Feedback on Price of IVF cycle at CRGH

[CarpeDiem75]

Hi
I am trying to convince my partner to go for IVF as the wait is getting too much now however his worry is the price of it.
In a nutshell neither me or him have I fertility issues it is just not happening for us...
Would some of you could give me roughly the price you have paid for one fresh cycle (which is probably what we can only afford) .
Thank you in advance!!

@CarpeDiem75 would you be eligible on the NHS? I haven’t been privately but there are some other threads on here that discuss prices

@Spin101 yes i will be going privately as it is for my second baby :-(

I’m sorry you’re having trouble TTC. I know it all adds up as they give you a price which usually excludes all the medications. Have a search for IVF on here and I’ve seen quite a few threads about prices.

@Spin101 thank you very much!!:-)

I've just had my first full consultation at CRGH. They are v expensive. Meds not included in their IVF cycle package. And then it's probably obvious, but embryo implant is also priced separately. When I was looking around I was very interested in Gennet City Fertility and you can get special pricing packages via Access Fertility, where you can get refunded. I was too old to work with Access Feritility, but the ferlitility nurse was one of the most helpful people I have spoken to on this journey so far. Especially when it comes to pricing. My understanding is that broadly most of the clinics do pretty much the same work and have pretty much the same results and so it's more like branding. Are you going to pay the extra for Coca Cola or go with Tesco's own brand? City Fertility are the Tesco's own brand, where the price is reasonable, but you get pretty much the same. Also Create St Pauls which came personally recommended by a friend who had a baby, do natural IVF which is cheaper cos you don't have to pay for as many meds. Their success rates are the same as elsewhere. The other thing to look out for is that different clinics will ask for different amounts of tests. CRGH asks for all of the tests, all of the meds and all of the things all the time and so another reason why in the end they come out more expensive. Having said that I'm going with CRGH because money isn't an issue and I was able to have a free 20 minute consultation with them, which obviously gets paid for along the way. Also I'm 45 and City Feritlity won't treat me after my 46th birthday.

@b0zza1 thanks. I liked CRGH because their success rate seems really good compared to others and less twins as well... and good feedback on the outcomes. all the feedback I had from arcg many had twins which got me worried!
Have they given you a quote? Would you be able to give me an idea if you don't mind? I am expecting something like £10K.... am I far off?
I only have chance so that's probably why I would pick them!
Also now you had your appintment have they given you an indication how long until you can start treatment?
Thanks!

Sorry only just seen this, I'll reply properly later.

Thanks for the helpful info @b0zza1. I've just had a look at Access Fertility as I've never seen IVF refund programmes before. Definitely might be worth a call for us :)

Did you look at Gennet City Fertility, as well as ARCG? We don't have a quote yet. But happy to share when I do. We have had ORT, first conulstation and semen anlysis and that is come to close to £1000. If you are asking if £10 000 for 1 IVF cycle and embryo implantation then I would agree, that's ball park. That would be without going via Access Feritility though. I would defo speak to them as they provide financial packages on behalf of CRGH, assuming you are 44 yrs or under. There was no waiting time to begin treatment (using our own eggs and sperm).

@b0zza1 could you please tell me more about Access Fertility? Do you think it is worth it for expensive clinics like CRGH? I am really lost with all these things ... it seems cheaper and safe as it is a fixed price to go through Access but at the same time I am wondering what's the catch?!!

I don't know much about Access as I'm too old to use their services, if I were you I would post a question on here as a new thread asking for people's experiences with it. I'm not particularly suspicious of them as the clinics chose them to offer packages for them and also they are just brokers. Or look online for reviews or Trustpilot or something similar.

Hi,

I have been through many rounds at CRGH. 2 rounds of egg collection/ batching in 2018/9 which were approx. £4000 per cycle. Meds for me were £2600 per cycle as I was on the maximum dose of stimulation.

Then once you have the eggs, IVF process is £3,400 and ICSI is £1,200. Then blastocyst is £1000 including assisted hatching.

I also have done a couple of rounds of FET this year and those were £2500 plus the meds were £1,800.

Storage fees are £350 per year.
You will be expected to do full blood counts and a 3DSIS which total up to approximately £1000

Hope that helps!

@cupcake89 amazing thank you so much! Are you happy with CRGH overall?

@CarpeDiem75 yeah pretty happy with everything.

I had back to back egg collections and then on the 3rd cycle they then transferred an embryo which got me my son.

