Anyone using CRGH for ivf?

[Elephant369]

Hi, I’m looking to connect with anyone using CRGH for ivf. Would be grateful to hear about your experiences as I don’t know many people who are going through this. Thanks

Hi, any recommendations on doctors other than dr Chami? I’m worried he is too busy and cannot book his time. Thank you.

I've just started with them. They seem a bit disorganised but we'll see. Their prices seem reasonable compared to other clinics in the area

@SPR40 You shouldn't use an emergency number for non-emergencies, even if you are paying a bit of money. That's misuse of the service and I understand the nurse's frustration

@RiderofRohan hiya, I hope you are well. I agree you should use an emergency number for non emergencies. I used an out of hours number for an out of hours query. You might have not seen the bit in post where the nurse agreed after I had asked my question that it was the right thing to do to call. I was also following my consultants advice to call the out of office number. I was in no way promoting the use of an emergency number i actually said in my post the quickest way to get a response is the messgae portal. For absolute clarity I am at risk of premature ovulation and have daily bloods taken at a satellite clinic that are then couriered to London. I need my blood results to start suppression and my consultant advised me that if I don't hear back within normal operating hours to call the out of hours number, so was following their advice 😀 I only get 1 embryo a cycle so it's a pricey game to get that wrong and I had been with them over 1 year at this point about 8 cycles in and used the out of hours number for this reason without issues as all the detail is on my notes. 😊 As I said this nurse apologised and I absolutely appreciate she may have been having a difficult day personally as that is life. She was "telling me off" before she even knew what my question was or had looked at my file. She was really sweet afterwards and even followed up the next day to check in 🥰 Wishing you well.

@RiderofRohan hiya just reread my post I meant to type i agree you should NOT use emergency number for non emergency 🥲 I hope your cycle with them goes well and you have a good experience. As I said in general that have been great, can sometimes feel a bit disorganised and busy but once it gets going it's good. My tip is to ask for your blood results when they call you to give you advice on treatment then you can track it yourself too and it helps understand their advice a bit more. Also at the end of a cycle they can do you a print out if the full cycle. It looks like a graph with your follicle measurements on and your blood results at the bottom. If you have to have more than one cycle with them this is super helpful to have as your own record. Again wishing you all the best ❤

Surprising to hear that good reviews about this consultant Dr Al Chami
heard other reviews on other portals quite derogatory about him on how badly he treats the female staff
my friend heard him shout at a poor nurse

Surprising to see good reviews about this consultant
he seems very arrogant in his replies and shouts at the staff !!
clearly avoid !!!!!!

What are the other portal?

I’ve just started my treatment CRGH after a failed cycle at another clinic and going with the multi cycle package with access fertility. I am 27 years old and have never had any fertility issues until now due to male factor problems. We had our consultation in December and then had to get all our screening tests complete which also took a lot of time and money!! Finally got round to starting our second cycle and based on scans it showed my ovaries respond well to the medication however we only retrieved 10 eggs. I am grateful that we even got 10 as last cycle we got 5 and no day 5 embryos. With my age and other factors I was really hoping to get more eggs not sure why but my follicles grow well but don’t get enough eggs.

We should get a call hopefully tomorrow to see how many have fertilised using both ICSI and PIMSI! It’s been an emotional roller coaster but our consultant is lovely just unfortunate that we don’t really get to have direct contact with the consultant and have to liaise with the nurses and some of the nurses appear quite cold which is very disheartening considering how much we’re paying for this service!

Has anyone had any luck with 10 eggs or even manage to get a blastocyst? We are hoping for a FET so just waiting to see what happens

I really can't recommend CRGH at the moment. Our consultant is impeccable, but the company seem to have taken on too many patients for the nurses and they don't have the resources to cope, which leads to no oversight and errors. I know IVF can feel pipeliney but this is like being in an overcrowded pipeline! I'm private and if I wasn't 45 I would be going somewhere else. A few snapshots:

My partner gave a sample for freezing to be used in embryo fertilisation and it was sent for some tests that had already happened and so he had to attend again. He was the one who discovered the error after chasing.

CRGH contacted me to book my 1hr Initial Medication Appointment. I was happy to do this online, but was told the nurse had requested face to face. I arrived at the Great Portland Street clinic ontime and waited for 20 mins for the nurse, who explained that she was late because she 'had been on the phone'. She didn't seem to realise that I was there in person, even though I had checked in with reception. She then explained that we couldn't have our Iniitial Medication appointment as we were waiting for other matters to be concluded. And that was that! Complete chaos. I asked if this could be looked into (I hadn't even requested the appointment) and have since emailed and received no response.

On a weekly basis I'll send an email (to the general nursing address and 2 individua names nurses involved in our treatment) with 2 questions and 4 days later will get an answer to one of them. Having sent a 2nd chasing email. I tried sending messages via the portal at the beginning but when I got zero response I thought that wasn't the best way. I now know from above posts to try this again, but why am I finding out this kind of information on Mumsnet!

The nurses are really very good, but totally oversubscribed.

Hi. We are at CRGH. Just started our second round - happy to connect and share stories !

Hi,
I'm currently with CRGH.
Positives - embryologists are amazing and knowledgeable. The doctors seem very good too with their knowledge but aren't always receptive to discussion regarding protocol changes.
Negatives - communication is terrible! Can't get through on phones, wait days for portal replies, couldn't get an appointment for 3 weeks after my egg collection to discuss my next 'back to back round of 3 cycle plan' so they just stuck me on 28days worth of Norethisterone for their convenience. Some of the nursing team are very cold and rude (I've complained twice about this), they've messed up my drug prescription twice...... shall I go on??

@RJP313 are you currently stimming or down reg?

We just had the second (frozen) transfer last week.

@Sheepsheeps your experience sounds terrible you have my sympathy - do go on!
im with the city branch and not through choice I might add, im on the access programme and have embryos left - CRGH took over my previous clinic in January and it’s been a total nightmare. I’m having the most stressful few months of my life with them, as is IVF (and baby loss) isn’t stressful enough!

@Hellomotto2 that was the same for me too! I was with Gennet City before and just received a random email in January that they'd been taken over!!! Communication is the worst thing I think as before you could just phone up and speak to someone whereas now, it's impossible!
On a positive note though, I do feel the CRGH team are very experienced esp with MFI as I've looked to move but other clinics just don't seem to offer the add-ons rate CRGH do.
Theor finance team are aggressive though. I was supposed to be on a 3 FET round under city prices, took a whole month of chasing them to sort this out then in less than 24hrs of raising the correct invoice, I had finance calling me saying they were going to cancel my current round if I didn't pay by 5pm that day!!!!

Hi everyone hope you don’t mind me joining! @Cc2401 how did you get on with pimsi? I’m due to be starting this soon due to mfi/ dna frag / really poor fertilisation at a previous clinic with icsi and haven’t read about anyone else having had pimsi anywhere so would be good to hear how you got on!