Christmas and IVF

[thislittlebird]

This is a bit of a weird question but I’m wondering how IVF works if it falls on Christmas. Does anyone have any experience of December IVF that hit the festive season? Our NHS round is due to start November/December but we’re not sure when yet and me and my husband were discussing Christmas tonight and whether we’d go to his parents (who aren’t local) or they’d come to us. It made me wonder how it all works and does anything stop? Does it get delayed? Does it all carry on? Any insight would be appreciated, thanks in advance!

Hiya I asked my clinic this as we are hopefully going to do our 2nd cycle in November providing our dna frag results come back ok

We have a wedding in Dec and I'm trying to work out dates etc but they told me they close in December and the clinic gets deep cleaned they said I might get away with start of Dec for baseline but they close for the majority so for me it's either a cycle in nov or will be January so be worth checking xx

@ivfbubs22 ahhh thank you, I will have to ask. It’s super annoying tbh because my cycles are the last few days of the month right now and we were told 2-3 months from Aug 31. Assuming it won’t be 2 because nothing is ever ahead of schedule, that takes us to the very end of November and I will have missed the opportunity to start that month and it will end up being the end of December 🤦 so a four month wait.

If mine close over December at least I’ll know and be able to get on with Christmas plans and maybe go away, but I’ll likely need a freeze all (if we have anything to freeze 😬) so I’d really, really like to get the collection done before Christmas because we can’t even transfer until Jan/Feb if we do need a freeze all. I think I’ll send them an email this week 👀

@thislittlebird yeah I really wanted to get another cycle in before end of the year after a failed one but we have a close family members wedding which we are going away for and then a short break actually over Xmas so the fact they actually close made it easier for us so it's either November or January !

Yes drop them an email then you can plan xx

@ivfbubs22 at least it made the decision for you I suppose. Annoying that they shut altogether, I’ll find out what mine does. How much warning did you get for your first cycle? I’m hoping I get a call mid month rather than end of the month.

@thislittlebird we booked in straight away so just had to wait for my period. Private funded x

So we told the clinic when we wanted to start as opposed to waiting for them
Then all I had to do was wait for cycle day 1
So we had a couple of weeks to get the drugs etc x

@ivfbubs22 ugh yeah, we were going to be private starting this month and suddenly our nhs funding was approved so we’re waiting for that as our first round. Very frustrating. I suppose they need to schedule in the drugs teach, so it has to be a couple of weeks ahead of your cycle anyway.

Hi ladies 👋🏻 I hope you don't mind me joining. I also had been wondering the same. We were referred in august and told a 4-6 month wait but I'd assumed it wouldn't be December due to Xmas. Then received a letter in September saying the wait was around 5 months and we'd get our appointment through in January with a view to starting treatment thereafter.

This will be our first cycle so I'm very apprehensive and worrying about everyone and anything! I'm sorry your first cycle didn't work @ivfbubs22 that must have been so hard. I'm quite worried how I'm going to find it emotionally rather than physically. How were you?

That's so great your funding came though @thislittlebird we are NHS funding too and told that when we have our appointment date we'll then fill in all the constant stuff online. I have no idea if it means we'll get an appointment through in January but that doesn't necessarily mean it will be in January?! Xxx

@HJen22 what’s your appointment in January for? Yeah, it’s a shame it’s not more transparent. We had our appointment at the end of august and did all the consent stuff then, it’s very long winded lol

If it's NHS they generally shut down most of December and won't start treatment during that month or start anything in November which might mean egg collections/transfer in December

If you're private totally different story - my clinic only closed Xmas day - I have cycled over Xmas before and honestly I wish I hadn't - too much pressure about watching what I ate and drunk - taking drugs everywhere when visiting family, drugs making me hormonal and emotional about what I was going through at an already difficult time of year which is centred around children. I've done a transfer just before Xmas too and it just put a whole downer on the whole thing when it didn't work

Not all clinics stay open, I'm private and mine shuts early Dec

But I'm fine with that, like you say it's not fun ivf info anytime let alone Xmas ! Although with that said we are on a strict diet no alcohol or caffeine so we wouldn't watch what we eat as we are dieting anyway

X

My private clinic shuts too, they have a page on their website dedicated to Christmas closure. I’m going to email the nhs clinic this week to find out.

