IVF

[anniz91]

Hi everyone

Me and my partner need to go through the IVF route to conceive.

I am just wondering is it worth to do it through the NHS? Since there is a massive backlog now due to COVID-19 I'm sure the waiting list is very long. We live in London.

We are now considering going through the private route, instead of waiting for years to get ivf treatment.

Has anyone done this or can anyone give advice regarding the above?

When I had an initial appointment at the fertility clinic on the NHS list I was told there was a 3&1/2 year wait.

We took out a bank loan & spent on credit cards and were able to go ahead with a cycle just 4 months later at the same clinic.

@SoSickOfItNow

When I had an initial appointment at the fertility clinic on the NHS list I was told there was a 3&1/2 year wait.

We took out a bank loan & spent on credit cards and were able to go ahead with a cycle just 4 months later at the same clinic.

Hey

Was that for a private clinic?

We’re also in the same position, had private tests done and told we need IVF.
We’re going to go on the NHS waitlist however at the moment I’ve not ever managed to get a GP appointment to be referred so I’ve got no idea on the time frame.
We’re going to do at least one round privately while we wait for the NHS.

No it was the fertility clinic at the local nhs hospital. I would have had NHS treatment there (if the waiting list hadn’t been so long) we instead paid (self funding) for ICSI.

Hi @anniz91 I'm also in London. The wait is minimal in some clinics but much longer in others.

Your GP should ask you where you'd like to be referred to, particularly as the NHS funding CCGs have grouped together for certain things like fertility treatment.

This means there is often more than one IVF centre you can have your treatment at, a luxury of being London based I suppose.

Anyway, what I would do (and did do):

1. Google your local CCG IVF funding rules, see which council areas yours has combined with,
2. find out everyone who does NHS IVF in that area,
3. Look up their live birth success rates for each clinic depending on your specific issues (although, take these with a pinch of salt- some clinics will appear to be worse than others, but take on more complex patients which other clinics have turned down),
4. phone them up and ask their wait times.

In my experience all since COVID, the wait was about 6 weeks for the first appointment.
Then had tests and scans ect with a follow up 2-3weeks later.
If you need a HyCoSe the wait was something like 4-5months, so definitely pay for something like that private (somewhere around £500-£1000)
Actually a friend of mine just outside north London, her CCG wouldn't fund the HyCoSe or the second seman analysis, so they had to pay anyway. Save time by finding these things out now.

Once IVF/ICSI was confirmed as our only option, confirming NHS funding took about a month (I think), but there was no actual wait for IVF!
We had our nurse appointment to go through the protocol, consent forms ect. and the drugs delivered to our house in the space of 2 weeks. Baseline scan a few days later and ready to start the next CD1.

Once it gets going, it's actually really quick.

But, like I said, this really is a luxury where you have places to choose from which I know won't be everyone experience sadly.
The downside is most of London only fund 1cycle with 2 or 3 FETs if you get enough to freeze.

I hope this is helpful or reassuring, going for private IVF wouldn't have got me through the system any faster.
Good luck!

@anniz91 I was referred for nhs funding from
Gynaecologist on 1st March last year & heard from the clinic on the 7th week. I had my first appointment about 3 weeks after that then we had to wait to get an up to date semen analyse which should of been picked up sooner so that delayed us by around a month I would say as couldn't get a gp appointment! I then started meds in the July. I'm not London but south east so I know everywhere is different.

Hello, I'm in London and was referred in lockdown 1, I never got very far with the NHS and therefore went private. It depends really on your patience/timescale/finances.

It totally depends on your area, some are much quicker than others. We faced a 6 month wait just for testing so gave up and went private. In our area we would only get one retrieval and one transfer on the NHS anyway so figured we weren't losing much.

Check your local CCG guidance as to what you may have access to on the NHS (can range from nothing to 3 full rounds). Also check whether going private would make you ineligible for NHS treatment if it was unsuccessful. Some CCGs you can combine private and NHS treatment but a lot won't. Equally some NHS trusts won't take the findings of investigations done privately and will insist on doing them themselves, so doing some bits privately might not speed the process up.

Personally going private sped our process up significantly, cutting waiting time to start from 18-24 months to just over 2 months.

@greenmist

Message deleted by MNHQ

Hey

Sorry I appreciate what your trying to do.
But I'm a nurse and medication is not what you should be offering without an appropriate prescription !

Please don't go around giving out IVF meds for free. It needs to be prescribed a doctor for the individual person.

Let pharmacy know, they'll discard it.

If you can afford to pay for private treatment then I definitely recommend it as fertility issues are not seen as priority at the moment in the NHS. It also depends on your age (if you can afford to delay being pregnant).

