IVF abroad - how long / timings

[Dexy007]

Hi I'd be grateful to hear from anyone who went overseas (Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Czech Republic etc) for IVF.

How long did you need to be in the country for?

Aside from the medication, what aspects / procedures did you have to do in your home country, and did you find that easy to arrange? (I'm assuming the overseas clinic gives you a referral?)

I've not had IVF before (just getting my head around all this) but for talk's sake assume we are straightforward: m/f, decent egg count and quality and decent sperm quality, decent blood test results, and hycosy / scans all come back fine IE its 'just' unexplained fertility. In other words imagine we are needing a normal IVF cycle.

Hi,
I did ivf in the Czech Republic. I only went out for egg collection and embryo transfer so was about 6 days.
You will need to do hormone blood profiles, have baseline scan and sperm analysis. The clinic will then send over prescriptions for meds with all instructions.
I use the following in the UK for my bits:
Medichecks for blood tests
Fertility2u for meds
Ultrasound direct for scans
Hope this helps x

Thanks! I'm aware there are 'scans' involved as all the clinic mention this but what exactly is a baseline scan?

Do you have a ballpark figure for the treatments / procedures you had to have at home IE bloods, sperm, baseline scan? I'm assuming this all needs done privately so presumably a bit pricey x

Hi just bumping - grateful to hear anyone's timeline!

I've not done IVF yet but I did speak to The Fertility Partnership clinic in Poland, Szczecin (I'd have spelt it Chechin if it helps you know where I'm talking about). With them they prefer to see you for a scan and so on but you can do it all remotely and just go in for a collection and transfer so 3-6 days. They could have fitted us in on my next cycle.

Hi! I will be doing all my tests here at home, and I will be needing to spend around 10 days in cyprus (10 days or 14 - don't remember). About the meds, they said they can't mail me the actual meds but they will send me the prescription.

Thank you for your insights!

@Dexy007
Hi,
So the first scan is done on day 12 to 14 and I believe is just to check everything down there! The scans are around £100 and you need around 2 during stimulation to check how ur follicles are getting on. My partners sperm analysis was £160 with Herts and Essex Fertility. The hormone profile and amh blood tests were around £180 which included £30 to have blood drawn at a private hospital (Medichecks provide you details of your local clinics that they work with). X

Hey

Just wondering if you could share your experience with The Fertility partnership in Poland.

Thanks

We’ve recently had successful treatment in Prague and I’m currently 9 weeks pregnant.

I started medication on cycle day 2 and then had a scan on cycle day 10 to check the uterus, lining, ovaries and follicles. This was to check how I was responding to the medication.

From this, we were given a date to go over for our egg retrieval. We went over for 11 days and had scans at the clinic prior to ER to check how I was responding. I had to have a freeze all cycle so we didn’t have our transfer that time. We could have reduced the time there if we had done the pre-op and scans to check what was happening at home.

We then went back 2 months later for transfer and stayed overnight then flew home. Again, I had a scan on cycle day 10 to check the thickness of the lining and a blood test to check progesterone.

@Infertilitylife Hi - I hope you don't mind me piggy backing off this thread as I have started a new one today with the same topic.

I am looking at YourIVFJourney who are an agency for a clinic in Prague. They did say the scans will be done in the UK. How many scans did you have to do and are they also blood tests involved? I'm slightly skeptical about the overseas process although I've been told it has a higher success rate. Could you expand more on your experience please?

Many thanks in advance!

@VSRCM As we went to Prague, we used IVF Praga Medica who were amazing. They took our background and history and told us what clinics in Prague they thought were best to assist us, and we went with their first choice which was Fertility Port.

Before going over for Egg Collection, I had a scan on cycle day 10 in the UK to check how I was responding to the medication, how many follicles I had, lining thickness etc. As I was responding well, we then were booked in for the collection. I then had multiple scans at the clinic in Prague (I think 4-5) prior to collection which were included in the cost of the treatment. We stayed for 12 days in total and some of the days I didn't visit the clinic at all. We could have had the transfer done too but I was high risk of OHSS so had a freeze all cycle and went back over in May for the transfer.

I had to have blood tests prior to going over such as TSH/FSH/LH - These were done by my GP when we went to them when struggling to conceive.

I then had to pay for an AMH blood test (I had this done with Asda Doctor Online for around £30) and did it myself at home.

When we got to the clinic we both had to have STD tests, again these were included in the cost of the treatment. I had to have a pre-op done prior to collection at a nearby hospital in Prague which was around £75.

It all sounds so daunting but it was actually quite an easy process.

Is there anything in particular you'd like to know?

Thanks for the information, @Infertilitylife this is very helpful :)

I'll reply to my post :)