Egg freezing in London

[Smoothieyummy]

Some suggestion, recommendation advice please.

I’m 34, single and want to freeze my eggs. Where should I do it?

Would you recommend ARGC for this or any other clinics please?

I’ve done the initial consultation with ARGC, which I found was pretty unhelpful and it was only very generic. Currently I’m doing the monitoring cycle with them, which felt pretty rushed and not a lot of explanation, they got my blood results and just said it’s good and told me to come in for a scan without going through the results with me.

Very apprehensive now and quite stressed not sure what to do, I would like to freeze my eggs before 35.

any recommendation on clinics or doctors or any advice would be greatly appreciated.

@Smoothieyummy The others who I’ve heard of in London are Create and CRGH, the latter is quite ‘posh’ apparently! There is also Care, Evewell and London Women’s.

I had mine done 4 years ago at Create and another cycle at the Lister. At the time if you looked at detail in the HrGC (or whatever the regulatory body is called I forget) report on the topic it revealed that the vast majority of egg freezes were in 3 clinics despite many many more saying that they did it. This matters as the experience all round on getting to actual baby stage is very small so you really want to try and go somewhere that has volume. The lister was one of those 3 judging my the number kf cases they said they had done. I suggest you Look into whether the position has changed and who is still the forerunner.
The other thing is think about the quality of the receptionists - sounds daft but the Create ones drove me wild by only ever calling back when convenient to them and never picking up the phone. Since you have blood tests every other day and need to adjust drug dosage this also matters if you have a full time job where you might be in meetings/ in an open plan office and can't pick up the phone Willy nilly and discuss your ovaries. The stress of that was unbelievable- but otherwise the whole experience was v positive and I really recommend it

Can’t really advise on clinics but wanted to offer some words of support!

I did mine at Chelsea & Westminster for convenience a few years ago. They were ‘ok’, a bit lax in some areas like when I went for scans I felt they weren’t reading my notes properly and presumed I was there for IVF rather than freezing. It was also busy - as such a big place and felt rushed at times. Some of the nurses were fantastic and that’s what makes the difference.

If you’re already feeling stressed and disappointed with the service I’d try somewhere else? Maybe having a scan there they’ll talk to you more and it will be better but it’s a lot of money and you need to feel comfortable. Having said that, sometimes the staff don’t meant to be casual about things but because they are doing this day-in-day-out it’s so normal for them - where as for the patient it’s such a huge step and you have so many questions!

Try not to stress. I found the thought of doing it much more daunting and emotional than the actual process! Once you’re in it it’s fine, injections fine once you get over the first one - they’re painless. I had no side effects, maybe a little bloated the last few days before collection.
Don’t worry about being 35 - if they’ve said your bloods are ok then that obviously indicates your egg reserve is good.

You’re doing the right thing and it will be a great sense of relief and achievement when it’s done. Good luck I hope you find/have found a clinic you like x