We inquired to a private clinic in August 2021, started the medication in September and had our embryo transfer in October and I'm now 12weeks pregnant. I doubt the NHS would move that fast.

@anniz91 I posted earlier but just to update you we had a follow up call on Friday with the clinic we’ve chosen, and I’ll start everything at the start of Feb so it’s moved very quickly compared to the NHS where I’ve still not managed to get a appointment at my GP surgery.

@newmama721

Hello, I'm in London and was referred in lockdown 1, I never got very far with the NHS and therefore went private. It depends really on your patience/timescale/finances.

Hey do you mind telling me which clinic you went to?

@anniz91 hello and sorry you find yourself here. I would say to go ahead and get yourself on the NHS list because it can't hurt to be on the list and don't assume it will be a long wait. It's unlikely to be years. Admittedly this was pre-Covid but I waited about 3 months for my initial appointment but then got my funding confirmed within about 2 weeks and was able to go right ahead.

We often assume the NHS will be a long wait but it isn't always. It will really depend on your area and the clinics available to you.

Also bear in mind that private cycles may affect any future NHS funding. In my CCG (Barnet back then) I was entitled to 2 rounds of IVF however funded so because I had already done one privately, the NHS would only pay for one more (luckily a successful one for which we are extremely grateful)

Private IVF can be really expensive depending on your situation (and how quickly it works). A cycle can cost anywhere from £5-15k. I won't tell you what we've spent on IVF over the past year but it's eye watering...so unless you have very deep pockets, it's definitely worth finding out if you can get an NHS cycle!

I had to chase my gp to get then to refer me to gynae after over 2 years of trying. I waited 3 months for that appointment. This is in South East London. Got referred for a hyscosy and AMH blood test, and a follow up telephone appointment has been scheduled for 8 months later. I've tried to bring this forward but to no avail. We're not even on an IVF list yet. I'll keep it going but I don't have time to wait years for the NHS so we've decided to go private with ABC fertility. They include medication so are very reasonably priced compared to other clinics. I can't tell you what they are like yet as we are hoping to start at the end of Jan. I have another friend in East London who can't even get a consultant appointment as fertility clinics have been suspended in her trust. It depends on where you live I guess, but I'd look into both, unless you are still quite young and have the time to wait. Good luck!

Well NHS route is not an option for us, and even some private clinics won't take us as I am 39 and over their cut off limit. All of our tests have come back normal - in theory everything is fine, despite our fairly advanced ages for trying to have a baby! But it's not happened and not sure how much longer to just keep trying and hoping.

Feel like I've tried everything that's within my control - lost weight, improved my fitness and diet, spent a fortune on vitamins and acupuncture, taken my temperature every day, peed on so many sticks.

And now finding it hard to know how to choose a clinic, as someone else said the stats don't always give the true picture, and of course money does come into it - maybe not for 1 cycle but if it takes more than that. Can anyone share how important is it for the clinic to be close by? How often do you need to go? Feel a bit clueless about the whole process. Any advice appreciated!

For me it was really quick. Im based in the north west, I was struggling to convince for 3 years before I got help. My GP referred me to the gynaecologist which was the longest part they took 2-3 months with the appointment. I had already done all my fertility testing privately so when I spoke to the gynaecologist I only needed the HSG test which was done the following month in July, in September I had a follow up appointment and with all the results being positive they referred me for IVF funding in September. I had already chosen my fertility clinic and by October I had all my drugs waiting on my cycle to start.
I started a fresh cycle in November which was unfortunately unsuccessful however I do have a couple of frozen embryos so I’m hoping for one of them to be my rainbow baby! For yeh frozen transfer I need to wait for 2 full bleeds so hoping to continue our journey in February🤞
It all depends on the clinic you choose as some have longer waiting times then others, I’m with care fertility.

@Amyhope123

For me it was really quick. Im based in the north west, I was struggling to convince for 3 years before I got help. My GP referred me to the gynaecologist which was the longest part they took 2-3 months with the appointment. I had already done all my fertility testing privately so when I spoke to the gynaecologist I only needed the HSG test which was done the following month in July, in September I had a follow up appointment and with all the results being positive they referred me for IVF funding in September. I had already chosen my fertility clinic and by October I had all my drugs waiting on my cycle to start. I started a fresh cycle in November which was unfortunately unsuccessful however I do have a couple of frozen embryos so I’m hoping for one of them to be my rainbow baby! For yeh frozen transfer I need to wait for 2 full bleeds so hoping to continue our journey in February🤞 It all depends on the clinic you choose as some have longer waiting times then others, I’m with care fertility.

