IVF Scotland - thread 4

[2mumlife]

Hi everyone,

Started a new thread for the Scotish ladies

@LouScot
@Scirocco
@MrsTMcB
@florafoxtro
@Hopewishprayer
@ScottishRach
@Kamiros
@LT103
@itsmschanandlerbong
@connal

Please @ anyone I missed!

@itsmschanandlerbong thank you for the welcome and congratulations on your pregnancy 🥰

Yeah I took quite a long time to get my head around it. I knew it was a possibility the day I went to the clinic but being told there and then I just wasn't prepared for 😞 as time has went on I've told a few more friends; mainly because I have been so distant. I haven't wanted to really socialise much, def not in groups anyway, and I worried they thought I was being a bad friend. But they don't all need to know the ins and outs and where we're at treatment wise because as you say, more people to tell if it doesn't work out like I'd hoped. IVF takes away so much of the surprise and excitement of TTC that I'd rather not have people asking me when I was testing etc!

@HJen22 I told a few very close friends, and sometimes we talked about treatment and sometimes not depending on how I was feeling. At points I did regret having told people when I was going through bad patches, but overall its been useful to have a couple of people to confide in. I never told anyone irl when my testing date was or anything. I only told parents when I needed to miss my sisters wedding due to second egg collection, and told them we were not talking about it, and to be fair, other than asking if I was ok after egg collection, they've let us be.

@itsmschanandlerbong Thank you :) I just want to get past Monday - DP and I agreed not to contact GP/midwife until after that scan just in case. How did your 20 week scan go?

@LouScot Was really pleased to hear heartbeat. Nurse had warned us before doing scan that they might not have a conclusive answer that day and might need to do hcg bloods etc if things weren't clear, so it was just a relief to have a definite answer. Getting nervous for Monday now but keeping everything crossed things are still ok.

@2mumlife yeah that's the best way isn't it, my friends and family wait for me to talk about it if I feel like it. Not that we've started but with all the tests and appointments and things. I will be doing the same; not telling anyone the test date either, that will be just between just my OH and I.

Having one of those bad days. You know when you've a friend who tells you they are pregnant and you just try and think "it's ok, I'll hopefully be pregnant too before her baby comes". Well said friends baby is coming soon. I so want to be excited for her but it's so hard to not be sad 😞 lost count the amount of friends who've had babies since we've been TTC.

Hi ladies.

I'm new to the mumsnet threads. TTC my second since August 2019. I have low ovarian reserve and endometriosis so looking at private fertility treatment with either GCRM or The Royal infirmary. Does anyone have experience with either? TIA

Welcome @Siomck I am about to start my 3rd round at GCRM. Happy to answer any questions if I can.

How has your experience been with them? I have a consultation booked with GCRM and Royal Infirmary. I've heard mixed reviews/experiences. Thank you

@Siomck It's been OK. The staff are lovely. I found that at the end of last year they were far too busy, communication was terrible and I've had to go back on a waiting list for my next round which I was originally told wouldn't happen. However I think they might be through that as they've been great again over the last few weeks. If this round fails we'll be changing clinic but that's because Spain can offer better options for my issues now, if I knew all I did now and was at the start of my treatment I'd probably make the same decision to go with them again.

Was this the main clinic you looked at or did you look at any others? With the Royal you have to be fully vaccinated which I'm not but if need be I would get them. It's a big decision to make. Thanks again.

Have any other ladies used the royal or gcrm?

Thank you x

@Siomck I didn't look at any others in Scotland so I'm not sure. Honestly when I started looking 2 years ago I pretty much did a Google search, went to an information evening thing and that was it. I wasn't very informed.

@Siomck I was with the Royal but through the NHS rather than private. I'm currently pregnant so they must have done something right! I'm not too sure of the running of the private side, but I think it's the same clinical areas as for the NHS patients so I can try to answer any questions?

Congratulations! I'm really new at this and not even sure what questions to ask tbh. I have a consultation booked with both next Monday and Tuesday. I've read pros and cons about both. The consultant at Monklands hospital said both good but she was hinting more at the Royal. Unsure whether or not this is just because it's a NHS hospital.
I hope you dont mind me asking but what issues did you have? I have endometriosis and low ovarian reserve. I'm 33 nearly 34.
Thanks

@Siomck We're "unexplained" - nothing identified on scans or bloods other than I have some thyroid autoantibodies which may or may not be a contributing factor. After 7 years of trying though, and 2 losses, the consultant said just to go straight for IVF/ICSI. We were 37 when we had our cycle, 38 now, so a bit older than you are (they kept reassuring me that I wasn't "old" though, which was kind of them).

We had a consultation with GCRM while on the waiting list as everything was postponed due to covid, but went with the Royal because we were told we were at the top of the waiting list and we thought it made sense to use our NHS-funded cycles first (doing a private cycle reduces the number of funded cycles you can get). If the financial side isn't an issue, I'd say go with whichever you feel most positive about after your consultations.

I did feel a bit like I was on a conveyor belt with the treatment protocols, as there wasn't much flexibility, but as it was my first cycle I don't know if that's normal or if it's an NHS vs private thing. I had a pretty poor response to the medication and we only got 6 eggs and 1 viable blast for transfer, despite good AFC, AMH, etc - I'd felt really down about it, but the clinic kept reassuring me that quality is what's most important, and I guess they were right given how things have gone so far...

