London IVF but live up North

[TimetoChangeClinics]

Hi everyone,
I had a failed IVF cycle nearly a year ago that went pretty badly in multiple ways and we lost confidence in the clinic. As a result we changed providers and we ended up with a clinic in Harley Street that hopefully will be a better fit. We're now getting ready to cycle again and I'm wondering if there's anyone out there who has done something similar before and had suggestions on places to stay nearby and roughly how long they stayed? Thank you.

How close do you want to be to the clinic? Walkable? Or a short tube ride? Think what is best for transfer day.
I've done IVF abroad and usually prefer to rent an apartment rather than stay in a hotel as I can self cater and I work from home so it's nice to have more space.

I prefer to stay from a few days after starting stims until a few days after pencilled in date for transfer but you could go for a shorter time, or see how first scan goes and then decide.

@TimetoChangeClinics I’d suggest asking your clinic how often they will need to see you during your treatment. Clinics like ARGC take bloods every day, so if you were with them you’d need to be close by the whole time. Other clinic may only scan you near day 10 or 11. So best to ask and make plans accordingly.

Hi, I did something a bit similar as I live in Ireland and did treatment in London. But this is how it worked for us.

I found a satellite clinic who my London clinic were happy for me to do my scans & bloods there and scans & bloods were sent to London clinic asap who would then call me with next steps. This meant I only had to be in London for egg collection. We always flew over the night before to ensure we weren’t delayed as timing is so crucial but most of the time I was fine to fly home that evening. We stayed an extra night after transfer so I could rest up (frozen transfer so different cycle). Found a premier inn walking distance to the clinic to avoid tube but this was peak covid. Booked flexi tickets and always booked 2 nights at hotel so I could rest there until an evening flight despite not staying over that night.

overall it was very stress free to travel.

Thanks everyone - it sounds like we'll be scanning every other day after a few days of stimming. We'll (hopefully) be having a frozen transfer so we only need to worry about egg collection this time round. A short tube ride would be fine.

Hi @TimetoChangeClinics

I hope you are well - I was just wondering how you got on? Did you find it ok living up north but having the clinic in London? We are thinking of doing the same so would be good to know how you got on

Hi @alt22. It definitely made things more complicated (and expensive!), but for us it was definitely the right decision. I did a mix of travelling in the morning and hotel stays depending on how many times a week I had to be in. I would definitely recommend staying over for at least a few nights around stims/egg collection. There's a certain amount of guesswork involved as to dates but it was my second cycle so I had a rough idea of how I would respond. I managed my embryo transfers by just travelling down.

Having said this, it was made much easier by:
a) Being able to work out of the London office and having a largely London based team. This kept the time I took off to a minimum.
b) Having relatives who lived in the South East. Even though I stayed in a hotel for most of it, I had my cycle in the summer where hotels were full of tourists and I really struggled to find a hotel room anywhere near the clinic for the day before egg collection. In the end I stayed with them and drove into central London early on egg collection day, where I had to be in for 6:00. I was really lucky to have this option as it would have been really difficult otherwise.
c) Living on a direct train line into London, for obvious reasons.

This has turned into a bit of an essay, but in short, it was complicated but doable. For us it was the right call as we were a massively complex case for a variety of reasons, but lots of people get good results without needing to travel. Depends on your personal circumstances.