CREATE fertility Birmingham

[Stillwaiting2016]

Hi all im not sure if this place is the right place to post, i have low AMH levels im 35 y/o and my husband has low morphology and motility do sperm is not great and i was looking to go with CREATE fertility Birmingham. I wanted to ask your experience with them if you did or have gone with them? Thank you x

Hi @Stillwaiting2016

I'm currently with Create Birmingham. I have high AMH and husband has low morphology (1%) so was recommended we go for ICSI.

We had the egg collection in November but due to my Estrogen levels being too high, we went for a freeze all so will be doing a frozen embryo transfer in the new year.

In terms of experience, the level of care is faultless. Having a high AMH meant that I was at high risk of OHSS but they ensured I was on low stims and was monitored closely with blood tests. We had scans every two days and I was so shocked to not have any side effects or downtime after the collection.

I know a lot of people do complain about the admin but I've always had a response the same day or the next from my patient coordinator. Working in admin myself, I know it takes a lot of work and it's good to remember we're not the only patient they're working with.

The nurses and consultants are really approachable and have always answered our long lists of questions!

All the best with your journey!

Hello @Maddie23 thank you so much, so i have noticed that the main issue with CREATE fertility Birmingham is Admin, did you pay for treatment or are you going through with the NHS? If you paid do you mind sharing how much it cost please.

My husband also has low Morphology so may be going for ICSI again, just worried as i have low AMH (3.6) not sure what the out come would be.

wishing you all the best @Maddie23 xx

Hi we used Create Birmingham for two cycles a while back. We found them very poor for male factor. They didn’t seem experienced in dealing with it at all. Obviously may have changed and I was happy enough with my side of the treatment so wouldn’t necessarily advise against using them but might be worth pushing the male side in your initial consultation to get a feel for whether you think they’ll be ok.

Hello @Sunshinebytheseaside thank you for sharing your experience, when you say you found them very poor for male factor infertility what do you mean, sorry just want to know what i should look out for and the kind of questions i should ask. Thank you x

Hi @Stillwaiting2016 I am/was with them, and have been quite disappointed with this journey.

Admin is very very bad, they almost forgot to do ICSI on my first cycle. Whilst I did not make a formal complaint I wrote an honest review on trustpilot. They improved slightly afterwards (although they did not address it personally with me) but in hindsight I will not use them again.

I think I am a relatively straightforward case and I think because of that they are quite negligent. The doctor said he has done everything (at my last failed transfer consultation) and that he was going to write up a findings report for me before he goes on leave and 6 weeks later I still have not received it. I have asked for my notes and they are rather useless notes, which makes me think they do not keep notes of a patient. I have done 2 transfers with them.

I am looking to transport my embryos so I can do the FET elsewhere.

My advice is if you can afford Create, you can afford to go abroad for treatment. That’s my next plan of action.

If you do decide to go with Create, triple check all your invoices and meds. I almost got overcharged too many times.

@MsPeony thank you so much i really appreciate you sharing your experience. This is also which i read a lot about, im feeling so nervous and full of anxiety.

i was with CARE fertility nottingham the first round but felt like it was all rushed and i was treated just as a number, but now im just so lost on what i should do.

Just as an aside if you are considering clinics we went with priory Birmingham. Preferred that it was more consultant led and no admin staff- spoke directly with a nurse etc every time. One egg collection successful- under general anaesthetic as standard, and one successful pregnancy from fresh transfer. Now pregnant again with first FET. They tailor it so much, don’t charge for unnecessary extras and give honest advice. Also were careful to not make me buy all drugs at once so only ever brought what we needed and when to keep costs down.

@Stillwaiting2016 there were a few things really. When my husband did his initial semen analysis (which they insisted on despite us telling them it would be rubbish!) they just said there were too few sperm to analyse and we’d need ICSI (which we already knew). Our previous clinic had spun it in a centrifuge (think that’s right!) to make a pellet suitable for analysis so my husband asked if they’d done that and they didn’t seem to know what he was talking about. The day after egg collection when they rang to tell me none of the eggs had fertilised they just kept saying how poor the sperm was. Again, we knew that, that was why we were there! The embryologist who called seemed in shock, I ended up comforting him! They had no suggestions what they could do differently, we asked about a few add-ons, they didn’t do any of them, they suggested DNA testing but when we looked into it further, a minimum number of sperm are required which we were way off. So all in all, they didn’t inspire confidence. The zero fertilisation happened twice at which point we decided to cut our losses and cancel the last cycle of our 3 cycle package and to be honest they seemed relieved not to have to deal with us. Hope this helps. As I say I don’t want to put you off as your experience might be different and I’m sure others with perhaps less severe male factor have had success with Create, it’s just better to be prepared.

Hello @Goingcrazy23 thank you so much, not heard Birmingham priory but sounds very in touch i will look into this, thank you x

@Sunshinebytheseaside I understand, definitely will be thinking about it now and will be asking lots of questions. Thank you x

Hi there I had twins via Create Birmingham.
Back in 2020 - the admin at the time were excellent but one particular employee left who was very good and after that I did feel post lockdown things had started to change and treatment felt rushed - I think they took on too much as there was a huge backlog of understandably desperate patients from the NHS - NHS hospital clinics were much slower to reopen - and also Create does a lot of treatment for ABC patients. The personal treatment that I had felt I had in the previous 18 months definitely changed. I felt like I had to constantly challenge otherwise they'd be content to just plod on with the same treatment and as they don't really do many add ons they aren't too experienced with anything more than dealing with low AMH patients

I've heard equally poor feedback from friends who have used the Priory and also Care in Birmingham though

If the nurses and Dr Datta are still there from 2020 though I'd still whole heartedly recommend

Thank you so much @hanschristmassolo

Hi all,

Just thought i would give you a update, i was booked in today for my follow up consultation after my baseline scan, it didnt go ahead as the consultant did not turn yo for the meeting! I had to chase CREATE to find out what’s happening only to be told they’re unsure and will get back to me. No one got back to me, not a very good start at all. Just breaks your trust and its so hard choosing fertility clinics as it is.

Sorry to hear this @Stillwaiting2016 how annoying. I’d be tempted to write off the consultant not turning up as that must be a one-off and will surely never happen (to you) again. The poor comms and failed promises would bother me more as they suggest something more systemic. Hope things improve if you decide to go ahead with treatment there.

@Sunshinebytheseaside thank you for your message. Not sure if i want to go ahead with them, theres been so many comments on various pages about them having poor communication and to actually go through it today kind of has put me off, a hour later they managed to finally tell me what happened the consultant was busy in theatre, however to start with they had no idea why it was delayed. I have it rescheduled for next week now, im going to go ahead with it as its all paid but definitely looking at other places. Was alSo looking Nurture Fertility but not sure how good they are, i hope you are okay x

Hi OP, we had a cycle with Birmingham Create and we weren't at all happy with them, particularly how they handled DHs side. Happy to talk further if you want to PM, but in short, we wouldn't recommend them at all for male factor fertility issues.