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?

Thanks @Patientlywaiting37 - means a lot. Wishing the best for folks waiting treatment.

I haven't posted on here in a while but amazing to see some good news!
@Patientlywaiting37 &@MoonIightDreamer massive congratulations to both of you! Hope you are both keeping well.

@Sunshine180 the nurse planning appt goes through the paper work to make sure you have completed everything and they look at your protocol and drugs etc. they will then look at your schedule and look at your next day 1 working out when you'll most likely go ahead with treatment. I had my nurse appt in tfp a few weeks ago with my day 1 due the following week and I am getting fitted in before Christmas by the skin of my teeth!!
So absolutely possible to get started after Christmas. Maybe even over Christmas!

@TTC6 thanks for explaining the nurse appointment! Are you on short protocol then? I’m really hoping that’s what we end up doing but obviously will do whatever the consultant thinks will give us the best chance of success.

Good luck for your current cycle! Do you know does the clinic close for long over Christmas?

@Sunshine180 in on LD21. So long protocol. Prostrap injection on day 21 of your cycle, then wait for period to begin and start stimulation injections on roughly day 7/8 of that cycle. For about 11/12 days then egg collection. It's the only one I've ever been on it TFP - and was on the same in Belfast fertility. What have you been on before?

Yes the embryology team close for 2 weeks over Christmas last day being 22nd (I think). But to be honest it doesn't really matter unless you are going through egg collection or transfer. I know people who started their stimulation injections on Boxing Day last year, then had scans first thing into the new year as the consultant and nursing teams were back

@TTC6 this will be my first cycle! Based on our situation and test results I think we will be short protocol but hopefully find out next week.

oh that’s good the closure doesn’t necessarily effect too much. The way my cycle is falling at the minute I think we will start mid January

Hi everyone, just thought I’d update that we had our consultation and are due to start in January/February. Have just finished all our consent forms and are going to pay and book our next appointment next week however I got a letter today to book our first appointment with RFC.

totally confused on what to do now! Would obviously love to have the NHS funded round but unsure if there will be a lot of waiting still from this stage. I already have a referral from a private consultant who also works in the NHS and have all our tests done so not sure if this would speed up the NHS process - any advice? Thanks!

Just to clarify by a referral I mean he has already said on it we should have IVF with ICSI so I’m hoping we could not have to do too much more investigation with NHS and just go ahead with treatment

@Sunshine180 it's a difficult one. Exactly the same thing happened to us only a little further down the line and I decided to stick with Belfast fertility. But have been stuck on that train ever since and if you go through 3(I think) private cycles you are no longer entitled to your nhs round so we never got our free round.

It's definitely worth a phone to see timescales and what needs to happen in RFC before you make your decision

@TTC6 thanks for your advice. Yes I do think we will probably go ahead with TFP as even a six month wait just feels too long ring now and we all know how inefficient the NHS can be.

im going to ring them tomorrow and make our initial appointment at RFC anyway and see what happens from there. I know that they fast track older patients too which ofc I understand but also wonder will that make it a slower process for us and would we be better just staying private

@Sunshine180 I think it took 7 months from first consultation before we were ready to start with RFC. That includes review appointment and consents. Although I will add we were late on booking our review due to being sick .
Worth checking as I have a friend currently awaiting to start treatment with them and things seem to be moving along a bit quicker at min

@MoonIightDreamer thanks for sharing your experience. I think when I got the letter earlier it just threw me off a bit because we’ve been really looking forward to starting with TFP and happy with our plan then I felt like we could have had it funded all along! But now we’ve had time to think about it we just don’t want to have to wait any longer.

I have seen on the RFC website atm it says 4 month waiting list to start treatment. I take it we’re currently not even on that waiting list so we’re probably looking at 5/6 months from now to start with them. I’m thinking by then we would have been through a whole cycle with TFP and either (fingers crossed) not need the NHS round or if needed will then be at the top of the list for it.

