Private fertility tests - worth it?

[nancywhitehead]

Me and partner went to a private fertility clinic open evening last night. He has extremely low sperm count (

Hi @nancywhitehead,

We’re in a similar position and have opted to pay privately for the fertility investigations. I have my first appointments in 2 weeks for a scan, bloods and then an appointment with a consultant. I think it’s well worth the money to hurry things along.

If you can afford it I would go privately for the whole process. We waited ages for each step of the NHS infertility pathway.

@Egghatcher That's what I'm thinking although part of me is wondering if it will actually be quicker, I guess it probably will!

We were also told that it will all be home test kits because of Covid, so a home semen analysis for my partner and my blood test will be me pricking my own finger. I'm wondering if it's as effective? Are you actually going into the clinic?

@mayihavesomecakeplease Yeah I hear stories about how long people have to wait! Not getting any younger! haha. Did you have a good experience once you got there if you don't mind me asking?

DH also has a count of c. 2 million. We waited for over 6 weeks for an NHS andrologist last year which then got cancelled before Christmas. So we saw an andrologist privately for c. 300 GBP. This helped us confirm the issue and gave some (odd) peace of mind over the holidays so I am glad we did. We then had a fertility clinic appointment... and they wanted us to see an NHS andrologist anyway. Took another several weeks for that to be scheduled and have currently been waiting for a month for them to have a follow-up consultation! Just to triple-confirm what we already know, not for any medically useful reason. (We already did all the scans and bloods etc. via our GP last year, so have not had to pay for any of that so far and the bloods especially were easy to schedule via GP.)

Long story short - private is faster and easier but NHS may still make you wait and jump through hoops anyways if you're going the NHS route. It's not like they didn't accept the results, but it's a bureaucracy or admin sort of thing that I am still trying to understand...

We're facing similar issues with NHS scheduling - me - lots of appointments that take ages (even though I don't currently need them it is just to tick boxes in the correct order; the 'issue' is only with DH). So you might want to talk to someone about that as well! Our hospital doesn't even have us registered as 1 case but 2 separate... and all the IVF ICSI comms are going through me (even though DH is why we are having the appointments).

We're still doing the NHS route because we live in a good postcode apparently so it will be worth it. But yeah, also massively impatient, and not sure I necessarily recommend it!

Could just be our experience though. So do see what others say. And also I should add, the hospital keeps telling us that there is no waiting to start the actual treatment once we finally get to that stage.

@nancywhitehead We went the NHS route the whole time. When we actually saw someone the care was great (and once we got to the IVF stage it was brilliant) but we ended up being referred incorrectly to the wrong kind of doctor, had our referrals sent to the wrong clinic, had things filed under the wrong name.. it was a mess. This was all for azoospermia. I feel like there wasn't a lot of clarity with what to do with us early on! It's like they only knew how to refer for female issues.

However, shouldn't really complain as my husband had a successful sperm extraction and we were able to do our 'free'/tax funded ICSI round and I'm now pregnant.

But it took a LONG time.

@AnonymousXXIX Ugh, sorry to hear you're having such an awkward experience with bureaucracy! That's what I worry about as well tbh, that we would pay for these tests but then the NHS would be like "that's great, now do them again here".

The sperm tests are difficult as well.... my partner hated the process of doing the semen analysis and taking it into the hospital, and I'm imagining he is going to have to do that lots more times through this process now :(

We are going to go the NHS route for the treatment when we finally get there... we know we'll need IVF with ICSI... but there's going to be lots of hoops to jump through I know!

The clinic we are using is a private clinic but it's also the one that NHS patients get referred to (they accept both) so I'm hoping that communication will happen!

Always happy for PMs if you (or anyone else going through similar) want to chat. I feel like I need to know others going through similar things at the moment! (I don't even know if that's something you can do on mumsnet... I'm a bit of a noob... but assume you can!)

@mayihavesomecakeplease Oh dear, what a nightmare :( But congrats on your pregnancy. How wonderful that you got there, it is always nice to hear! I hope that we will too.

I have learned that our NHS has already made an error, just looked at the NICE pathway and he shouldn't have been told to wait another 3 months with such a low sperm count, he should have been told to have another one asap. So that's one thing they already did wrong! Sigh. Doesn't fill you with confidence does it!

@nancywhitehead DH has had three SA now at three different places, and I expect there will be more. That was a particular one where it HAD to be the clinic that would do the IVF and nothing else counted.

The clinic we are with also does private as well as NHS which has made no difference to the process (like you, I had somewhat hopes it would!).

We've had all tests at clinics and hospitals, none at home. I was surprised it was even allowed with COVID.

Always follow up with everything on NHS. Do your own research. Be on the phone every day. Don't trust that they have it all sorted! If we'd known that before that first cancelled andrology apt we would have saved three months!

@nancywhitehead the at home test kit doesn’t seem that sensible. As far as I’m aware the sperm sample needs to be in a specialist lab within about 20 minutes, DH had to have a room reserved at the lab when he got his done. I should think a finger prick blood test would have a higher chance of clotting etc, if you need a blood test on a specific cycle day then that would be really annoying, as you’d have to wait another month. My clinic charge about £500 for the his and her fertility tests, well worth it in my opinion. I managed to get the initial blood tests at my Gp practice including the AMH and DH GP sorted out a sperm analysis, some GPs won’t organise these tests though. Then we decided to go ahead with the other tests (DH viral screen as his GP wouldn’t do it and my US with AFC) privately after a Mumsnet user said how she’s been fobbed off for ages only to then find out there was an issue which meant she could never have conceived naturally, which was only revealed when she had the tests.

I’ve been private the whole time, I went with access fertility, whether you can go private or not will depend on your financial situation. If you can afford it, then it at least removes the waiting lists which can cause additional stress and worry.

@nancywhitehead,

I am going to the clinic for my tests but the appointment with the consultant will be via the phone. From what I’ve read it is considerably quicker. I only phoned today and got an appointment for 2 weeks time (and apparently that’s slow for them!) I have waited 4 months for my initial appointment with the NHS and that’s just a phone one too. Apparently it can be 10 weeks between each lot of tests.
It is costing us about £500 for my initial tests. They said not to bother with another sperm test at this point because my DP only had one last month.

@nancywhitehead That's so frustrating!! Our low point was waiting months only to find out we'd be referred to a urologist clinic all to do with prostate issues, with nothing to do with fertility at all! Very confused doctor as to why we were there.

@mayihavesomecakeplease omg that happened to us to. DH turned up at a very confused urologist's office who was like... why are you here, you need to see a different specialist.

And I got a call last week about my gynaecology referral for pelvic pain...?! It took 4 phone calls to someone and their manager to explain I was being referred for IVF and my pelvis was in no pain...

@AnonymousXXIX That's crazy! I do think the care pathway for male infertility (or infertility in general) needs an overhaul. Even just the fact that the very first place we were referred was a gynaecologist -- they took one look at our results and said there was nothing they could do since we were male factor!