Coping with delays due to Covid

[Agapanthus13]

Morning all,

I was just wondering whether others are experiencing significant delays due to Covid and if so, how you are coping with it?

I fist contacted my GP back in March 2020, 18months ago, and am yet to get to the point of first embryo transfer. I always thought I was pretty good at ‘coping’ but I’m struggling with the time line being so out of my control. Are those of you undergoing IVF privately finding the time lines to be much faster?

I'm sorry you've had such a long wait @Agapanthus13 I know exactly how you feel - we are NHS and were referred by our GP to Leeds Fertility in April 2020 and not started treatment yet - we need IVF with ICSI and I am hoping to start injections at the beginning of October.

I've not coped with it that well personally, particularly the endless pregnancy announcements and babies born during our years of trying and ended up getting some therapy (which has helped) - not sure if your clinic offers counselling? Ours does but it was a 12 week wait, so I paid for some sessions privately.

Other than that, I've just tried to focus on one stage at a time, rather than dwelling on the wait. We also just went away on holiday as we knew our treatment would likely start soon, I forgot how much a holiday can help take your mind off things, I would definitely recommend getting away if you can.

Best of luck and hope things move forward for you quickly now.

I'm really sorry about the waiting times. I've paid privately for my treatement (I wouldn't qualify for NHS funding), there was no waiting list at my clinic. From first consultation to first embryo transfer was about 3.5 months.

I am sorry that you have to deal with all the waiting times! 18 months is indeed a long time! I am having my ivf either in spain or in cyprus, privately, so no wait times.

But during the pandemic, it's true there have been too many pregnancy announcements and they're not easy to deal with. Therapy has been helpful for me, to deal with this.

Many thanks for your reply @Leedslady77

It sounds like we’re on a similar time frame. I know people always say IVF takes a long time, but I wasn’t prepared for this and feel so naive on reflection.

I’m really sorry to hear you’re finding it difficult, but glad that you’re finding the counselling sessions are helping - do you have them virtually? I was offered them at the beginning so I think I’ll enquire about them now- thank you for the suggestion.

I also need a histology before I can have embryo transfer and made the decision yesterday to pay to have it privately. The cost is eye watering but I feel better this morning for having some control over the timeframe again.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you to start your first cycle next month - that’s really exciting! Wishing you all the best with it!

Thanks for your message @Bryterlayter1 Gosh that is a big difference in time frame. But it’s really reassuring to hear incase we have to do a second round privately. I hope all is going well with your treatment.

@IsabelHerna I hadn’t even considered having treatment outside of the UK! I just assumed it would be more complex with travel at the moment. Perhaps we should look into it incase we have to do a second round. Thank you for suggesting therapy too. Good luck with your treatment abroad, I hope it all goes well for you.

I’m Leeds NHS too I was referred in June 2020, and had first appointment Feb 2021. I had quite a few scans over several months which showed a large polyp. I had this removed this month and was told it would be 6-8 weeks for my follow up but would start IVF first period after this.

I don’t know if it would have been quicker going private, I guess the saved time would have been at the beginning between June 2020 and Feb 2021. Whilst it has been frustratingly slow I try not to worry about it because it’s outside my control and they are going as quickly as they can. I do feel they are a bit disorganised (I got booked for the wrong scan and they lost my phone number). I’m 34 now and was 32 when referred and it is frustrating but unless I want to go to Manchester the only private clinic in Leeds is Leeds fertility which is run by the NHS I’m at so may as well use my NHS round as it’s the same clinic/doctors/lists.