on 175. We just can't afford anything else right now

@user1475505106 thank you. Nice to hear. I have to use abc as we can't afford anything else right now. Have you had your nurse meeting yet? Are you starting on bemfols 150?

@computersaysso I had my treatment consultation last week with the nurse and she explained my medication to me. I am on Bemfola 150 and when I asked why, she explained that I have a high AFC due to polycystic looking ovaries so they don't want to risk OHSS.

This is my first time so I have no experience. Prior to lockdown we were planning on going to the Czech Republic to Reprofit. They put me on stims of 200 so not a absolutely huge difference. When lockdown happened we started looking elsewhere and found ABC cheaper. My nurse said they are happy to adjust doses if they find I am not responding well during stims.

If you don't mind me asking, what's your story?

@user1475505106 don't mind at all. I had my one Nhs cycle with create about two years ago and got no embryos at all and they transferred an immature blast. Since coming back to abc the nurse at initial consultation even looked at the old regime and said "we can do better". I remember seeing a different consultant each time at create and people being overly cautious about my stims and constantly saying I was young and should respond well, and overly worrying about ohss.

I then went to Cambridge IVF as they had a great deal too (though are part Nhs) so a little rough around the edges; but they just tailored doses to me and first time I got four great quality embryos for freezing, second time I got two. I had a horrible miscarriage in between and some damage to my womb after a fibroid op.
We are basically at abc due to not wanting to bankrupt ourselves with IVF, as we have seen it happen to people and we do understand from my Cambridge experience that you don't have to pay loads to get results; but it's too far for us and can't help us at the moment due to limited service with the pandemic.
At Cambridge they built on my past experience and used 225 throughout my 10 day's, so it's annoying that abc are insisting that "everyone" starts at 150 and that will be reviewed at day 5. I'm just scared it won't work and I'll just go through the appointments etc for nothing ! I didn't find the low dose I had in create 'mild IVF'. My body feels the same regardless of the dose of stims- tired, bloated with heavy boobs! Lol

That's amazing that you had such amazing success at Cambridge! Congratulations! ☺️

I didn't just choose ABC for price, I also researched and read online about a more natural/mild approach which seemed falls in line with what we are trying to achieve. This article was really good below:

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-geeta-nargund/ivf-negative-effects_b_8401238.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANJTqyUwUo4tauD6VUV6xRU4HJzAByHRDrQv4hPzII19GQjfV-7f2eXy2QRo0S57J62MllIDUkInzIsN073WvBU3Y3ABsTQIyHs8hLCUgL8V8EpO4haEiear5oZT_0y5VzQD8NaKGUjz_9HNvpSb7zFHVsK3za1HPtBD1-G5LNYg

I think its all swings and roundabouts, there are stories of those who needed high stims and those who performed better on low stims. It's up to how your body responds!

I generally like the idea of quality over quantity and have never been good with the idea of injecting myself with loads of drugs. Let's see though. This is my first round I may change my mind depending on how things go!

Have you had your initial consultation with them?

Hi OP,

ABC are doing frozen cycles. I had my transfer last week (test date tomorrow). However, I did have to have my scan appointment at St Paul’s Create with my ABC nurse. But they seem to be running fine. I’m with the Harley Street clinic. I’ve been reading that a few people are having issues if they’re at the Wimbledon clinic but I’ve had no problems. Not sure if this helps in anyway!

They’re really quick with answering emails though, maybe try that?x

@ChaiTea1 congratulations for being post transfer! How are you feeling?

Could you let us know how your stimming cycle went and how you found the whole process?

Best of luck with testing tommorow!!

@ChaiTea1 thanks hun. Congratulations, pregnant until proven otherwise I say!!!
Can I ask how long you stimmd for- was it 10days? Do you remember your highest bemfola dose and how many eggs/embryos? X

@user1475505106 thanks for the encouragement hun. I'm due to have a baseline scan at Harley at next week. I was hoping to start my cycle this month, but my period is due next Saturday and they don't have any nursing appointments next week to discuss my meds, so I doubt I'll be starting. Do you have the email address that you guys use please? The nurse that did my initial consult is lovely but doesn't answer hers! I just wish their was direct contact to each branch. Though as I said for the price, I'm not complaining. Cambridge was nurse led too, I personally think it makes no difference nurse or doctor led.
I think I'm just feeling a bit desperate as I've had a miscarriage last year and just years of fertility drama, and I just want as many goes as possible. We are planning our lives around funding this whilst trying to have some normality- looking for new house etc.

Thank you @computersaysso & @user1475505106! Feeling very nervous but trying not to think too much about test day. It’s my 3rd FET with ABC, my 2nd one stuck but sadly miscarried at 10weeks. So 3rd time lucky I guess!!

I did my stimulation last year April. I remember only doing it for 10 days, I was on a lower dose of Bemfola 125. I have PCOS and my nurse was worried about over simulating. I had scans and bloods taken every few days and it showed that I had a high number of follicles so my dosage was lowered to about 115 I believe. The whole process was fine the staff at ABC are so lovely and were so good at explaining everything and looking after me. However, I was very bloated and had ridiculous stomach pains, I felt like I was carrying tennis balls in my ovaries

I ended up with 32 eggs, 22 fertilised and 10 made it to day 5 which were then frozen as I couldn’t have a fresh cycle, looking back at it was a good thing due the pain I was in, I needed to give my body a rest!

In terms of transfers, these happen at Create. And again, I can’t fault the staff there. My last transfer last week was so quick and strangely really relaxing! No issues with social distancing, just wear a mask. My husband wasn’t allowed in so he just drove around central London and then picked me up once it was done! x

@ChaiTea1 Wow what an amazing reponse! That's so wonderful to hear. Sorry for the personal questions 😳 but how old were you during your stims and did you have a good AMH too?

