Kings Fertility IVF 2023

[LucyFab]

Hi All, we will be starting our IVF journey with Kings Fertility next month. How was your experience? Was it successful? Thanks!

@RarePlant The admin team are pretty poor I agree.

@RarePlant there are studies out there which say that AMH levels don’t correlate with ability to get pregnant naturally. I guess the thought process is that as long as you ovulate you have a chance each cycle of getting pregnant. The issue with low Amh when it comes to IVF is the low number of eggs available to stimulate each cycle. I got 4 eggs my first cycle and 2 my second.

@bloss0mx Just thought I’d comment here as we were at the Lister first and then came to Kings and were much happier with Kings.

While the Lister have some v kind staff and you have more direct access to consultants, I found them a bit old school - your charting re egg development during stimulation is recorded by pen on a physical chart - kings use a computer programme. In addition they didn’t, or perhaps still don’t, have technology like embryoscope. Egg retrieval day is much more of an ordeal - you are brought in at 6am and treated like you are having surgery, at kings it’s much quicker and efficient. In addition lister really promote only transferring 5 day blasts. In one case we’d a cycle that didn’t have anything viable on day 5 and we wish they’d brought us back in on day 3 to transfer something, anything, at that point. In addition the cost is overwhelming and you are constantly being sent invoices for each individual blood test whereas that is streamlined in Kings and all part of your package.

I may be a little biased as we recently got our BFP at kings and are in the early stages of pregnancy, but even when we were still waiting/hoping/praying on that outcome myself and DH agreed we would favour kings over Lister 100 per cent. Have no experience or other clinics x

This new in from admin, it's almost entertaining :) I have been asking about getting a consultation from 6 emails ago.

"Good Afternoon,

Thank you for your email.

Please give the clinic a call and someone from the team will be able to assist."

-and that's it.-
UHH---Could have stated that we need to call you from the start instead of back and forth emailing (and from the website we are directed to fill in the form first). Also, pasting a phone number directed in the email would help no? I have to go find it back on the website? omg.

@Jane1284 Thank YOU that's really interesting I had never thought of that! I have been a little lifeless trying naturally ever since receiving my AMH result. Noone really educates us we just are wandering around clue by clue.

@Eggbert83 Thank YOU I have needed to hear they might consider Day 3 transfers as well. Do you know if at Kings they ever transfer doubles if we only make 2 embryos and neither are great?

Yes they will, they definitely aren’t fans of transferring doubles when they are good quality and I can understand why as twins do come with lots of additional risk (and our little nephew spent his first few weeks in special care and we saw how it was very stressful so not something I’d take lightly at all now) but in the case of poorer quality or where you have had numerous failures I don’t think you’d get much opposition. We actually transferred two on this round - one high quality and one lower quality as we just wanted to use up everything and have the best shot we could

Thanks @Eggbert83 for sharing your experiences at both - very insightful and useful. With our failed cycle, I only had 2 mature eggs with 0 fertilised, so we would prefer a day 3 option if needed. May I ask how many scans / blood tests you had during stims with King's?

Congrats on your BFP too! @Eggbert83

Thanks @bloss0mx Its very early days so we are being cautious, but just seeing those two lines finally has been extremely exciting for us.

With my cycles I had baseline scan to check readiness about day 20 and then when day 1 comes start on the meds and get scanned about day 5 and then every second to third day or so after that, usually having egg collection around day 14-16. If you do not respond the way they expect I imagine they may need to see you more regularly and do more bloods so they can monitor and adjust the meds.

@Eggbert83 aw I hope all goes well 🫶

That sounds very reassuring! Guy's only gave me a scan at day 10 then another at day 12 with no blood tests at all 🙁

Oh that does not sound good. You really need to be seen in the early days to ensure you’ve gotten off the starting blocks. Ramping up the meds half way through is not the way to go when it can be done at an earlier point. I think Guys used to be good, I’ve friends who conceived with them years ago , but from a few accounts they don’t seem to be the most attentive anymore

Well I finally have my first blood test tomorrow with Kings. Will retest my AMH and then a scan on Friday. It's starting at last, hopefully will be able to get in before the Xmas closures for a cycle.

@RarePlant Good luck! :)

Good luck @RarePlant 🙂

I thought I'd just update that my IVF at Kings went pretty seamlessly and we had a positive pregnancy test on the first transfer. But was just scanned yesterday and they think the embryo implanted in my previous Cesarean scar. So after all of that, I now need surgery to remove the pregnancy. Can't believe it. Why is IVF such a mindf**k?

@Ecdysiast Oh I'm so sorry :( Life can be really cruel.

@Ecdysiast that is a horrible mindf**k, IVF is so unfair! I hope the NHS pays for that though and you are not paying for surgery privately?

so sorry to hear that you are going through this. Fertility is such a agonising experience! Fingers crossed you get your baby soon 💜

Thank you so much for your responses! It really insightful! Sorry it taken me a while to reply! I took a mumsnet break! I have decided to reach out to kings in next month or so!

Hope you're journey is going well.

does anyone know there Christmas break?

@Optimistic66 Best of luck with your journey! We actually had a surprise natural pregnancy in between FET cycles so am currently 11 weeks :)

Kings still has the money for our planned cycle so I will have to ask for that back at some point 😅

How is everyone getting on? Getting super close to when we will be getting booked in... nervous/excited/ready to get out of this limbo of not conceiving but not also being able to do anything about it.

@Ecdysiast - hope that you are recovering well...x

Hi all :)

Hope someone can help from the first consultation - when can you start treatment? (I know in first consultation they will recommend plan and treatment)

I'm booked in for January! And am curious to know does it mean likely can start treatment (if IVF) in feb or will it be more likely march?

Thanks
H

So, we had our initial consultation in January and due to various delays in the timings of my cycle and blood tests and scans they wanted to book our first round wasn't until April/May and the due to OHSS risk the transfer wasn't until July.

I think depending on where you are in your cycle versus when they can get nurses appointments booked in etc it will likely be March that you start.

Hi all,

I'm starting letrozole this cycle with Kings and was interested to see how everyone is getting on with Kings?

x