I think we will go ahead with TFP but also book the NHS appointments for now knowing how long it takes between their appointments!

@MoonIightDreamer just to update I rang this morning and was able to get an RFC appointment before Christmas - much sooner than expected!

it is at the grove well-being clinic? Have you been here and do you know if there a car park please?

@Sunshine180 yes grove wellbeing is where rfc carry out all their inital appointments. It's only after consents that patients are moved to the rfc building in the royal.
There's a carpark attached to the grove centre and if I remember correctly there's also an area across the road for parking aswell. We found parking very easy at it

@MoonIightDreamer thats great, thanks

just to update we had our initial consultation this morning and because we’ve already had all our tests done he was happy to add us straight to the treatment waiting list which at the minute is 4 months so I think we are going to hold out and wait on the NHS list for now!

That’s great news!! We are waiting on our doctor consultation in Craigavon, but we have all tests done… so good to know the wait isn’t that long once you are referred.

@Sunshine180 that's great. I hope your cycle goes well. Your in great hands.
Do you know which consultant you have

@TTC6 when were you referred? Ours was don’t at the beginning of august and we received the letter last week to book our appointment so hopefully that will give you a timescale!

yes I was glad that he was happy enough with the tests that we already had and didn’t feel the need for more! He just did another scan of me for their records as my other one was done privately and a rubella blood test which I would have had to have anyway.

@MoonIightDreamer we seen Dr McManus today and he seemed great, does that mean we will see him the whole way through now?

@Sunshine180 we had John mcmanus too. We thought he was brilliant. Some doctors are so clinical but he's so casual and made us feel really relaxed. We had him the whole way through, bar one appointment but he did our retrieval and transfer.
I think that's what put us off other clinics as you never see the same consultant twice. On our pregnancy scan at rfc we saw Dr ogbaje, he was lovely too and I think he works at tfp aswell as rfc.
If we were doing a round again I think we'd go back to RFC since a. It's cheaper doing a private round with rfc than tfp and b. I felt really supported by the whole team. If I needed to message them which I did alot, they responded immediately. We didn't get treated any differently because we were nhs. Ive heard alot of people in other clinics complain about that. We usually always saw the same nurses aswell so you get familiar with the team

@MoonIightDreamer oh that’s great to hear you had a good experience with him too! Yes I liked his more casual approach whilst still being so knowledgable, it made the whole thing feel a bit less scary!

Sorry you’ve already said but I’ve read so many posts I can’t remember - was it your first fresh transfer that was successful?How many weeks are you now? Do you have to go to RFC all through your pregnancy now or will you be transferred to your local maternity unit?

Hi everyone, how are you all getting on? Does anyone know if you have a private round of IVF, are you still eligible for the free NHS round after, assuming the private round is not successful? Thanks

@TTC12 in NI you can have 2 private rounds before you lose NHS round. Have you had a private round and are now wanting to try NHS?

That’s great to know, thanks! I think we are going to go ahead with private round. We are currently waiting to be seen by the consultant after all the tests at Craigavon… but have been told one of the consultants is off sick, so there could be a delay in that appointment coming through. To put into context-we were referred by GP Sept 22… and still not spoken to a consultant, so getting abit fed up waiting.

@TTC12 ah that’s so frustrating!! The craigavon waiting lists seem to be a lot longer than Belfast. Hopefully you are able to get started soon. The wait is the worst.

have you rang to see where you are on the list? I’ve heard horror stories of people’s referrals being lost etc so I always ring to make sure we’re actually on the list. We got our fertility referral done privately in July 2023 and seen the consultant in December.

@TTC12 that is so frustrating. I know how hard waiting can be so I hope you get sorted one way or another soon.

Is anyone likely be be going through a cycle in Feb/March? We signed up to TFP via Access and had our planning apt pre-Christmas. We are expecting to get our schedule sometime this week.