Hi all,
My partner and I were recently referred to a fertility clinic on the NHS - I have had very irregular periods for the past year and suspect there is an issue with ovulation (a previous private scan show polycystic ovaries, but I do not have hormonal symptoms that would suggest the syndrome so it's all a bit unknown - have always had very regular periods in the past) - this referral will take months understandably as it is NHS so we are looking at going private for the moment as I am 35 in Feb.
It's a bit of a minefield shopping around, and hard to get a sense of how much costs might eventually be as right now I think the next step is ovulation induction rather than IVF and there is less info on this. My job (teacher) also makes it quite difficult to get to appointments in the day and so this is a limiting factor - lots of clinics do not seem to operate evenings/weekends.
We have an initial Fertility MOT appointment with Guys & St Thomas' ACU who seem to be good and the benefit is that they have evening appointments; they can also do all testing there and then. The downside seems to be the cost of OI, which is very expensive when compared to other clinics - £800 per round which does not include medication which they say is £600-£800. This is in comparison to e.g. King's Fertility who have an initial cost of £165, and then add to this depending on what scans etc are needed. There's also a private women's clinic in Dulwich who prescribe letrozole for not much at all and then follow-up scans are £250.
Essentially, I was wondering if people have experience of transferring between fertility clinics and is it possible to do this without "starting from scratch" regarding blood tests/scans/semen analysis etc? I would like to attend this initial appointment at G&ST ACU as it is in the diary now and works for both me and my partner logistically and this would at least help us understand the situation and what is in fact the best next step. But if it is indeed OI, it might be better for us to look elsewhere as costs do add up so quickly and given that OI really is not much more than taking clomid/letrozole prescription and monitoring scans (far less "involved" than other procedures) would rather go somewhere a bit more reasonable
Hope that makes sense as a question! Any advice/experiences much appreciated.