Belfast Fertility Clinics

[Sunshine180]

does anyone here have any experience with fertility clinics in Belfast. For background my husband and I have been TTC for 2 years now and my dr has referred me to gynae but the waitlist is currently 3 years. My husband has booked for his semen analysis and if it comes back ok I assume the nhs will just tell us we have to wait on my gynae appointment so I was going to look into going private.

I have seen In Ovo do an IVF package for £5k has anyone with experience of them experienced are there many hidden costs on top of this please?

@MoonlightDreamer ah not sure how I managed to miss you posting that you’d started your injections!! How have you been getting on? How long do you have to take them for?

Hi all. I hope you don't mind me joining. Just saw Belfast and clicked in. I've been with RFC for one private round and TFP for 6 rounds. (Met with therapie in Dublin a few weeks ago too) but have decided to stick with Belfast.
I looked into ovo but no local doctors work there (the consultant is from Greece I think) and I like the thought of all consultants from neighbouring hospitals,
I found RFC good enough, but definitely prefer TFP...it isn't a busy and even though all of these clinics are like conveyor belts it just felt more so.
Tfp can be frustrating at times with waits and I've found when they are busy they won't necessarily start tou on your next cycle which is so frustrating when you are in the position we are.. you just want it yesterday.

I also liked therapie. Clinic was beautiful and I liked the consultant I met (there are only 2) whereas with tfp you may not see the same consultant twice through your entire cycle. But just decided the 2 hour trip was just too much for essentially the same thing. Although it is a lot cheaper!!!

Hope this helps some of your decisions!

Hi @TTC6 thanks for your really helpful post!
I had an initial free discussion with Therapie- it looked great- but unfortunately the distance was an issue for us.
Can I ask what the egg collection process is like? I think that scares me the most!

@TTC12 it is completely fine!! You get brought in and get changed into a gown and get into bed. You then get a cannula in your hand (probably the most unpleasant bit). (If you have a partner generally the get brought in for their part at this stage). There's a tv in the room so all very relaxed. You then get wheeled round to theatre (just a smallish room with a window into embryologist). The anaesthetist then connects you to the medication and essentially the next thing you remember is waking up in the room with your partner. - I know everyone doesn't have the experience but I've been through one at RFC and lots at Tfp and found tfp great. I don't really find I'm that sore after although they give you tablets.
You then get a cup of tea and a scone and they give you time to come round..then if you feel ok you're out of there within an hour.
I'm always tired enough that afternoon /evening and some bleeding. But generally only for a few days. Then you start your crinone gel (progesterone) that evening which isn't the most pleasant thing in the world but not sore at all.

Overall I have found the process to be fine. Of course would prefer not to have to go through it, but is worth it for the end result.

@TTC6 thank you so much for all your info! I’m really happy to hear you’ve had a good experience with them so far. It’s great to hear first hand as it all feels so unknown at the minute.

wishing you luck for your upcoming round

@Sunshine180 no worries at all, I know how daunting it can be.
If you've any questions at all please just ask. One thing I would say is be ontop of them on admin side. If you haven't heard anything and you think you should have phone them to make sure something is happening in the background.

@Sunshine180 in all honesty the injections aren't that bad at all.
I'm surprised at myself how brave I've been 😆
First scan tomorrow tho so I'm definitely feeling a bit nervous

@MoonlightDreamer good luck 🤞🤞 they get easier after that!

@TTC6 thankyou for that info.
I'm currently with RFC .
I guess we'll see how we get on but I've been looking for alternative options in the event this round fails..which I'm sure it will. I'm not expecting miracles from my first round. I've heard the first is kind of a test run with protocol and doses.
I had been looking at therapie online and I'm quite swayed towards them. They seem to have pretty good reviews but yeah the trek would be a nightmare. I'm in west Tyrone and I think I'd be exhausted travelling down to Dublin so much.

@MoonlightDreamer it didn't work for us first round with RFC and we learnt we needed icsi from it. But it's all just trial and error. Hopefully it does work for you first round 🤞good luck with your scan today.

therapie were very good to be fair..very responsive and I did like the consultant. If I wasn't so far into multiple rounds I would probably try it as it's so much cheaper than NI.

@TTC6 I’ve just had a look on Thérapie’s website and can’t believe the price difference compared to the Belfast clinics! Would be too far for us to travel up and down unfortunately. Feels so unfair but just one of those things I suppose.

@MoonlightDreamer how did you get on at your scan today? Hope it went well!

Hi everyone. I hope you don't mind me posting on this thread - first time on mumsnet!

I am 32 and my husband and I have been TTC for 4 years or so. We have had one natural pregnany which was a missed miscarraige, one NHS round at the RFC which unfortunately also ended in MC, and one failed FET. We now want to go private, but I am struggling to know where to go. I have looked at TFP and In Ovo and also have enquired with Therapie - I am just not sure if logistically it would work. Same with abroad - we aren't adverse to going abroad but I wouldn't know where to start, and I presume we would need to stay for a period of time.

