Guys hospital IVF

[CEllenx]

Hey
I am a 30 year old women trying to conceive-
Currently trying to find a good IVF clinic - awaiting to see if I’m eligible on the NHS

Does anyone have any experience with IVF treatment at Guys Hospital ? NHS or private ?

• how long did it take for your funding to be accepted?
• what was the waiting times like ?
• was you successful?
• how did you find the doctors/consultants?
• did the male partners BMI have to be included ?

I’d appreciate any response :)

Hi @CEllenx

We are currently at guys hospital having NHS funded treatment. DP and I are mid 30s, I have PCOS and DP has severe MFI. We are due to start IVF next month so can't comment on success just yet. But if we weren't NHS funded, I wouldn't choose to go private there. Have had to do a lot of chasing! And admin can be rude!

To answer your questions:
From Guys applying for funding, decision is back within 6 weeks. There is no waiting list to start IVF. We had appointment early December. They have just contacted me to start January. Would have been quicker if not Christmas.
Consultants have been ok (apart from 1 who didn't have a clue regarding DP condition).
And with regards to partners BMI - depends on your ICB/CCG criteria. Ours stated both partners below 30, other areas are different.

Hope that helps x

We had second appointment on the 15/11/23 .the doctor recommended ivf we took blood test both of us .waiting for an answer from CCG .exactly 6 weeks today still nothing.

Is that the south east London CCG? I hope you hear back soon !

Yes .today is exactly 6 weeks .still nothing .

My experience with Guys NHS funded side has been excellent so far.

Funding through South East London CCG came within 4 weeks (this was September 30th, funding was approved October 20th, with appointment with consultant October 24th).

I was offered to start with my Dec 3rd cycle but I had a short trip booked so delayed until my cycle starting around now.

I’ve never had to chase them, everyone we have dealt with has been nothing but lovely and professional.

Both me and my partner are 36, trying for 3 years with no luck. I have an AMH of 6, he has MFI across the 3 biggies - volume, motility and morphology, 2nd analysis had good improvements on the 1st after starting supplements (Proxeed Plus, and then Wellman).

Medications are in the fridge, just waiting for day 1 to start (possibly today, waiting to see if it’s full on or just spotting…) scan is booked for Jan 2nd, but if it has started today I’ll need to call for an appointment tomorrow.

Oh also, only my BMI has ever been checked and taken into consideration. They’ve never weighed Partner or taken down his BMI - this is South East London CCG.

good luck!

Have you contacted the ccg directly ? My friend did

I keep calling the number I found .but no answer .direct to answer machine.south east London cog

@Chakar try this email - I got a reply from them when I was asking stuff few weeks ago
[email protected]

@LIVFingOnAPrayer19 which ccg did you apply to ? x

South east London

@CEllenx Kent & Medway ccg

@CEllenx I'm afraid I wouldn't recommend Guys unless you are NHS funded.

Our round was a few years ago now but they were almost impossible to get in touch with and made huge errors in our cycle that nearly led to it failing. The admin was also really disorganised and they spent a year chasing me for payment for a fee that I had already paid and only gave up when I was able to prove I paid it.

We only went there as it was our only NHS option. Having said all that, it was a successful round but only because I was on the ball and alerted them to their mistake.

I won't comment on waiting times as it was 5 years ago tho sounds similar from previous posters. Not long.

Best of luck with IVF. It is a hard process but can have amazing results.

@LouP87 have they weighed you? So far they are just taking what I'm telling them. Am a couple of lb over what I need to be (but am losing weight). They've asked me to email my current weight so that they can get me in for baseline scan, meds etc for cycle to start in Feb. Debating on telling them the weight I need to be in the hope I've lost it by my appointment.

They weighed me a couple of times before and have just weighed me again before my baseline scan - wrote this and subsequent BMI down on the egg collection paperwork to get everything ready for the procedure

I also wouldn't recommend them and I certainly wouldn't pay Guys privately.

I believe they are one of the busiest clinics in the UK, which in practice means very little individualised care - it's a bit like a sardine factory.

As PP mentioned, I've also experienced rude and untrained admin staff, dismissive doctors and unbelievably callous nurses.

I did eventually have a successful pregnancy (after fighting tooth and nail to actually be listened to properly) but the thought of having to give them thousands of pounds to use my frozen embryos makes me feel physically sick.

If I had my time again I would've chosen to go to Kings instead.

@RiverRiot I'm so sorry you had a negative experience (as did I and others I know). Just wanted to check you are aware that you can move embryos to another clinic and go to Kings or anywhere else for your frozen. I moved mine from Guys. You obviously have to deal with their admin to do so but better than doing a frozen cycle there. I used embryoport to transport them who were great but there are others that are cheaper I think. X

Thanks @Janefx40, I'm sorry you had a crappy time with them too.
I briefly looked into moving the embryos a while ago and if we ever decide to use them will definitely go ahead with that so really appreciate your recommendation of which company to use! Thank you. x

@Chakar did you manage to find out if your application has been successful yet? X

@LouP87 did they weigh you with your clothes on ? X

Yes clothes and shoes on

Yes .my husband went there and asked.they told him everything is ok .at the same time they sent me a txt message,I had to give them my email address.
now I’m just waiting for the next step.

Just received and email asking me to fill in a questionnaire me and my husband , which we did fill and sent . not sure what to expect next .

@Chakar just filled in my questionnaire too- awaiting to see if the CCG will accept my application. Did you attend your first appointment for IVF yet? - if so what happened what did you have to do ? X

Yes . I had my first appointment last week . They explain to us everything.i had scan and some blood test .she told me I have to wait up to 6 weeks for test results to come back . I think because I have half brothers albinos. I’m 33 years my amh is only 6.6 so the can only retrieve 5 to 6 eggs . Fingers crossed .

@Chakar did your partner have tests done aswell ? Ah okay so you can start after your results are back , 6 weeks must feel like ages x