Kings fertility

[Gfarm21]

Good morning all,

I was wondering whether anyone had been seen at King's fertility.
Just wanted to hear about people's experience there
We have MFI
Thanks

heya. we had unexplained infertility. Had IVF egg retrieval at an NHS hospital but the embryology and transfer bit was done by/at king's. It worked, so that was good! and the experience - brief as it was - was perfectly pleasant and unproblematic.

Since then they've been storing our remaining embryos, so most of our interactions have been about periodic bill payment for that. But I've always found them very easy to deal with, and if we were to go for another embryo transfer in the future, I would be happy to go with them.

We had our treatment at kings for issues with myself and MFI. I could not fault them at all, the staff were all lovely and I felt reassured at all times, especially with the added covid factor. I did find they drip fed information but unsure if this is kings specific or something done by clinics generally as I guess plans can change at each stage. I would have however liked more information about the whole process right from the start.

Thanks for responding ladies.
I trawled the site but could not see much reference to them.
Glad to hear you both have had quite positive experiences. We were referred a few weeks ago and were called within 2 weeks to book in for initial consultation, baseline scan and amh level. They sound pretty organised and I think may not have a waiting list at the moment, quite excited for it all to start.
I will definitely ask for a written protocol or will be taking notes during the consult!

Yes the process is quite quick once you start!! I think from initial referral to treatment was just a few months. If you have any other questions feel free to ask :).

We had a great experience with them, no complaints at all and very competitive pricing. We got very lucky and our first round, first transfer worked, currently 23 weeks. Will definitely go back if needed for a sibling in the future!

Hey @Peachthepiglet @MGee123
What sort of protocols did you have?
Are the flexible with scan timings for work etc
Did you have to take annual leave for work etc, I actually work for the NHS but you'd be surprised, they are not always flexible

Ta

I was on short protocol (menopur and fyremadel) but I’m not sure why they chose this for me, I never asked! I have hypothalamic amenorrhea so do not cycle naturally. It worked well despite initially being a slow responder. After 15 days of stimulants we collected 13 eggs, 8 fertilised and ended with 3 x 5AAs. Two are in the freezer and one remains in me at 5 weeks.

For appointments I did find them flexible but it helped I lived about ten minutes walk away. I also think they tend to do monitoring scans in the morning once you start stimulants (in case bloods need to be turned around within the day), baselines and other scans in afternoons, egg collections in morning and transfers in afternoons. Any flexibility would I guess only be possible within those period. I just took the egg collection and a half day for transfer as sick leave but wfh made it a lot easier for the whole process to not disrupt my work too much. Hope this is useful :)

@Peachthepiglet ooh congrats on the transfer and your 5 week sticky!
Ah wfh sadly isn't an option for me but I work not too far so hopefully will have some flexibility with scans once treatment starts
Super useful
Thanks, have a lovely weekend x

I think they only do short protocols, which is a school of thought among some clinics. I didn't question this decision as frankly the long protocols sound like a pain, cost more money, and I trusted they know what they're doing! We didn't have MFI (apologies, should have put this in my original post). I have rather rubbish ovaries with a low ovarian reserve. I don't think there would be any need for you to do a long protocol if MFI is your issue but I am sure they would discuss their rationale with you.

In terms of scan appt timings, yes I found them very flexible. I did see a number of different Drs for the scans but this didn't really bother me. They were all professional and I felt in good hands. I think this helps them with the flexibility.

I also work in the NHS and mostly juggled my shift patterns to accommodate appts. Do check your leave and sickness policies at work - IVF will be mentioned somewhere but policy varies across trusts. My manager was very understanding and happy for me to flex my hours/shift pattern as needed. It was only a 2 week period during which I had really frequent scans which were scheduled at short notice (based on findings of last scan). I had a 3.5 hour round trip to go to the clinic which made things a bit harder! If you are more local it might be easier to juggle around work. My scan appts were very efficient and they mostly ran to time. I took 1 full day of leave for egg collection as I recall. I went back to work the following day as I felt fine, although some need longer.

Hope this helps. Do feel free to ask any other questions :)

Hello

I'm looking at Kings fertility and City Fertility (Gennet) and wondered if any one had experience of these

I've just had success with kings fertility, they pushed me onto the long protocol. I am private, my friend is NHS at kings and they went straight to short protocol. Also successful. I would like to think they advise a protocol based on your health circumstances, but I do wonder if they profit more from long protocol with private patients. At least the drugs companies and Stork medication delivery service do!

Hi Zibidee

Congratulations on your success

I will also be private and would be very concerned is they suggest a long protocol with down-regulation for me as I have low AMH

Did you do the multi-cycle with 3 collections? it seems a good deal but lots of extras to factor in in final cost

I have messaged them to ask the inclusion criteria

No, just one cycle, as if you get more than one embryo, you can do fresh and frozen transfer, so no need to plan ahead for 3 cycles. But I had AMH of 15, no fertility issues, just a lesbian so no home grown sperm! I only did IVF because sperm is so expensive so several rounds of IUI at 10% success rates vs 1 round of IVF with 30% success is just financial sense.

Just question everything, I mean everything, and expect rubbish admin organisation and poor communication. But I cannot fault the medical side of things.

Hopefully they will do a protocol that works for you. But if you are specifically concerned about that, ask for all the research to support the decision they give you. And at the end of the day, they will do what you want, you don't have to do what they suggest. It's your body and your money.

Thank you, it's really helpful to get insight into the clinic

I am looking at multi-cycle as I'm only likely to get 3-4 eggs each time :(

I am going to call them tomorrow

If you decide to have any more children look on Pollen Tree for free sperm donors and co-parents

The legalities of known sperm donors is very complex and uncertain so we dismissed free donors and co-parents, but thank you.

I only got 7 eggs, 4 fertilised, 3 made it to blastocyst, so you never know, your 3-4 could create 1-2 blastocyst embryos.

On the other hand, if you don't need the 2nd and 3rd cycle, they can do a refund.

Thank you,

I'm using a Co-Parent but not overly aware of all the legalities I think I need to research this