Does IVF abroad take away your chances on the NHS?

[tryingtoconcieve88x]

Hello everyone!

Me and my partner have been TTC for 2 years now and we are currently under the assisted conception unit in the Glasgow royal infirmary. I had my first appointment (over the telephone) in April and have been booked in for a HSG but the waiting list 6+months. My second appointment has been booked for 27/10/2021 to discuss results but if I haven’t had the HSG it gets pushed back and so on. My dr said regardless of the results I am going on the IVF waiting list which is 8+ months wait to even be seen for your first appointment and I have to wait until October to even be placed on the list! Me and my partner have been speaking about going to Prague in October for IVF as it is a fraction of the private prices here! £2500 for a whole cycle. Would us going to Prague make us not able to have our tries on the NHS also? (If Prague was unsuccessful)? I have been told once you go private your free rounds are taken away? Not sure about going to Europe though! Many thanks for any replies! Xx

Well yes it's the same principle but you don't lose your full entitlement straight away - I think in Scotland you get 3 cycles on the NHS don't you? (Could be wrong). So If you did 1 round private then it would be deducted from the NHS ones; you'd have 2 left on the NHS and so on

Of course there will be posters along I'm sure who will say - well don't tell the NHS about any private ones - but I find it a bit morally dubious defrauding a taxpayer funded organisation especially for something as emotive as IVF

Also my clinic learnt a lot about how my body responds from my failed IVF cycles - if you didn't fess up about any private cycles you'd be starting from scratch potentially on a protocol you know isn't right for you (because it didn't work the first time) but couldn't say why you knew it.....

Hey andivfmakes3! thanks for the reply! I am sure it is 3 goes with the NHS in Scotland. Not entirely sure!

I wouldn’t keep it a secret from the NHS, that was never in my mind.. I would tell them I went private of course, but I just wanted to triple check that I would still get my chances on the NHS if IVF fails going private. I have been told as soon as you private you don’t get ANY tries on NHS which then means I would rather wait it out and have my 3 goes with the NHS and then go private if need be rather than going private, it fails and we have nothing. I’m unsure.. I might call my clinic and ask, of course I am grateful to have the NHS but the waiting times are unbelievable and I’m not getting any younger :-(

This varies significantly between CCGs in England. Some it has no impact on your access to NHS funding, others it means you aren't eligible for any funded treatment and some are somewhere in the middle. Not sure how it works in Scotland but I would check the guidance for your area specifically, don't assume what is done elsewhere will apply as this isn't necessarily the case.

I'm in Scotland, similar area to you actually.

Each private attempt is subtracted from your NHS entitlement. So, you'd initially have 3 attempts if you meet the age criteria, but a cycle privately anywhere would take that down to 2 attempts.

It may be helpful for you to look at the Infertility/Investigations in Scotland thread, where some of us have spoken about our experiences at clinics, both good and bad.

Also, I found out that the NHS clinic refused to accept any investigations done privately and insisted on repeating them.

Personally l wouldn’t tell them. I work for the NHS but thanks to my local CCG then we only got 1 round, which created loads of embryos which were abnormal. So a waste of time, we binned half of them. Plus the NHS isn’t free, we all pay towards it

Hello! Sorry you are going through this.
I would say have the nhs rounds and consider having IVF treatments abroad as well. Search for low cost countries, with good clinics and then you can be sure that nhs won't find out about it.

I am in Spain currently, there is an amazing clinic overhere, but the cost is high for me, so I am searching for other options within Europe.

I think it all depends where you live. Where i live you get one round on the NHS but if you have unsuccessful rounds privately you don't lose it - only if you had a child would you lose your NHS entitlement. Other areas I know having rounds privately does affect your NHS entitlement. I would ask your GP.