Do you have polycystic ovaries or the syndrome, if you don't mind me asking? I agree with your comments about ABC they have been lovely since I started after lockdown. We have a tubal factor which is why we opted for IVF.

Praying that tommorow gives you a BFP that sticks!

@computersaysso yes the email address we use is [email protected]. Its direct to Harley street. Hope you manage to get through! I know infertility sucks but its so important to have PMA. I'm trying this obe hundred percent and being good to myself!

@user1475505106 No ask away! I was 33 when I did my stimms, my AMH is 18.2 which is normal for my age. I have PCOS so the syndrome. I also chose ABC because of the limited drugs they give you. Which for me was the best, also they only do short protocols so everything happens really quickly!

@user1475505106 thanks so much. That email is going to be a sanity saver for me!

@ChaiTea1 I think they felt mine looked polycystic on scans but I do not have the syndrome. I think my AMH is similar to yours although that was last checked two years ago. We have sperm issues too so need ICSI so do pay as an add on.
Let us know how tomorrow goes. We really wish you the best for your test.
It's so hard all of this isn't it x

Thanks for the letting us know @ChaiTea1. I am 35 with an AMH of 15.7 so hoping that thrle 35 cliff horror stories won't give me poor results.

My meds arrive later this week. I will keep updating!

@user1475505106 everyone is an individual, I'm sure you will be fine. Let's stay positive. Thank you both so much for the info and encouragement x

Hiya, i've had concerns same as yours when I was considering this clinic. However, I can assure you, that I only had positive experiences. I get that they're slower to respond at the moment, but I get it. They have a massive backlog of patients that were due to start. As soon as they announced that clinics can go back to work, I had to email few times to make sure I get booked in as I knew my period was imminent. Eventually, I got my emails answered and everyone moved really quick and took my cycle into consideration. So don't feel disheartened by lack of communication. These are tough times, they have backlog and some staff are still furloughed or working remotely.
I was also concerned that I will be put on default amount of drugs, but this didn't happen. I was started on 150 bemfola, but when it was slow to work, it was increased to 225. I was also concerned and questioned (googled like mad) that they wanted to do egg collection too early, but in the end it turned out that they knew exactly what they were doing. All went very smoothly. After having my eggs collected back in Feb and having freeze all cycle due to PCOS, I've finally had excellently orchestrated transfer last week and currently having everything crossed and hoping for it to work.
So, don't be concerned about the drugs or communication, take it easy ( you need to have calm nerves for this process) trust them and they will do their best.

Hi hope you dont mind me jumping in, I'm with abc Harley street been on bemfola for 8 days got another scan tomorrow so far so good they counted 11 follicles on Friday but was only at 12mm so praying to god they have grown. Would be nice to talk to someone in the same situation as me

Hi All,
We had our first appointment with ABC yesterday where I had my internal scans to check everything out. I was told everything looks fine to go ahead I had 11 eggs in the left ovary and 12 in the right so may need a lower dose of treatment because of risk of OHSS.
We’ve been trying for 18 months and had tests with our gp which showed my husbands count was very low at 2million with low morphology. Due to covid our nhs waiting time has doubled but they told us if we wanted to go private for 1 round we’d still then be eligible for 2 rounds on nhs so started looking around and found abc the most affordable.
The nurse that scanned me yesterday mentioned PCOS scarring on the outside of one of the ovaries but she couldn’t see anything inside and said she can’t see any reason I’d have a problem with conceiving or the ICSI process. Has anyone else found this?
We’ve got our follow up with the consultant next week to discuss next steps.
It’s exciting but daunting at the same time and thought joining on here would be good to share experiencesx

Hi all, I also had a treatment in abc and i went all the way to my Fet. That got me a bfp and thats when things went wrong. Until that point i appreciated everything abc's done for me. Once i went for 7 week scan i lost all my faith in a doctor. As she showed me there's a sack, there's a "lunchbox" for a baby, There's a baby (even thought i didnt c anything ) unfortunately i cnt c the heartbeat so u have to come back in a week. After getting over the shock by the time i got home as i had all the symptoms possible i emailed them asking how big was the baby measuring i got the answer baby measured exactly what it was meant to for 7weeks and 3days. I wouldn't wait for a week so i paid for private scan 2days later when i measured for 5 weeks and sack was completely empty. So i really got angry with a dovtor especially after i found out she pointed "baby" to me yet in my notes she wrote she was unsure about fetus presence. I think thats very wrong as we all go through ivf knowing theres 50/50 chance do i think no matter how harsh the truth is they should b honest. I tried to contact them again few months later for another treatment and i actually got no reply at all. So i moved to their sister clinic create. Had my transfer done (by the same doctor that im not hapoy with) 7days ago but somehow i dnt feel very positive about it as i did the test and it was negative and i dnt feel it worked anyway. Good luck to all of u and hope ur baby wishes will come true ;)

@Vijka Sorry to hear your sad news must have been awful for you. Not nice that they told you there was a baby and weren’t sure!
Which clinic did you use if you don’t mind me asking? I’m using abc but was confused yesterday when I turned up has the create sign too I think they use the same place for both abc and create in Bristol.
Fingers crossed for this transfer wishing you lots of luck and make sure you rest

@OurJourneyHasBegun thats the one im using. Im sure people have good experience with them but mine wasnt as good. And thank you very much. Luckily this time i had my holiday booked but who knows if it works. The worst thing is they dont test the embryos if they are good so dont know. Hope your journey goes well all the best to you. :)

Hi All,

I am in the middle of my treatment with ABC right now, I just had my egg collection yesterday. I have had nothing but positive experiences with them every step of the way and as this is my first attempt, it was really important to me that they came across as friendly and caring. If anyone has any questions about my experience so far, ask away! x