Choosing clinic for NHS-funded round London - advice/experiences?

[whysohardtogetusername]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this but have been lurking on the board. We're lucky enough to be funded for one NHS IVF round and have been told we have a choice of anywhere in London and also Oxford (?) if we want. We need to let them know where we want to go.

We live in north east London and I work in Westminster so Guys and UCLH would be fairly simple to go from work to appointments etc. My tests are all coming back fine although awaiting AMH result, partner's sperm analysis low end motility and morphology but technically 'passes', a bit of a C+ result was the impression I got. He has since quit drinking entirely and is taking supplements, we are going to retest soon to see if those stats have improved. Both 35, turning 36 this year. Normal BMI. Been trying over 2 years.

The options talked about were:

• Homerton - anecdotally I've heard waits can be 13 months, so I'd rule this out
• St Barts - had a bad experience with them for another reason, so not keen to use unless anyone has had a great experience?
• UCLH
• Kings
• Guys
• maybe Chelsea and Westminster?
• And then there are private clinics, e.g. CREATE, that take NHS funding?

Anyone who has had IVF recently at any of these clinics, what was the waiting time like? My instinct is to just go with the shortest wait time if I can find it out. (Also, has anyone just called up clinics and asked about waiting time? Any luck with that?😂)

And then did you have a good/bad experience? And did you use any frozen embryos privately following treatment at the same clinic or another one? If first round doesn't work I am keen to go into private asap if we have any frozen embryos.

Thanks in advance!

Update: I have also JUST seen there's a whole thread about Guys recently so will go look there!

@whysohardtogetusername I would avoid guys. I'm about to start nhs funded treatment there but have been under them for some time. If we weren't nhs funded we would have gone elsewhere (unfortunately I did try looking to move our funded but was told we couldn't). There are similar comments to this on the recent guys thread which you may have found.

I've heard some good things about kings. If my nhs funded rounds don't work, this is probably where I will look next.

Thanks, yes it sounded like a bit of a factory. My friend had her IVF there and was successful, but I think her issues were fairly straightforward.

Kings sounds good, but it's a lot further to travel for me. C'est la vie, I guess.

Hiya. I conceived both my sons at Kings (second was Apr 23). I thought they were good - professional, responsive, great facilities etc. The only downside is you rarely see the same doctor twice but I think that’s common in NHS funded/NfP clinics.

Advice I had from a expensive London clinic was that the IVF process is basically the same regardless of where you have it and the success rates are extremely similar, so the rest is about where you feel most comfortable. I think I’d probably look at wait times too (defitniely think you could ring and ask) - for my most recent transfer they were ready for me pretty much straight away. It’s usually the initial consultant appt that takes time, then the rest follows quite quickly.

Best of luck!

Sorry I should have said that my first round was NHs funded but we paid privately after that. We decided to stay with Kings as we trusted them and I liked that they don’t make a profit as I thought they were less likely to sell snake oil treatments etc. they were also relatively good value for money

This is really helpful, thanks.

@whysohardtogetusername is it okay to ask what borough you live in? I live in waltham forest and have been told by my GP I can only be referred to Barts (Homerton was the other option, but it's now been closed down). Was your GP able to refer you to private clinics with less wait time?

Sorry if this is a bit late. But to be honest that's concerning as I'm also in Waltham Forest. I wasn't referred via GP but via north mids fertility service who did all the fertility tests. They told me I can choose any clinic but didn't mention private specifically as an option, but they did list barts, guys and kings as options. When I spoke to the nurse on the phone she said guys and kings are good. The service was a bit crap at giving info on what to chose and how we can choose, just sent us to the HFEA website and said 'choose a clinic' then called me randomly one day and asked which one I'd chosen. Whole process I wasn't very impressed by but I guess they tried their best. I have since started asking if I can record appointments to check back any info I've been given later. So worth pushing your GP on Barts if they say that's your only option and you are concerned, my understanding is under the NHS right to choose you can go anywhere in London for your IVF, even Oxford if you want. I liked what I heard about Kings and people having a nicer experience which is important to me, so we will be going there (we haven't started yet as ironically it turned out had to have some unrelated surgery and recover from that first 😩 so waiting time is a bit irrelevant to us now). Oh and you probably know this but you can get three full rounds (each round is 'Defined by NICE as one episode of ovarian stimulation and the transfer of any resultant fresh and frozen embryo(s)), as that's what the north east london clinical care group that covers Waltham Forest offers. I've read the small print of the policy in the PDF so don't be fobbed off with less. It's a generous policy compared to other places in the country. Again, neither my doctor or north mids were fully clear about how that policy would apply, my GP bless her was best as she dug it out online and had a look so at least I knew what it was!

Thank you for your response @whysohardtogetusername and for all of the information above, that's really useful to know. Did your GP refer you initially to North midd fertility? My GP requested our initial blood test and sperm analysis prior to referring. It's all a very confusing system.

Thanks for your help and I wish you all the best with your surgery.

Also really sorry I missed this so probably MONTHS too late, but yes GP referred us to North Mids, GP did the first bloods but then North Mids wanted bloods again from me and second semen analysis too.