ABC IVF timeline & advice

[maybebaby2023]

Hi everyone,

Myself & my partner (lesbian couple) are looking to begin our IVF journey shortly. I will (hopefully!) carry the baby, using my own eggs, and donor sperm will be used. We haven't yet had our initial assessment/scan as I've only just had my coil out (this was the Mirena coil which had been in for 2-3 years to help with periods). I haven't had a period in the duration the coil was in and clinic have recommended having this out for 1 month prior to the initial assessment so we'd be looking at end of Sept.

We are looking into using ABC IVF, due to their reviews, general helpfulness so far and the fact that they're a substantial amount cheaper than clinics closer to us.

The ABC clinics in Manchester/Liverpool etc are about a 4 hour drive from us. We would be looking at potentially staying nearby to the clinic for the duration of the cycle.

It would be really helpful if anyone who has gone through IVF at ABC could shed some light on the timeline of appointments, i.e. how many in-clinic appointments there are, etc? Obviously, we will do whatever we need to but having a rough idea would be good!

Also, the initial assessment states that 30 areas of fertility are checked. Can anyone who has had this at ABC expand on this any further?

After the initial consult, are you able to go ahead as soon as AF arrives or is there a bit of a wait?

Thanks so much in advance :)

This post makes me so happy! I've just had my referral letter sent to CREATE this week with the hope to start in about 3 months!! Congrats mama 💙

@HopeHopeandmoreHope Eeeek that’s so exciting!! Try to enjoy every minute. It’s such a worrisome time but try to see the excitement in it too. I hope it goes well for you ❤️ and fingers crossed for a healthy baby, ideally one that sleeps more than my little monkey 🙈

Hi i know this is old but wondering what doses of bemfola, cetrotide and ovitrelle you had ? Is it all injections you take during the 10/12 days ir do you take oral tablets ?

also did you do a day 3 fresh transfer or day 5 ? Did they grade the embryos ? What was your lining measurent at transfer ? X

@Lochside28 Hi, I was on 100iu Bemfola initially and this was increased to 125iu after my first or second monitoring scan. I’m not sure on the dose of Cetrotide or Ovitrelle, this was just a set-dose injection so I didn’t have to manually set this, if that makes sense. All injections, no oral tablets but you do take Utrogestan vaginal pessaries after egg collection. I had a 3 day embryo transfer, they did provide me with the grade but it’s a different grading system than what is used for 5/6 day blastocysts. I believe they now prefer to do 5 day transfers, not 3. I can’t remember my lining at transfer unfortunately, off the top of my head I’d guess around 12mm. I think they wanted it above 7 or thereabouts.

On a separate note, I wouldn’t recommend ABC due to huge failings in regards to my stored embryo. I would wholeheartedly recommend Kind IVF through London Women’s Clinic in Darlington though. X

Oh no what happened to your frozen embryo? Il do one cycle see how it goes with create. I dnt meet criteria with abc cause my amh is 2.6

@maybebaby2023 Hi there, remember me? How’s it going, how old is little one now?

I also have 2 embryos stored with ABC so can I ask what happened with yours? Hope you don’t mind me asking.

@K2012 i do, you were a godsend in my first pregnancy!

He’s 2 now, will be 3 in July. I’m 21 weeks with baby no 2! How’s your (not so) little one?

& @Lochside28 buckle up, it’s a long one….

i rang up in Jan ‘25 with a view to having my frozen embryo transferred. The embryologist called me as I had questions about the embryo’s grade (I couldn’t remember the grade, essentially). When she was reviewing my file, she noticed that there were signs my embryo hadn’t fertilised normally at the time and admitted that none of this info had been passed across - all I knew was that it was an “excellent grade”. She apologised profusely and said the lab manager at the time no longer works there, quite a lot is being done differently. She gave me a few options: 1. go ahead with the transfer (at full cost) but it would come with an increased risk of failed implantation, miscarriage or there something being chromosomally wrong with the baby, if it were to be a success. 2. Discard the embryo and do a full new round (at full cost). 3. Have the embryo PGTA tested which is the only thing that would give a “definitive” answer on whether or not it is viable, but it can damage the embryo as you’re thawing it, biopsying and refreezing it, at a cost of approx £1500 for one embryo (not inc the cost of any subsequent transfer of said embryo). I said I wanted them to cover the PGTA test cost. After a LOT of backwards and forth (many months) they finally agreed to cover the cost of the PGTA test. It came back as normal. Had it transferred and it resulted in a chemical pregnancy. Since researching more on PGTA testing, if you think of the embryo as a book, it only tells you whether all the chapters (chromosomes) are there, not whether there are typos on the pages or if the book makes any sense. Again, this wasn’t highlighted at the time either, I was told if it was viable it would stand as good a chance as any, which isn’t the case. Knowing what I do now, if I’d known the embryo had shown abnormal fertilisation at the time, I wouldn’t have frozen it. A lot of research shows the initial cell division as having a huge influence on the embryos success, more so than the day 5 blast grade. In an ideal world, I’d have got them to do the PGTA test and then move it up to Scotland so I could have the transfer done here since I wanted no further dealings with them. Unfortunately, despite the “normal” outcome, no clinic in Scotland would accept the embryo into their lab as it was still too much of a risk and a question mark for them. If I didn’t want to bypass a potentially viable embryo I’ve dreamt about since 2022, I had no choice but to go ahead with it in Leeds.

All of this just left any trust I had in them in complete tatters. I was also £5k down from the cost of my transfer and commuting back and forth to Leeds for all the appts.

I did do another cycle but with Kind IVF in Darlington (part of London Women’s Clinic) and they’ve been an absolute breath of fresh air compared to Create. I wanted to go somewhere that did time-lapse monitoring of the embryos as as standard so this situation didn’t happen again. Nothing in biology is guaranteed to happen at the precise moment it’s meant to but they sure as hell have a lot more info on the embryos when they’re able to review the footage and leave them undisturbed in the incubator, compared to taking them out and assessing every 24hrs then trying to fill in the blanks the rest of the time. I also had a better outcome, 4 frozen embryos compared to 1 at ABC