I'm now trying for a 2nd and I think my remaining embryos that were transferred were possibly genetically abnormal. We are starting again with egg collections and will genetically test the embryos this time.

My consultant is honest and frank and whilst we don't always like what she says, she's always right.

I have noticed that services are not what they used to be compared to when I was there 3/4 years ago. I know post covid, they took on a lot more NHS patients so it can be a bit longer to wait for an appointment. Eg after my two failed cycles, the next available slot with my consultant was a month. Some may not think that's long but when you're a private patient, you expect a bit better but that's not the case as everywhere is so much busier than before.

I have not been anywhere else and nor with the NHS so hard to compare.

It does help if you're close-ish to the clinic. During stimulation, you need to be there every other day for a scan/bloods so I wouldn't want to be travelling any more than an hour or two.

@cupcake89 thank you got your feedback. Just had my first consultation and I am a bit worried with the overall cost. They have advise we should do genetic testing on my blastocyst but this is so expensive!! But what I found more difficult is that due to that test we have to freeze them and bot able to do anything that cycle so that's another 3months through the window for us which is long for me at my age. Also not sure cost wise how Much this is going to cost me if we do a retrieval but no fresh transfer just a frozen one! I am in pieces

This sounds tough. Although it doesn't sound like CRGH is for you there are many clinics that come highly recommended on here. How old are you? Gennet City Fertility is popular and there is another thread here of women who are/have received IVF there. Although it's cheaper it's still got good results. They have a cut of 46 years old, so they cease all treatments after that point. Also I have heard older women say that Create is good (a friend of a friend has a child from Create St Pauls). We remain at CRGH, but it's uncomfortably expensive, especially for the PGTA (gentic testing). 2 egg collections and 1 FET with PGTA might come to £30 000 (I'm hoping for less, but I'm still v early days....)

I'm 45 otherwise I'd have gone with Gennet City Feritility

@b0zza1 thank you very much I might check out other clinics then it I might just refused the tests and ask for normal ivf. I am only 39 but obviously we have been trying for so long I am mentally exhausted and my partner has had enough and he is even considering not trying anymore so it is a very hard journey right now. I was so hopeful ziti the call that now I am back to being really upset about the the whole thing!
£30k??! I can't only afford around £10-11k so that's too much

@CarpeDiem75 I'm so sorry - it's really tough when they spell it all out for you to hear.

You would need to budget an additional £2.5k for the FET plus meds for me were £1,800 and genetic testing £3,150 for up to 8 embryos. There is also a thaw fee and blastocyst fee but I think I mentioned that before. It's really tough!!

I was very hesitant due to the costs, time, etc. However, it does make sense. You're increasing the probability of success by quite a significant amount (for me it increases from 50% to 74% based on my medical history and age). It also saves on the transfer of an embryo that looks normal to the embryologist as they cannot tell if it's genetically normal during the blastocyst process. Plus the heartache if it were to fail and the costs for doing another round.

So sorry again that you're going through this difficult time. It takes time to process the news, so go easy on yourself! 💐

As someone who is undergoing treatment at CRGH I would highly encourage you to avoid them. They have been horrible from the start. I had three egg retrievals with very few embryos. My experience with the consultants has been awful. First one was bright and great but made stupid mistakes in medication dosages that I had to catch and decisions that resulted in late cycle cancellations.

Second consultant has been nothing but outright abusive. He says one thing and then later says he never said that and I must have misunderstood. I actually have recordings of these calls! There is no place for choice or alterations to protocol if you need it - you follow their protocol or the highway. I am stuck with them at this point but I would say avoid like the plague. If you look at their latest results published on their website, they are much much different from the HFEA results from 2019 and worse. So they are no better than average these days. The amount of stress this consultant put me through is unbelievable. At some point I was vomiting from anxiety about the pressures he put on us to go a certain way.

Some fees are hidden. For example, growing to blastocyst or the blood tests - they are more expensive than other clinics and you pay for them.

It is easy to avoid twins if you go with ARGC. You can always select to transfer fewer embryos and not follow their recommendations for more. I can't speak to their other issues as I haven't been to ARGC.

Hi @blimpy2
Sorry to hear about your experience with CRGH. Can I ask which consultant are you with? We registered with them and will probably start IVF in August. I mostly read very good reviews when I was researching which clinic to go with, so I'm a bit concerned now reading your comments. They're not cheap so you'd expect top service from them.