I just want to avoid hitting Christmas because of my stupid cycles. In theory my call should come before December because November is three months, but it’s obviously now a concern I have and I have end of month cycles. Annoying.

@thislittlebird it's the first "IVF" appointment we should get in January I think as it says with treatment thereafter. Maybe I'm being very presumptuous and it might then be another couple or months even when I'm at the top of the list? If you had your appointment and consents august and won't have treatment til November or January? Was your consent all done online? I watched a webinar about it the other day, I'm in Scotland. We have only had the HyCosy/internal app and then we've a follow up call next week as I was in a bit of a shock and upset when I was first told it was IVF. Xx

@HJen22 I’m in London so I’m not sure how different it might be. It could be another couple of months, just prepare yourself for them saying that in case they do. Then if it’s quicker you won’t be let down, if that makes sense.

We had our consultation with the clinic (Guys Hospital) in person on Aug 31, at that appointment they got us to fill in all the paperwork, did a transvaginal ultrasound on me, did blood tests on me and DH, including testing my AMH and rubella immunity. Luckily I had just had my MMR boosters because my GP ran tests and said I had no rubella immunity. If you haven’t had that stuff tested, it’s worthwhile getting it done while you wait for IVF because if you don’t have immunity it slows everything right down.

Will you find out more at your follow up call?

@thislittlebird thank you, that makes sense. I think I'd naively thought that would be it starting but yeah that really might not be the case.

I've recently requested from my GP into re my MMR vaccines as I'd heard that could cause a delay. Thank you, anything I can do in the meantime to avoid delays later is a good idea to get sorted. I had my AMH tested the day of referral.

I think the follow up is just as I didn't really have much to say at the time of referral so the Dr was lovely and didn't want to just send me away and not see me again for 6 months. So I can ask questions I think and they'll maybe be able to tell me some info regarding the protocol.

@HJen22 it could still be, it’s so different everywhere.

If they’ve done your AMH maybe they are a bit further along, it’s so hard to say. This call sounds ideal, you can ask all the things you didn’t think of at the time. Definitely ask about timings, possible protocol and any more tests needed etc.

@thislittlebird the reason I had bloods for AMH at the time of referral is because my internal scan showed a low number of follicles and therefore low ovarian reserve sadly 😞

Thank you, I will be sure to ask all of those things. Find the whole process just so daunting and can't quite believe it's come to this but I a lot of people feel like this. Everything is just such a wait in TTC too xx

My first IVF FET was NHS in the beginning of November and I was told if it didn't happen that cycle, I'd have to wait until Jan (I was waiting on OHSS to clear up, which it did and my FET went ahead, and was successful). My clinic also operates privately and I'm doing a private FET with them now trying for dc2, so I assume they close December for private too.

The waiting and all the unknowns is really something! Good luck to all 🤞

@HJen22 oh no, sorry to hear about the ovarian reserve. Yeah I think we all feel frustrated by having to be in this position, it’s not fun.

@Holskey yeah this November cut off is a little worrying 👀. Glad to hear yours went ahead ok and sounds like it was successful. I’m wondering how much notice you normally get to start treatment, I don’t know when to start chasing them.

My first was pre covid and a different clinic to yours so not exactly comparable, but I personally found that once I was referred to the clinic, things moved faster than the NHS waiting we're all used to. When I called the clinic recently about this private FET, they scheduled everything very quickly. I can't see why they would treat NHS patients differently (but who knows). Sounds like you've done all the tests, scan and consent forms. Have you had any results back from your tests? If not, I'd maybe call about that and try to ask about likely timescales at the same time.

@Holskey I had tests done with a mixture of places because we really had to fight for our nhs funding. So I’ve had a private hycosy, GP and clinic blood tests and so on. The letter I received after our appointment confirmed my protocol and my rubella immunity so i think I’m good to go, just on the waiting list waiting for the call.

@thislittlebird thank you, I knew it may well be the case as I had high FSH but still very fitting to hear 😞 I am really hoping that we can still get some good eggs with IVF 🤞🏻 as they say, it only takes one.

I hope they will give you some sort of indication as to how much notice you are going to get before starting!

Gutting* not fitting

@HJen22 fingers crossed for you, there’s lots of stories of success. I hope so too, let’s see 😬