Opinions on Create? Either St Paul's or Wimbledon?

[greycover]

Or any other recommendations for clinics?

I'm confused and upset and would just like some help

I'm with Create except the Birmingham branch but have had scans and an egg collection at St Paul's because I work in London a lot

I prefer my clinic in Birmingham but maybe because it's not in central London so a lot more chilled. St Paul's can get very busy and I'd say it was more impersonal. I've never been to Wimbledon but If it's smaller I imagine it has more of a personal feel like my Birmingham one?

St Paul's though I've heard got some of the best results in London though this year?

Why are you upset? X

Thanks for the reply!

Just upset that we're having to look for clinics. The whole thing is stressful

It's very emotional and upsetting when you realise you're going to have to go down the IVF route and can't experience TTC like "normal" people

I'd try doing some online consultations with a couple of different clinics before making a decision. Create though are very good x

I have a consultation on Friday with CRGH, they come recommended to me, but create is closer!

I'm of the opinion that results are more important than proximity though.

We used Create Wimbledon. I did the 3 cycle package as I had low ovarian reserve and got 5 high quality embryos frozen. I miscarried my first pregnancy with NHS in 2015 (6 eggs, 3 embryos, two good enough to transfer) so all the drugs produced less embryos of lesser quality. I did also miscarry my first transfer at Create though but it was a 4Aa quality (highest) so genetics don’t unfortunately play a part. On my second transfer I decided to have blood thinning injections and this time it worked! Not sure if that’s a coincidence or not? I now have a 6 month old baby boy. There are pros and cons with Create. They can be a bit disorganised so make sure you’re on the ball with all correspondence, the decor and recovery area is very tired but I think they’re now finished refurbishments since I’ve been there. They are small and friendly and the consultants know what they’re talking about. My miscarriages are just one of those things unfortunately but I feel I was given good advice as to how to try again and their theory of low drugs equals higher quality embryos was very true in our case. I think you just have to visit places and see what feels right for you and your issues. We also had to take convenience into the decision, it had to be close to home and easy to get to. We were just lucky that they had good reviews and they were local to me.

*I meant so genetics do unfortunately play a part.

@ivfgottostaypositive
@Colyflower.

I just started the 3 cycle package with Create. Did you develop all 3 cycles to blastocyst or not? Create said they would freeze all on day 3. I wonder if this would just give more false hope in terms of quantity as it not clear if the embryos are going to make it. I had a cycle with CRGH at the beginning of this year and got 3 embryos but only 1 good quality blastocyst and the other 2 did not reach blastocyst. Unfortunately that 1 transfer did not work for me. I think my cycle is going to be similar 1-2 max blastocyst regardless of clinics, just hope better quality with mild/natural modified.

@jo99999

Creates policy is to freeze at least one embryo on day 3. I found this difficult to understand at first as last year when I did 2 cycles they let everything get to day 5. I've been with Create a long time so I'm suppose I'm familiar with the team/confidant of speaking up and I said I wanted a mix of day 3 and 5 as I would just feel anxious that I didn't know if anything was capable of making it to blastocyst. So I froze my first grade 1 perfect embryo on day 3 and then any that were either not grade 1 or weren't 8 cell on day 3 we let go to day 5.

I'm currently pregnant with either that day 3 or a day 6 blastocysts as transferred two a couple of weeks ago

I also felt more confident on transfer day that the day 3 was "active" ie it has been thawed and cultured to day 5 and then put back in rather than thawed a couple of hours before

Doing it this way enabled the embryologist to decide which was the best to put back

@Jo99999

Also natural modified hugely increased my quality - last year on short protocol I got a total of 28 eggs - less than 30% fertilised and got 4 average quality blastocysts

With natural modified over 3 cycles I got a total of 9 eggs 100% fertilisation and 4 top quality blastocysts x

@ivfgottostaypositive. thanks very much. That's very good to know.

Jo99999

It’s so hit and miss with all cycles, some months you may ovulate more than others. I was lucky and got x3 5 day blastocysts frozen on first collection and x1 5 day blastocyst frozen on each of the other two collections, so 5 in total. The best 3 were from that first collection, gradually getting less perfect by the third cycle but all good enough to freeze. I think maybe if I’d taken more of a break between the collections we may have got more and better but we were luckily that we have our little boy and I have 3 more chances to give him a sibling. I’m doing another transfer again in January so who knows! We may not be so lucky the next three goes. I miscarried one of our 4aA and our baby is the other 4aA. The next one we’ll try is a 3aA.

@Colyflower

I agree - our first and second natural modified cycles this year was the best - back to back with no break in between. Then had 3 months break during covid and our final 3rd natural modified was the worst - in fact a total bust (didn't get any blastocysts). I thought having the break would be good for body to rest and reset......

I do think that in the end our bodies say enough and stop messing with it! I've done 5 rounds in 18 months

Hi @greycover,

I used ABC Wimbledon (same clinic as Create except it’s nurse lead and cheaper but you have to fit certain “criteria” to qualify for treatment with ABC, if you don’t I assume they just treat as Create) because my egg collection fell on a Sunday I ended up having it and the subsequent transfer at the St Paul’s branch.

Overall I was happy with the treatment at both clinics. I had absolutely no idea about IVF when I first went to them and they were helpful explaining the process and took their time to make sure we understood everything.

You do have to be on the ball with medication, booking appointments, scans etc but I think this would be the same everywhere. You learn a lot about the process/ medications/ egg and embryo quality along the way and I found the groups on here really helpful too 😊

We had 8 eggs collected, 7 fertilised, 1 was transferred and 3 have been put in the freezer!

I conceived first time and I’m now 22 weeks pregnant. We’ve decided we’ll probably return to use what we have in the freezer... well that’s the plan!

@Colyflower
thanks very much for your reply.