I'm based in north London too!

I will schedule in a GP appointment or get the ball rolling!

Did you freeze your embryos privately?

@anniz91 yes contact your gp and schedule an appointment with the gynaecologist hopefully they should get you ready for IVF in a couple of months. My embryos are stored with the fertility clinic funded by the NHS I was given 1 full cycle I’m not to sure how many frozen transfers that includes as I have 6 frozen.

@rllrsk8 having your fertility close by is a very good advantage. I’m with care fertility in Manchester and that a 20/25 mins drive however all my monitoring scans are in Bolton which is closer to me about 5 mins. So I have to visit the bolton clinic for all my scans which were every two days for a week and then had to go Manchester for my egg retrieval and embryo transfer. After the egg retrieval you do be a bit sore so a long drive can get uncomfortable but luckily for me it wasn’t to far which is one of the main reason I chose this clinic. Every clinic is different but with NHS funding my cycle I only had a pick of two clinics I chose the one with better success rates and closer in distance so it can fit in with my work and daily life.
I hope that helps

Thankyou @Amyhope123, that's very helpful. Sounds like it's a fine balance, you could choose a clinic that seems perfect for you, but if it's miles away then it could add stress to the whole process which is not ideal either.

Hope it all goes well for you, fingers crossed for some good news in 2022 x

I have been ttc for almost 3 yrs now. Had one round of ivf that failed. We did all tests and we are fine, the only issue is my age, 40 yrs now. Reason for failed ivf was poor egg and embryo quality. Although dr says i should try again i am not sure if that is a good idea since my egg quality cannot be improved. Amh is still high though. I cannot go through more dissapointments. Egg donation is not an option for us. I am very sad and confused, i want to find a way to stop thinking about infertility and relax but it is almost impossible. I just want my freedom back, i want to come in terms with the fact that maybe i will not have children and go on with my life. When is the right time to stop trying and how to do that? Thanks

@Muffinn sending you a hug, I think only you and your partner can decide when to say ok, time to move on, but all I can say is don't forget to live whilst you are still trying. I know it's been hard with a pandemic going on, but in my opinion, having other things going on in your life helps, even when you don't really feel like doing them it reminds you of all the good things there are still to enjoy! There's definitely things like jobs where I feel I don't want to think about moving at the moment because you never know I might still need that security and length of service to qualify for decent maternity leave. But other than that keep doing what makes you

@Muffinn I'm so sorry that you've been on a tough journey. 💐💐💐 No one can tell you when to stop because it's such a tough and personal decision. There are groups for women who don't have children but would like to and there is a charity I think too but I can't remember the name. You could look up the support that's available and talk to other women in a similar situation. That might help.

However I also want to say that you've only done one round of IVF and very few people succeed first time. I remember turning 40 and being childless and I know that it feels like your age is this terrifying and awful factor. But with good AMH, being 40 really isn't a fertility-death sentence. Yes fertility does decline quite quickly but you aren't at the end of the road age-wise just yet. I got pregnant from my second round of ICSI aged 41 and had my DD when I was nearly 42. It happens a lot. You'll be very far from the oldest at most IVF clinics.

I also want to say that very very few people ever get a clear diagnosis of why they're struggling to conceive, whether they are 25 or 40. And for those that do get a diagnosis, it often takes years of investigations. That doesn't mean that the only reason is your age and egg quality. Infertility is a long and complex road - clinics are sometimes very quick to blame egg quality when things don't work out. But unless they tested your embryos then they don't really know that any more than you do (and even if they tested that's not conclusive necessarily either).

Finally, it's not necessarily true that your egg quality can't be improved. A lot of people believe that specific diets and supplements can make improvements over time - it's not necessarily evidenced and some people think it's nonsense but I personally think there is something in it. I followed the book It Starts With an Egg and personally feel it made a difference this time around. However I would say that I didn't do any of that before my successful round. I'm 44 now so wanted to throw everything at it.

I've done 6 egg collection cycles, 3 transfers and a whole lot more so there's plenty more I could say but I don't want to overwhelm you.

So I just want to give you a virtual hug and say that you don't have to give up just yet. But if you feel that you want to stop then sending you lots of love and hope you find the support to take that step too xxx

@Janefx40 although your post was in response to @Muffinn in particular, just wanted to say Thankyou! Of course everyone is on a different journey and whilst many of us share similarities in our stories, everyone's is unique. But it's lovely to hear your positive story and point of view. It's so easy to feel hopeless and a bit lost, but I really appreciated your words.
Going on holiday soon so just going to try and relax, stop thinking about it, enjoy it and then make some decisions on what's next when we get back.