The beginning of the private IVF process - so many questions, help!

[omgz]

Hi all - apologies in advance for this long post...

I'm a bit bummed out to be at this point, but after finally having our first appointment at the NHS fertility centre this week (after going to the GP in November), we've been told the wait list for IVF is a year.

I'm nearly 36, and we've had 14 cycles with no luck, so a year wait is just not feasible for us and we'll need to go private. I have loads of questions and hoped someone might be able to help as I want to get cracking (no egg-based pun intended).

Timing
All my patience and reasonableness has gone out of the window after wasting 7 months waiting calmly for that NHS appointment. We're off on holiday in a week, and back just before the end of my current cycle. I'd ideally like to start treatment in my next cycle in July. My job means that treatment in the summer would be much much easier than from October onwards.

• Is this sort of turnaround possible? Especially as we're considering an Access funding package.
• Should I be sorting stuff out before we go away, or can it wait until we're back?
• Can you do back to back cycles of treatment or do you have to leave a gap between?

Clinic choice
We're based in East London, with normal test results (semen analysis, pelvic ultrasound, AFC, hormone profiles). I don't need lots of handholding, I just want something that is good value and effective. Cost is definitely a factor, but I think we could manage up to about £15k-ish total (and we're considering Access/Gaia).

• What clinic would you recommend?
• Is there anything else we should be considering? I've looked at HFEA website success rates etc.

Funding

• What are your experiences with Access and Gaia? Why did you pick one over the other?
• What test results did Access need for the medical?
• Any other funding options I've missed?

Any help for some or any of these questions would be so gratefully received. Thanks :)

I would definitely go private if you can afford it. There are some clinics offering packages and some with money back if no joy. You'll have lots of choice in London and there is one (can't remember the name) with particularly high success rates.

I have gone with an NHS clinic which does private too and I think the timescale to get started is 3/4 months. You'll have some tests and consents to do.

All the best!

@omgz I’ll be honest, IVF private or NHS is still a bit of a waiting game! Obviously when you’re on a list with NHS it’s much slower, but things don’t happen instantly when you’re private either.

You’re very unlikely to start your treatment cycle in July. You’ll need a consult with the clinic, and they’ll likely want to do tests. To give you an idea, I had internal scan, HSG, bloods etc during fertility investigations at hospital, then was referred for ivf, and the ivf clinic then wanted me to have internal scan for AFC (follicle count) before our initial consultation. Once that is sorted, you’ll have to sign consents, wait for your protocol, order meds, have viral bloods.

I’m private now and got funding sorted in about 2 weeks but I already had a treatment plan. They wanted a treatment plan on file before we could be enrolled. I’m with CARE, I understand their funding is similar to Access Fertility. I imagine it’ll be fairly similar there but I’m not 100% how it works.

What I would say though is that you can certainly get the ball rolling by July, or before your holiday. Get a consultation in the diary. I’d say you’re probably looking at 2-3 months before starting medication if they’re quick and there’s not much waiting.

Can’t help you with clinic choice though. We’re East Midlands and the lack of choices and proximity of our clinic made it an easy choice. That is something to think about though, you’ll be there a lot during stims, so close to work/home makes it easier to juggle.

Hey Op. I had private treatment at a clinic with no wait times and it still took about 3 months from the initial enquiry to my first cycle. In my experience they will want to run all tests again (as your NHS results will now be several months old) which is the reason for the time delay. Get the ball rolling now if you are hoping for a round before October.

I used access but wasn't eligible for any of their refund packages and just did a straight forward 2 cycle package. Access do require medical test information for the refund packages but not for the multi round non refund packages.

I also have a job where cycles after October are difficult (an academic?). Check if your workplace has an ivf policy. I found out mine did and I was able to take time off for egg collection and transfer without using annual leave.

It's highly unlikely you will be able to do back to back egg collections, most clinics require at least a month off in between. You'll probably want that though, a fresh cycle is hard on the body.

With a set budget be careful with your clinic choice. In some clinics 15k would only cover 1 round of treatment (e.g. ARGC). Access packages don't tend to include the medication prices, so be sure to budget for meds. My access costs were £7600 for two rounds. The meds for those rounds were another £6000. In total, I spend about £14500 for all tests and meds for 2 fresh cycles (I didn't have spare embryos for FETs).

Shop around and best of luck.

Thanks everyone for the replies. They’ve been really helpful. I’ve started research on clinics to hopefully get things rolling properly once we’re back from holiday.

hi OP! I have just completed a cycle with ABC IVF (am waiting for transfer due to OHSS). From first appointment to completing IVF was less than 4 weeks for me… they were excellent at responding and cracking on with appointments. I know ABC isn’t for everyone due to their streamlined approach, but I managed to get 6 embryos out of it so there can be success!

On costs, with IVF, all tests (semen analysis etc) and a frozen transfer we’ll be down about £4500. Obviously it will be more if we need more than 1 transfer for success, but for us very worthwhile given NHS wait times.

@Superstorefan123 Ah this is really interesting, thanks. I’ve been looking at ABC and was unsure whether it was a good idea or not. I meet the eligibility criteria, and it seems to be the most affordable but I’d read that mild IVF is less effective. 6 embryos is great though! Maybe it’s worth a punt for the first go.

And good luck for your transfer!

@omgz
Hi! I went private as didn't want to wait for NHS delays. Our clinic was Care Fertility and they accepted my husbands semen analysis results from NHS and my blood results, but did AMH and antral follicle count scans again as they're very pertinent to the protocol they put you on and should be done within 3 months of starting a cycle.

I had wanted to start ASAP but had to wait for meds to be delivered which pushed it to the next cycle, but still started within 2 months of deciding on the clinic.

Costs wise, I was horrified to find that when doing a cycle, any frozen transfers after the first fresh are charged at £2200. This seems similar to alot of other clinics I've looked at. My clinic had a multicycle package which cost £8800 for two prepaid rounds of IVF with ICSI (male factor infertility for us so needed ICSI). That included the embryoscope so no disturbing the embryos for 5 days and time lapse footage of them dividing to embryologist can grade them accurately. It also covered any and all frozen transfers. We ended up with 6 blastocyst, so that would have added up to well over 12 grand had we needed to use them all on tries. In the end we got pregnant on the first frozen transfer after fresh failed, but it just balanced out the money of what would have been if we'd paid for a single cycle plus one frozen. It could have saved us allt of money, and it definitely took the pressure of that first round as we knew we'd have another (that we now won't use but still, it breaks even with if we hadn't done a multicycle).

Hope that info helps!

@Imisscoffee2021 That’s super helpful thank you! Do you mind me asking how much medication was on top?

@omgz it was about £2000 for fresh cycle round, and then about £300 for frozen as that was just progesterone and oestradiol tablets, but when I got pregnant from that frozen embryo I took progesterone injections til 12 weeks as a precaution as mine was a little low, which were £100 a week, expensive! But not everyone needs that, cheap pessaries work for most. Cost depends on protocol, if long protocol usually pricier due to added meds, I was on short :)