Oxford fertility clinic

[Sydney1986x]

Hey,

We are very early into our journey- just been referred of Oxford fertility clinic today! Does anyone have any experience with this clinic and any idea around timescale from first consultation through to starting treatment?

We’ve had all our baseline investigations completed- Will some of these be repeated again at the private clinic for the 1x nhs funded round?

Any tips or advice welcome too.. x

Hello! Currently at Oxford too but privately. Once you're referred and have your consultation and agree what you're going to be doing, it's relatively quick. Are you still waiting for the referral to get to Oxford? Don't be afraid to chase.

Hiya, How are you finding it with them and how has the process been so far? We’ve literally been referred today and had confirmation from our NHS consultant. I will follow up next week Monday if I haven’t heard anything, apparently there’s no ‘wait list’ as such so hopefully we will have our 1st apt in the next few weeks!

I'm doing a slightly different treatment with them than IVF so for me, it hasn't been the smoothest but others have had better experiences with standard IVF. The staff are all lovely that I've met and I'm back there tomorrow for egg collection!

Im sorry to hear it hasn’t been the smoothest for you. I’m so pleased the staff are lovely and wishing you the best of luck with egg collection tomo✨

I had treatment at Oxford a couple of years ago, two fresh cycles both followed by a frozen transfer, 4th transfer finally resulted in our little one. I would definitely recommend them, the staff were all so kind and professional and I felt like the decisions on our treatment were always based on our specific situation and the latest research and knowledge. The admin side of things all seemed to go quite smoothly and the clinic itself is really well set up, it felt like a lot of thought had gone into the patient experience. Best of luck with your treatment!

Thanks for sharing @sunshineandsea that is really good to hear and reassuring too.

I have been waiting for 10 working days to hear back they promised a call this Monday which didn’t happen and I called again today they promised to call back (nothing yet). I feel increasingly anxious and not sure if my expectations are unrealistic? 😟

I am with Oxford Fertility at the moment - I’ve had two full cycles with three (soon to be four) transfers and I’ve found I have had to chase and hound them at every stage, they are absolutely terrible with admin - the clinical staff are all lovely but whoever runs the non-medical admin team should be fired.
We have had many mistakes made eg being charged for something we shouldn’t have been, told wrong information and had to correct the staff ourselves etc.
We won’t be staying with them if this last FET fails, and my advice would be to see if you can go elsewhere.
They don’t offer immunes and are negative about the blood clotting tests and ERA/EMMA etc, so if you have multiple failed transfers expect to be told that it’s “bad luck” and to keep trying with no change to protocol (while lining their pockets for endless failed FETs).
I picked them because they’re close to where I live and naively I thought they’d be cutting edge because of being linked to the university but they are extremely cautious. The other thing is that they are more expensive than other UK clinics so I feel we’ve paid way over the odds for pretty shoddy treatment.

@Gensola thank you for sharing your views and experiences. I’m sorry you’ve had experiences where admin has been poor and that doesn’t sound good about the ‘just bad luck’ comments, not helpful at all!

We have 1x NHS round with them so if this round doesn’t work we will look elsewhere if our experiences are similar to yours.

I had my bloods taken there last week for AMH, the staff all seem lovely but they said my results will be on the portal by today but shock(!) they are not! We have a consult this week with the consultant so eager to see how that goes!

Good luck with your 4th transfer x

@Sydney1986x good luck with it all 💕 I’m in the TWW now, will find out on 26th if it’s worked. Not holding out much hope, tbh! Hope it’s all going well for you x

Thank you @gensola we are right at the start of the process, just had consult with the DR. Waiting for scan and nurse planning apt. Waded through mountains of consent forms and likely to start in the new year at some point. Please come back if you feel able to on 26th or after, wishing you sticky vibes xx

I’ve just completed my NHS funded cycle at Oxford Fertility which sadly resulted in no eggs reaching Blastocyst.

Personally I’m very unhappy with my treatment there and will not be paying them for another cycle.

You never see the same person twice, there’s always someone learning who had a go at my internal scans first and then someone else takes over, they forgot to teach me how to inject myself so talked me through it over the phone, I could go on!

