Agora vs Lister for embryo freezing

[Virgil12345]

Hello- I wonder if anyone could share some experience on which clinic is better for egg retrieval and embryo freezing. Both locations are fine for us as we are travelling to the Uk from overseas. Extremely low AMH level therefore want to have the treatment soon. Both clinics seem to have good reviews and decent success rates based on google/internet…

Hi there, I used Lister fertility clinic - Great Portland Street branch. Have completed one cycle egg retrieval, one fresh transfer and currently mid cycle for frozen transfer.

Positives - my doctor - Dr.Farahani is amazing. No appointment I've had with her is ever rushed - our first consultation lasted 90 minutes, she made time in her schedule to see me same day when our fresh transfer failed and her bedside manner is impeccable - she's warm but realistic. (Could not say we had the same experience at another London clinic...). The nurses are all lovely and knowledgeable. I was able to get my appointment very quickly and nurse consultations booked in the same month. The protocol and advice Dr. Farahani put me on resulted in 3 high grade embryos out of 6 fertilised (my AMH was 3.9)

Points for consideration - you may not see you doctor again until egg retrieval, and most appointments will be done by different nurses each occasion. I assumed my transfer would also be done by her, and wasn't told otherwise - turned up for my fresh transfer to have the medical director do the procedure. This isn't an issue as such, but felt it would have been nice to be told beforehand. I feel like their admin and response team really fluctuated in service. If you choose to go with them - don't be afraid to call or follow up phone calls as they seem to be much better on the phone than emails. I had several cases of missed emails, the emergency phone line was not answered and voicemail left also not answered on 1 occasion out of 2 calls. I noticed in my most recent visits theres been a noticeable increase in new staff members, and I suspect the dip in service for about 6 weeks was where they were under resourced (they take NHS patients as well as private); as the service during the egg collection process was very good, but started slipping from transfer (no one called us to say how many embryos we had and what grade, we found out on the day, and it turned out in the end the information was wrong), followed up many missed emails (they asked us to send documentation - and kept chasing despite us sending it 3 times), and then didn't book in my nurse consultation from frozen transfer despite confirming date with me. Since then past 3 weeks service and communication has picked up to just like before again.

Hope this is useful, I know everyone experience is different. Despite the points for consideration, should I need to go through another egg retrieval, I would go back to Lister because I have faith and trust in my doctor.

Good luck with your journey!

@Lavendermarshmallows

thank you so much for sharing your experience at the lister (Portland),with a lot of details. I wish you the best of luck with the FTE!

I have contacted both Lister Portland and Lister Chelsea. The staff at the former provided a great deal of useful info in emails after initial convocation over phone. But because the clinic only has two consultants at the moment, the earliest appointment available is after a month. Lister Chelsea is able to book me a consultation within 2 weeks so I am tempted to go there first given the time constraints we face travelling from abroad. Though the admin in Chelsea didn't give as much useful details as the other- hopefully just a case of asking them more proactively as you suggested.

I heard some ppl complained about over-charges/billing mistakes by the lister. Have you encountered such experience? Also for low AMH level, do you know if lister would recommend DHEA? I started using (25mg) a day without testing- not sure if they would disapprove using it... thanks much

@Virgil12345 I'm sure Lister Chelsea will be just as good, I've heard doctor names from this clinic pop up many times on mumsnet with members singing their praises :)

So far so issues with overcharging - only not sending us the bill, but not chasing for it and us only discovering it when trying to book nurse consultation which was already paid for. For peace of mind I would make a note in a notebook what treatments you're having and tick off when you know its. been paid, it. can be hard to keep up when you're having multiple scans and blood tests. Although my understanding is when you pay for IVF it includes appointments and scans until 3 months, so costs to keep track are mainly blood tests, medication, embryo freezing/thawing and any genetic testing if you chose.

I can't comment on DHEA and if Lister would recommend, but I would really encourage to be 100% honest with your doctor you're using it and to trust whatever advice they give you as its just as much in their interests to help you succeed. If you feel you don't click with your doctor, also don't be afraid to switch doctor or clinic. I really think patient doctor trust is really important when you're going through IVF, its a stressful and draining process and you want to have faith/trust the protocol and plan you're on.

Sending you lots of positivity and luck! x

Hi, OP. You may well have made your decision and started treatment by now (Good luck if so!), but as someone who has now had treatment at both of these clinics I feel qualified to comment here for anyone else who might be interested in these clinics.

I had 2 egg retrievals at the Agora (as well as a lot of transfers, separate IUI procedures and a HyCoSy) and I've had one egg retrieval so far at the Lister (Chelsea).

Honestly, the Lister are absolutely in a different league, and I simply can't fault them at all. They are just fantastic. I feel in good hands and looked after every step of the way at a difficult time and I would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone going through this. My consultant is on tap - I can email him whenever I want and he responds within a day. I can't tell you how reassuring that is. I have been treated with respect and empathy by everyone I have met.

It's a big clinic so of course it has a lot of patients which can mean that the waiting times are quite long - although to be honest it was the same at the Agora even as a smaller clinic, I was often waiting over an hour.

My experience at the Agora couldn't have been more different to the Lister. We were with them for 3 years, and the decision to move to the Lister wasn't taken lightly (it involves a lot of travel and additional costs), but it just got to a point with the Agora that we had experienced so many instances of incompetent care, and such a lack of empathy, that it just got too much.

It's not an overstatement to say that I feel completely traumatised by the terrible care at the Agora. I can't even bring myself to put in a complaint because I don't want to relive it or think about it. Commenting on here is even quite difficult but I do want people to know how bad they are.

I know other people might have had good experiences there and I'm not saying there aren't good things about it - some of the nurses for example are really nice.

But overall, my experience with them is that they are extremely disorganised and lack empathy as a service, and have no idea about the patient journey. We had to constantly chase admin, they got things wrong and gave us wrong information so often that we just stopped trusting them and second guessed everything. We couldn't contact our consultant when we needed to - we had to book an appointment which would take months to come through, even to ask a simple question. I was even given the wrong dose of medication once which probably affected my outcome.

I got OHSS three times because they kept giving me the Ovitrelle trigger shot which simply didn't agree with me. As soon as I went to the Lister, they changed the trigger, and the problem was solved, I had no OHSS. Agora told me there was no other option for a different trigger (which just isn't true!).

The Lister also got lots more eggs from me than the Agora did, with fewer side effects.

If you have the choice, please go with the Lister. You won't regret it. I am happy to DM with anyone who wants to talk to me about either clinic.

I heard some ppl complained about over-charges/billing mistakes by the lister. Have you encountered such experience?

I have had this once, but it was very swiftly resolved, and is the only instance of an admin error that I have had with the Lister. It was just to do with the complications of certain people self funding/ using NHS/ using Access Fertility etc. It was no problem.

The Agora on the other hand - well - I wouldn't trust them to pair socks. We were back and forth constantly with admin there pointing out things they had got wrong or misadvised us about. They didn't even book our appointments in properly - multiple times I turned up at the time given, only to be told my appointment wasn't for another hour or two and what am I doing there?

It honestly felt like being gaslit!