Would you change clinic?

[Clt1983]

Hi All,

We’ve had two unsuccessful IVF cycles at a NHS hospital in South London where we paid to go private. I’m 37, partner 40. Unexplained infertility, all tests have come back fine so no underlying issues discovered and AMH and AFC both look ok. First round was 7 eggs collected, 5 fertilised, one 4BB blastocyst. Second round was 12 eggs, 8 fertilised, one grade 1 blastocyst. BFN from both 5 day transfers.

We are covered for up to 80% of our costs by our insurance for one more cycle. The cost where we currently are is on the lower side and a part of me is tempted to use out last insured attempt at a more expensive private clinic who may offer a different perspective and additional add ons as we could return to our current clinic in the future if the third round fails.

There are benefits to staying where we are-it’s local and convenient, the staff are friendly and generally helpful, they already know my history etc and I know that my chances may not be improved going elsewhere as fundamentally my body can only do what it can do. The reasons why I’d be inclined to change are linked more to the fact that I rarely see the same consultant two appointments in a row, I’ve been asked a couple of times ‘what are we doing about this fibroid?’ when it’s already been decided that it’s small and in an area where it won’t interfere with conception but I’m then left having to explain that, at egg retrieval there’s very little privacy so I could hear how women on each side of me had got on and at embryo transfer I was caught unawares as to how bad the quality was and didn’t have much time to compose myself before the procedure as I was already in the room about 30 seconds away from lying back. We also asked what the chances of success were with an embryo like that to be told ‘I don’t know off the top of my head, I’d have to check’ but no one ever came back to us.

What would you do? Stick with a convenient local clinic where we could feasibly try again fairly quickly or start the whole process again somewhere where we may only be able to do one cycle? And if you’d change, is there a clinic you’d recommend?

Thanks in advance.

Hi OP, have you looked at their success rates for your age compared to other clinics? That’s where I would start.

Some of the things you mentioned are not uncommon I think (eg being told the grade of your embryo just before the transfer).

We debated changing clinic as we were unhappy with certain things, but stayed in the end. In part because I knew them and felt comfortable with the medical care, in part because I met with other clinics and wasn’t convinced by them. So maybe also speak to a couple of clinics to see what you think of them?

Best of luck!

Hi @Shamoo, thanks for replying. My clinic are 5% under the national rate for my age in terms or birth per embryo transferred but just 2% under for birth per egg collection for my age.

Are you London based and, if so, can I ask which other clinics you spoke to? I’m currently looking at Lister, ARGC and Create.

I agree that some of the things I don’t like at my current clinic wouldn’t necessarily change elsewhere. I think maybe I just feel a bit jaded after two failed cycles and want to see what else is out there!

You've got to trust them - if you don't feel you can then I'd change clinics. I stayed with Create through 5 rounds and had success on the final one. But if it had failed I would have tried another clinic for one more shot - I had done mild short protocol with Create and then natural modified - had our 5th attempt not worked I would have explored trying long protocol as a the last "type" of IVF to see if it would work for us

@Clt1983 - we are at lister, it’s not perfect but I trust them medically which is key. I spoke to CRGH and liked them initially but was a bit uncomfortable with a couple of things that happened so opted against them (I have friends there who love them though). I also spoke to evewell who I really really liked but the lack of data made me uncomfortable.

I know somebody pregnant from ARGC at the moment but, to be totally honest, I didn’t have the energy for them: we are just outside london and their regime is so intense I couldn’t face it.

Thanks @Shamoo, having read a bit more about ARGC I’m not sure I have the stamina for their treatment. Lister is probably the way I’m leaning at the moment if we do change, I’ve signed up for their webinar next week to learn a bit more. I looked at Evewell and the recommendations looked great but I’m inclined to go somewhere larger with more stats behind them.