IVF Greece

[Sheepsheeps]

Hi everyone,

After spending an eye-watering amount on IVF in a UK clinic and having a failed FET, at nearly 43 I feel that my husband and I only really have a last ditched attempt if we do another round now. My current clinic has pretty much refused to let us do another round unless we agree to PGT-A test pur embryos. We are against testing for various reasons but this just isn't being listened to by our clinic. It will take too long to transfer to another UK clinic so have thought about enquiring abroad, particularly Greece. We have serious male factor and low AMH.
I'm very nervous about going abroad, language barrier etc so am looking for recommendations etc before it's too late for us.
I feel sick that our clinic is insisting we follow their protocol in order to not affect their success rates. A few other clinics I've enquired at dismiss us because of our age. Surely someone will try and help us achieve our dream even if its unsuccessful, we just want to give it a fair chance 😔😔

Or Reprofit in the Czech Republic??

Hi Sheepsheeps

I would recommend Serum in Greece. They seem to be ahead of Ireland/UK in every clinical way and so much more personable. Everyone in the clinic are fluent English speakers.
It can be daunting thinking of having to travel abroad but they will assist with flights, transfers and accommodation. As far as I know, Greece provide ivf to women until age 50.

hi:)
after couple of failed transfers in UK and after realizing that the clinic that we were didn’t properly investigate our case(they missed that I had a hydrosalpinx that needed to be removed and insisted on another FET🤯) we decided to go to Greece for another try.
we’re originally from Greece so obviously it is way easier for us but I must say the treatments are way more personalized here than in UK.
Your Dr is the one that will do all ultrasounds, surgeries obv if needed, egg collections, embryo transfers, always available in his personal phone number etc while in UK you have to deal with all sort of nurses, drs if you lucky enough lol
tbh with you I think that matters a lot as lots of misinformation and miscommunication occurred in our case in UK
if really thinking about it just be cautious on choosing a clinic not all of them have the best interests in heart but that’s everywhere I guess.

wish you lots of luck and baby dust🩵

@Farmersal hi! Thank you for your reply. Whatafe you choose Serum over another clinic? How different eas their protocol to that in the UK? Did you get more eggs/better fertilisation, more blasts etc? I feel very overwhelmed with selecting a new clinic and I never thought I'd even be considering moving esp to a clinic overseas! Which clinic were you at in the UK if you don't mind sharing?

@CB2805 hi! Thank you for your reply. Which clinic did you choose in Greece and what made you select them over everyone else? I've heard they are much more patient focused than the UK. We really are in a difficult situation as I'm almost 43 with a very low AMH so our chances of success are very low but we just want a doctor to give us a chance without pressurising us into PGT-A testing which we don't want to do. I can't bear being told I have to destroy blasts because they're aneuploid if I only have 1 or 2. It's taken us nearly 2 years to collect 6 blasts after after 7 gruelling rounds of IVF and 2 surgeries later. I just can't face binning them 😔
Which clinic were you at in the UK if you don't mind me asking?

Hi again:)
well at the moment I’m at Genesis Athens with Dr Bathrelos(not sure if that’s the correct spelling of his name in English fy) and the dr was actually the reason I’m with that clinic. So pretty much our choosing was based on the dr rather than the clinic.
The reason we chose him was pretty much a miracle that he achieved a pregnancy with one of my close friends.
she was a hard case tbh 44+ and no stims were giving her any eggs. So she ended up naturally for a year collecting an egg every month. Obv was very hard some months she didn’t had any some months she had one but wasn’t good also some months she wasn’t even getting her period etc, also all sort of different problems with lining and previous surgeries but she made it 2nd transfer and has her precious boy now:)
a proper miracle! Most probably if I was in her shoes I would give up tbh
Anyway, my story it’s a bit different but I decided to go with that dr just because he’s first of all human and he cares about how you would feel not just his pocket (which it’s something very common here)
currently in my 2WW and im not feeling quite optimistic so don’t get me wrong its 100% some luck involved in the whole IVF story🤪
I used to be with Manchester Fertility in UK which online they seemed great and everything with good success numbers but I think they specialize more with same sex couples.

anyway wish you all the best

@CB2805 thank you that's very useful information. We want a doctor that cares about us not the clinics reputation! We just been told by our current clinic that unless we're prepared to pgta test our embryos they won't do any further collections. We've spent close to 80k now with this clinic and I'm not prepared to throw away all our hard work on one genetic test!!! I'm very frightened to go to a clinic abroad as I don't know what the implications are or how leaving the EU has affected things etc. I'm also fed up of every consultation starting with 'have you given anymore thought to donor eggs yet.....'
How much does each cycle cost you roughly??
Fingers crossed your 2ww results in success!! This is such a cruel process isn't it?