@HJen22 I've absolutely been there seeing friends and my sister have babies that when they first announced the pregnancy you think "surely I'll be pregnant before they give birth...". It just is what it is - one of my best friends conceives if a sperm even looks at her, without tracking ovulation etc etc. Some people are just lucky.

@Siomck I've just been discharged by GCRM after 2 years. We're a same sex couple so not eligible for NHS funding until we pay for a load of private rounds. We did 4 rounds of IUI (BFN) before moving to IVF. I did 2 egg collections with disappointing numbers for my age (now 32) and AMH (normal to high depending which test result you take). I had 1 fresh transfer that ended early as period came only few days after transfer. I had 1 FET that ended in a chemical and now nearly 8 weeks pregnant with another FET. I found like @Kamiros they got really bad with communication for a few months late last year when they increased patient numbers, but things are better again now. There are still some things that are disorganised - like I need to drive to Glasgow just for more meds tomorrow despite being their today and telling them what meds I had left (a 60 mile round trip for me). The nurses are lovely though. I find one bad thing is you don't have the same consultant throughout with GCRM so there is a lack of continuity at times. Marco though is fantastic, and be far my preferred consultant, but there is no guarantee who you get any particular day.

So ladies as of todays scan I am actually discharged Got to see bean wiggling its butt during scan. I still have a visible SCH bleed but nurse says its coagulated now and would expect it to be reabsorbed by 12 week scan.

@2mumlife Oh I'm so pleased for you, being discharged. It must be an amazing feeling.

Congratulations @2mumlife!

@Kamiros @Scirocco Thanks ladies, it's a bit daunting!

Amazing congratulations @2mumlife

@Scirocco did you have the same consultant at GRI?
Can anyone say roughly how long the process takes once you are at the top of the list ie with medication egg collection etc? Is it months or weeks?

@2mumlife congratulations that's amazing news 🥰 and how lovely you had a scan with lots of butt wiggling xx

I saw a consultant twice for clinic appointments, but it was a different consultant for egg collection - for procedures it's a case of whoever's on the rota for that day, at least for NHS patients. I saw several nurses and they were all nice. I didn't feel like seeing different people was a problem, but I know for some people it's more important to have one or two designated people for appointments and treatments.

We had a fairly long wait to get to the top of the waiting list (over a year - but that was NHS), but once we got there I think it was about 6 weeks til starting medication. There was a 'top of the waiting list' appointment to go over consents and investigations to make sure things like vaccinations, smear test, bloods were all up to date. Then I had to phone up when my next period started to get booked in for a baseline scan and meds - they warned that if there were too many people having treatment at that time then I might need to wait for another month, but that didn't happen in the end. The timescale mentioned by GCRM was shorter, but I don't know how that would have played out in reality so it's hard to compare.

I had a short protocol, so no down-regulation. It was less than two weeks from starting medication to egg collection, and then a day 5 fresh transfer.

Thanks ladies! @HJen22 Yeah it was so surreal. Nurse said to think of it a bit like a gummybear at the moment - big head, stubs for legs lol It was good to see movement though, felt reassuring.

@Siomck We got registered with GCRM, AMH, HyCoSy and paperwork sent it for me between Jan and March 2019. Then covid hit just a few days after my HyCoSy test and clinic closed. During the closure period, we took the time to decide on our donor and order sperm. Once clinic reopened it wasn't too long until we started treatment (medicated IUI at first) and they were really quick, back to back cycles. After 4 cycles though we decided to move on to IVF. We had to join the waiting list for that which took 2/3 months and do a new round of paperwork. After that first unsuccessful fresh tranfer, we had to wait again to do FET (our clinic makes you have at least 1 'natural' cycle between tries). We then had to wait enough 3 months to do our next egg collection, and another 2 cycles after that to do this most recent FET. So last year over a 12 month period we only got to do a total of 3 tranfers because of having to wait so long between egg collections and transfers. I foudn the process took forever - lots of being told you had to wait.

Sorry that would be 2020, I've lost a year!

One of the things I found annoying was had to complete the same paperwork again and again, got held up in bottle necks to have embryologist consultation for FETs when we knew the speil etc etc. There was a lot of points that felt frustrating, and it felt a bit like having another job and that we had to keep pushing them to move on with the next attempt

@2mumlife Thank you for explaining your experience. If you dont mind me asking, if you had to do it all again do you think you would still pick GCRM? There are some negative reviews on google for communication etc like you have said. I have only come across one person via this forum that is with GRI (NHS) I have 2 consultations booked Monday and Tuesday. The only point with GRI is that you have to be triple vaccinated and I'm not (as yet)

@Siomck I was with GRI but NHS funded. I honestly couldn't fault them. They were fantastic, good communication and the nurses were all so nice. I'm currently 24 weeks pregnant following a second cycle with them, the first ended in a chemical. If/when we're looking at trying for a sibling, I would definitely go back to them. I believe the private side is non-profit which also sits well with me. There is a Glasgow IVF/ICSI group on Facebook, it might be worth joining that for some information and opinions.