How much did you pay for your IVF?

[Youngatheart00]

Doing some benchmarking as I’ve just realised my clinic seems to be the most expensive in London and I wouldn’t say we got anything like a ‘premium’ experience last cycle (or any success).

We paid £4700 inclusive of blastocyst culture and time lapse imaging.

The fact clinics charge extra for blast culture irritates me hugely as isn’t this just standard practice now? Why charge hundreds extra for it? And the time lapse photos delivered precisely zero use and have never been referred to.

On top of that drugs cost another £1600 inclusive of an extra Gonal F pen which I had to buy at an extraordinary mark up from the clinic at short notice.

Inclusive of initial consultation and bloods etc we paid £7500 in total.

Interested in others experiences (especially in London)

@azaan786

it very much depends on the following

• financially can you support twins (or more)
• health wise is there any concerns about carrying twins
• bear in mind if you have kids already then you'll most likely need a bigger car or even bigger house!

I had 2 transferred this time and am currently 9 weeks twins. I've had to do a lot of spreadsheets to figure out how we can afford the childcare as well as childcare for our 4 year old

It also depends on your clinic and how supportive they are about transferring 2 - most say no especially at the moment

Thanks for your response ivfdreaming they are really valuable points and also congrats on having twins I’m pleased for you🎉🎉
My eldest is 7 so in full time primary school.
House is big enough and financially should be ok, plus have supportive parents.
Health wise no illnesses other than asthma.
To be honest I know clinics always recommend transferring the 1 and always highlight the risks with transferring more than 1 but looking at research having twins via ivf and naturally both have the same risks.
Let’s hope the clinic I’ve gone with (OXRM) are ok with transferring 2.

@azaan786 just bear in mind that transferring 2 won't necessarily double your chances.
Some people suggest that if you transfer 2 they should be of a similar quality, rather than a very good embryo being 'brought down' by a lower quality one. Don't know the exact scientific way to say that, and I'm not personally opposed to it, I've had 2 transferred before myself. But look at the odds and discuss with your clinic. Good luck.

Ohhh ok so you mean if there’s a very good quality embryo and an averageish one. The poorer quality one will stop the good quality one from implanting.?
Yeah your right il have to speak to the clinic about this.
I hope I don’t sound too negative but my personal feeling that I was getting was that clinics stop you from implanting 2 so that you would spend more money in future on another cycle. I maybe wrong.
Thanks for all your help!

It's because clinics have to keep multiple pregnancies below the national naturally occurring rate of twins otherwise they get fined by the regulatory body

Oh I wasn’t aware of that. Thanks for all your responses guys.

I would say though that I've had 4 transfers and I've only got a BFP when I transferred 2 together - although last year ended in ectopic. My single transfers have all been BFN

Ohhhh ok thanks @ivfdreaming now I’m seriously considering 2.
Im getting my meds through on Monday and Tuesday is my nurse planning appointment and Wednesday I start taking the meds.
Up until this point nobody has discussed with me about a single embryo or 2 I presume that will happen on Tuesday. I really need to be certain by then.
To be honest I don’t have lots of £ to throw around and do another one a year later should this one not work plus im 34 now and not getting any younger .

@azaan786
Up until this point nobody has discussed with me about a single embryo or 2 I presume that will happen on Tuesday. I really need to be certain by then.

No, you don’t need to decide or be certain by Tuesday. Your clinic will normally discuss with you how many to transfer after egg collection, fertilisation and on either day 3 or 5 when they know how many embryos they have and their grading.

As you’re under 35 (so you’re young in IVF terms) they’d normally only transfer one unless they have good reason to transfer 2 eg multiple previous failed cycles or poor quality embryos. The cumulative pregnancy rate is higher with 2 single transfers than with one double transfer (I.e your overall chance of pregnancy and a baby is higher if you have 2 separate transfers of one embryo than one transfer of both embryos at the same time). Additionally, although transferring 2 does SLIGHTLY increase your chance of pregnancy, compared to one transfer of one embryo, transferring 2 and a twin pregnancy significantly increases the risk of miscarriage and of the risk of all pregnancy complications. The clinics are almost as keen as you for the cycle to be successful as their statistics depend on it.

@EarlGreyT

I agree

I was only allowed a double transfer for the following reasons

• over 37
• 4th transfer, 5th round of egg collection
• we PGS tested last year and didn't get any normal embryos so chances of both implanting were supposed to be low 🤣
• we have 1 daughter already so this would be our final pregnancy; if both twins make it we don't intend to transfer the 2 frozen embryos we have left
• we flat out said we couldn't afford multiple transfers as we have already spent £35k

Thanks @EarlGreyT and @ivfdreaming. I really appreciate you guys taking your time out to help me. After reading about your experiences and comments, it’s really got me thinking and puts things into perspective.
To be honest things are moving along so quickly for me in terms of ivf I haven’t really sat down and thought any of these things through.
My DS is now 7 and I’ve been ttc for the past 5 years. I have unexplained secondary infertility.
At the moment I’m just so desperate for another I feel this is my last resort and I really want to maximise my chances.