Hi, I don’t believe you should have any issues with Brexit as you can still travel for 3 months as a tourist.
May I ask you why you don’t want to pgta your embryos? Tbh with u if this cycle will be unsuccessful as well it’s something that I would consider.
You should research something called PRP of ovaries, it’s a therapy that apparently helps a lot with low AMH and it’s available in Greece.
A cycle roughly comes to 3-4K depends on medication and ET

hope that helps and don’t worry to come abroad for your treatment Greece is a lovely country and people are so nice

@CB2805 we don't want to test them because it's taken nearly 2yrs to collect 6 so if we test them and they're all aneuploid then they automatically get destroyed in the UK. Its been proven that its only 98% accurate which means 2 out of every 100 could be normal and are destroyed unnecessarily. We just can't face having our embryos destroyed and throwing 2yrs of hard work away without giving them a chance.
I've also had 2 friends have PGT-A normal embryos not work on transfer so it proves that its not always failsafe. HEFA also don't think it's necessary and have it as a red add-on on their site too.
I'm still very much in the dark about where to even start about choosing a clinic in Greece. Do they have a governing body such as HEFA??

I completely understand your point of view and I must say I completely agree with what you saying.
for me it’s just a thought as everything always seems soo perfect on everything, blood works, hormones, sperm, egg quantity, lining everything for them seems perfect and as an EASY case but 3 transfers later with A grade embryos all of them and I can’t still get pregnant , and I’m not even talking about a healthy pregnancy but I never had a positive pregnancy test in my life. So we really need to start looking into either our embryos or my womb as something obv is not right🤷🏻‍♀️ also I’ve read in the past that even when you produce lots of embryos after stims just 1 or 2 of them are actually good. Anyway it’s something that I need to discuss with my consultant as it’s worrying me a lot.
sorry to talk so much about that but I’m really overwhelmed
back to the original talk yes they do have an authority in Greece not sure how it’s called tho and I’m sure it’s part of HEFA, which here is the same about embryo testing it’s on red since 2012 and back in the days anyone could test embryos but now you have to put a request through them and they only approve testing in severe cases of 5+ either loses or not successfully ETs.
I would say start searching
http://www.genesisathens.gr/en/ that’s the clinic that I’m currently with not a fancy website that attracts but I guarantee you some of the best doctors in the field are there. Dr Pados is quite famous but not sure how personalized would be the treatment with him as I know he’s quite busy.
https://www.ivf-embryo.gr/en?gclid=Cj0KCQjw06-oBhC6ARIsAGuzdw2baaL4HGrqKhvM8-JOuUGwjhkRLD4r-8LI2MTR06J9NcT21zoYZQQaAvCLEALw_wcB then that’s the clinic that I know they specialize in PRP and I have friend that they helped her with low AMH, but don’t have more info about them
hope that helps and gives you some food for thought:)

Also just found this 🩵
https://www.magazine.medicaltourism.com/article/top-5-ivf-centers-in-greece-echoing-the-legends-of-life#:~:text=1.,Genesis%20Athens%20Clinic&text=A%20pioneer%20in%20the%20realm,of%20high%20clinical%20pregnancy%20rates.

Hello - just popping on to say that I did a fresh round and a FET at Serum and whilst they were lovely, would not personally recommend them. Feel free to message me to ask more if you would like.

We ended up returning to a UK clinic but there is another in Greece that I would have used if we'd continued cycles out there.

@SchnitzelVonCrummsTum thank you for your reply. I've pm'd you!

Dear all

I am also interested in an IVF clinic in Athens but I am after one where they also have egg donation as I am 47 and I want to use egg donation to reduce the risk of not having good eggs.

1. Do you know of any IVF clinics in Athens that also provide egg donation and there is no waiting list (or significant waiting list)?
2. Is there a time limit in Athens where women can do IVF with donor eggs?

I also have Hashimoto hypothyrodism, thyroid antibodies and high NK cells and need to be having steroids and IVIG.

Thank you in advance.

We first flew to Athens to have uterine biopsy and Chicago tests at Serum.
We weren't fully convinced by their treatment proposals and in the end we chose Czech Republic. We had our first round of IVF at Reprofit, then did another round with IVF Clinic, CZ - we now have two euploid embryos in the freezer.

All the Greek doctors we've met either online or in-person spoke excellent English. Czech doctors less so, but we found them somewhat more trustworthy in our personal experience of course
.
Other factors that influenced our decisions:

• distance from the UK and flight durations
• we are more comfortable getting around in CZ than in GR - driving in Athens was scary and stressful
• Admins/coordinators at Serum and Reprofit weren't most sympathetic

Feel free to PM me if anyone is interested in hearing more about the clinics mentioned above.

Hi @SchnitzelVonCrummsTum may I ask why you would not recommend serum? I am contemplating going in October still not certain.
Thanks