Would welcome any thoughts/advice!

Thanks

Hi, @Patientlywaiting37 sorry I haven’t got much advice re the travelling for treatment as we are going with TFP but didn’t want to read your post and not reply!

Sorry to hear about your journey so far. Was the process slow with NHS? are we only entitled to one NHS round in NI?

@Sunshine180 thanks for your reply! How are you finding TFP? Is there much of a waiting list?

The process was really slow for us as we got referred during covid. We had a 12 month wait after we got referred to the RFC and then our first round was delayed as I got covid.

You get one free round of IVF with a fresh transfer and if you're lucky enough to get any spare embryos you get one free FET as well. We have one day 6 embryo left, but we want to do another IVF round rather than using up our last remaining embryo.

@Patientlywaiting37 i am having my initial consultation with them next month so can’t comment on much yet but I did see on of their consultants Dr Roberts at a different private gynae clinic he holds and he seemed very good.

Ah ok, we are on the NHS waiting list also but it just seems like such a slow process. Do you have to pay the RFC for storage of your remaining embryo?

@Sunshine180 good luck for your consultation!

It is unfortunately a very slow process. Once you get called forward its probably another 6 to 8 weeks before you start treatment due to consent forms and cycle timings etc. However, I can't fault the people at RFC, who were all lovely.

I don't think so? They haven't mentioned it anyway! Maybe you do after a certain period of time.

@Patientlywaiting37 yes I think all the waiting is one of the hardest bits when you just want everything asap after waiting so long!

is therapie far for you? We looked at it because we couldn’t get over the price difference but unfortunately it’s over a 2 hour drive for us so didn’t seem doable with the multiple scans and work etc

Hi@Patientlywaiting37 I've only been on a few weeks but found it so informative already and lovely meeting people in similar situations. I'm so sorry it's been a long journey for you already!

I've looked at lots of different places, had calls with Greece, consultations in Dublin and keep going back to TFP. To me they are all so similar and I like the closeness of TFP but it is expensive versus therapie. Therapie clinic is the other side of Dublin which is a 2 hour drive for us too but you would only have to go there firstly if you want a F2F consultation, egg collection and transfer. All the other appts can be done from their Dundalk satellite clinic. Therapie are cheaper because they are 'nurse led'. But essentially the only difference is nurses do the monitoring scans (which i wouldn't have a problem with at all!).

Also worth looking into access fertility with tfp, they do different payment set ups for multi cycle programmes

@TTC6 nice to e-meet you! Thank you- it's been a tough time but we go on!

@Sunshine180 @TTC6 Therapie would be a 2 hour plus drive for us too, but I contacted them and they do a free F2F consultation which you can do in Dundalk and we are considering that to at least see what it's like.

Thanks for the tip on access fertility. One of the reasons we were considering Spain was for the pregnancy guarantee funding so good to know its possible with TFP (though more expensive). But maybe by the time you add in flights and accomodation it would balance out! I feel like having a multi cycle plan in place would take some of the stress out of it for me.

Are you far into your journey with TFP?

@Patientlywaiting37 definitely worth having a conversation with them. I did like them I just wanted the multi cycle programme which they don't do.

Yes far enough. TTC since 2017. Went to RFC for one private round in 2019 which failed then moved to TFP. Did one round of ICSI which was successful and I have a little boy from born in 2020. Then had a miracle natural pregnancy when he was a year and had a MMC at 9.5 weeks in 2021 and since then we have done 5 full rounds (we don't create numerous embryos) so to get 1 good enough quality embryo it's one full round of ivf for us. But we have had no joy again unfortunately. I've just signed into another few rounds with TFP through access.

@TTC6 thank you, will make enquiries and see how things go.

I hope your upcoming round goes well! Is there much of a waiting list with TFP?

Hi All, can anyone who has been through a cycle at TFP tell me if they give you a prescription for the medication which you can source yourself, or if you just pay them and they have a supplier? Thanks

@Patientlywaiting37 there doesn't seem to be. I didn't need an initial consultation. But from initial contact and payment, you then need to do consents (usually takes them a week or two to send them). Once you've returned them and they have everything they need they book a 'booking appt' and that's where you look at cycle dates and available dates with them. They generally start you in your next cycle or the one after. They generally use the LD21 protocol which is down reg on day 21 then stim injections from day 7 of your period..10/11 days egg collection then all being well fresh transfer.

@TTC12 they use fertility2U. Once they do your script they generally send it over to them and they will get in touch directly to you for payment. They generally just send directly to your house now (at a cost of course). But it was the same price as being sent to the clinic so probably easier.
I would assume if you have an alternative supplier they would be flexible.
Hope this helps

@TTC6 thanks for coming back to me. I think we need an initial consultation no matter where we go as all of our tests are out of date so I think that might be the first step, and then we can decide on a clinic once we have the results.

Do you see the same consultant each time in TFP or is it just random?