I’m most disappointed that after doing some research, Jonathan Ramsey who is the top sperm specialist in the UK, said that our treatment should have been abandoned as we both contracted COVID over Christmas. Instead they kept me down regulated for an extra 2 weeks before starting injections. Mr Ramsey said that COVID could effect the sperm and my eggs upto 3 months. Seeing as this was our only free go at it you would think they would edge on the side of caution.

The whole process I didn’t feel cared about and just another number. I wondered if they didn’t bother to do much with me because I was NHS funded?

I asked about acupuncture seeing as there is a clinic in the building especially for fertility acupuncture and they said they couldn’t recommend it as it’s not clinically proven. I only found out about this clinic a few days before egg retrieval when apparently they are supposed to tell us about it on our first couple of appointments. Regardless, some people have had success with it and even if it just keeps you less stressed surely it’s worth it plus maybe it could help?

Overall Oxford fertility seems to be very basic against other clinics and I feel more could have been done to produce better results with my low AMH.

Ive since found out that there is something called the 12 week prep which you should do before you start any drugs where you basically healthy eat and avoid certain foods. And no alcohol as it takes 3 months for reproductive organs in both sexes to recover. Maybe this is something everyone knew already but I did not. I just felt in general more knowledge and support could have been offered.

@Makeupgirl88 hey, I am so sorry to read that your experiences have been poor and you felt uncared for, as well as your cycle resulting in no blastocysts. I can’t imagine how utterly devastating that is, alongside the clear advice from Dr Ramsey and them deciding to proceed for whatever reason (let’s be honest it probably is because it’s nhs funded and there are timescales!!!).

I am in the middle of a cycle and I have to agree, the fact you see someone different EVERY single time is impersonal and hard to cope with for me personally. I found the ‘younger’ staff have been much more empathic, understanding and helpful. I had one very quick consult virtually with the consultant where he gave harsh Cold feedback about my AMH that was difficult to accept. It really did feel like I am a number on a conveyor belt of infertile women.

They also forgot to show me my injections, I had to prompt to remind. The nurse planning apt was the most over-whelming experience of all, she spoke so quickly that it was so difficult to take anything in and ask any questions. To them it’s just a Blurb they recite daily but it’s difficult to process as a couple when emotions are also in play.

I think we have already decided if this round fails and we have no frozen we will like you go elsewhere.

Morning all, please can I check, is this the TFP Oxford fertility you’re talking about, out on the business park? We’re just deciding between there and The Lister in Chelsea so really good to understand people experience!
Sorry to hear a few of you have not had the smoothest journey with your clinic, it’s such a tough process as it it and the people can make all the difference!

@Agapanthus13 yes that’s correct, that’s the one I am with! I’d personally look elsewhere unfortunately

Me too, I’ve actually been looking at Lister myself after what’s happened at Oxford. I’ve also heard that Bristol is good? I’ve also paid for an appointment at ARGC but it seems like they are last resort type clinic but they’re results are brilliant.

All who've had a poor experience with Oxford Fertility, please feed this back to them. They can't and won't improve their care if they don't know about it. NHS or not, patient care when you're dealing with something like IVF needs to be better than what you've experienced.

I’m with oxford but thinking about going to care Northampton as it is so much cheaper? Thoughts?

I would check their statistics first and what is included in what you pay for and compare that way.

Personally I would not recommend them at all - I think the standard of care is poor, I don’t think I was listened to, often felt patronised or talked over. The admin mistakes were very stressful. In the end we had 5 failed attempts and they just kept saying try again and wouldn’t change the protocol, when my research told me other clinics would vary protocol after 3 failed attempts. They ride on their connections to the university in my opinion. I’m really sorry I wasted 25k with them and didn’t go elsewhere before I ran out of money.

It's hard to compare statistics as the numbers they are based on e.g, Oxford has been calculated on more women so their percentage is higher, if that makes sense?

I have worked out that with Care northampton I can get 3 cycles with unlimited fet and storage for a year for for £1,500 less than at Oxford. I'm swaying more towards care for price and have seen some negative reviews of Oxford but still worried care won't be as advanced as Oxford? Really don't know what to choose!

23%
Consistent with national average
Based on: 1456 embryos transferred

30%
Consistent with national average
Based on: 565 embryos transferred

This is success rates of the 2 clinics obv one is based on 1,456 and the other is 565. So which is better? Is the 30% only better as it was less embryos transferred or is it just a higher percentage cause of a lower number?

Really not good at maths! Any help appreciated!