@azaan786
I totally understand the feeling of desperation and it’s awful.

At the moment I’m just so desperate for another I feel this is my last resort and I really want to maximise my chances. Assuming you get several good day 5 embryos then the way to maximise your chances is to have single transfers and freeze the rest. If the first transfer is unsuccessful then you can transfer one of the frozen ones the next time round. Doing a frozen cycle is no where near as expensive or in my opinion as stressful as a fresh cycle.

To be honest I don’t have lots of £ to throw around and do another one a year later should this one not work plus im 34 now and not getting any younger just wanted to add to this, that if you do get several good embryos then the clinic would freeze any which are good enough and not transferred at your first transfer for use at a later date if needed. If you need to use any of these embryos because your first cycle isn’t successful you’re not looking at a time frame of waiting a year, you usually only have to wait a month or 2 for a frozen transfer after a failed cycle.

Ohhhh ok thanks for that @EarlGreyT this is something positive.
Obviously if they are 5 day frozen embryos, at a later date all that needs to be done is transfer them inside me (without the need for OH’s swimmers) is that correct?
I’m just thinking long term should this fail I can just go and do another cycle without bothering OH.
My OH wasn’t too keen on the IVF just said to carry on trying naturally and if we’ve had 1 we will eventually have another 1 naturally.
Was a mission to get him to agree to the ivf.
To be honest was a mission for me to even get him to agree to do the semen analysis! Took me a couple of years 🤬 that wasted time!!!!

Hi guys advice please. Had egg collection yesterday have been told to take the utrogesterone pessaries. I’ve been told to take them twice a day by the clinic however the satellite clinic in oxford made my schedule and wrote 3x a day. So BCRM in Bristol said to stick with the schedule.
And they also said if for example I was to insert at 7 in the morning then my evening one has to be 7 in evening too.
My confusion is that the nurse in the satellite clinc in oxford said I could insert them anytime 3x in the day and it’s better to do it before bed.
Now I’m confused. Were you guys on these particular ones? And does it really matter about the timings?

If you're taking them 3 times per day I'd do one in the morning before you get up and stay in bed a while (like 20 - 30 minutes) one when you get into bed, and one in the day time if/when you have a chance to pause for a bit. I don't think you need to lie down but a lot of people do.

The clinic should really give you clarity though.
Depending on where you insert them some people find it less messy via the back entrance but again check with clinic. I didnt have any issues with Utrogrstan vaginally or orally.
Though my first clinic gave me cyclogest which was a very messy tampon style thing for vaginal use that looked like sand mixed with water so I definitely lay down after that!
Good luck.

Thanks @JeNeBaguetteRien I was thinking to do that too but the clinic were complicating it.
I tried one this morning via back passage that was definitely less messy, I tried one vaginally and that left my underwear with white chalky messy.
To be honest I always worry via vagina, incase it doesn’t go where it’s supposed to and it falls out lol and I’m too scared to take it so far up incase I end up piercing something😳
Anyways thanks for your advice.

Fwiw I paid £8500 with create in London. I had icsi, extra meds and embryo storage fees. Base price quoted was £5500 but as you can see I ended up paying another 3k for extras. It's bloody expensive

Hey guys advice plzzz. After embryo transfer should one take pregnacare preconception or pregnacare throughout pregnancy supplements?
I was thinking to take the throughout pregnancy ones as isn’t embryo transfer technically being pregnant?
What supplements did you guys take after transfer?
Xx

If you look at the ingredients of both, you'll see they are the same. The through pregnancy one includes the omega oil. So long as you get enough folic acid you actually don't need to buy anything special

Ohhh I see thanks for that.
Is there anything else supplements wise or diet that will help embryo stick??

£5000 in Bristol and £3000 in Czech Republic including time lapse and lots of extras (picsi) and had much better results with them.

@azaan786 I'm not sure I believe there are supplements that help embryos stick. For my first ivf I did acupuncture weekly, meditated, took Chinese herbs, took supplements etc.. and was successful.

My second ivf - did none of that and it was successful. Both first time success.

I say do what you need to make you feel like you're doing something but in truth it's a minefield and no one answer

Hi @Evey43 we are going to OXRM, just wondered did you get any counselling part of it all?

Wow mine was so much more expensive. Including all blood tests, ICSI, scans, PGS testing for 4 embryos and medication its come to about £13k for our first round.

@Bells3032 wow! That is really expensive. Are you with Evewell by any chance? They're the only London clinic I know that charges circa £14k for the first round. Prices do tend to be lower in London than in regional cities (apparently due to more competition amongst clinics).