Does your address matter for fertility/ivf?

[Tintinuviel]

I'm not sure what to do regarding my fertility referral so i hope those wuth experiences dwaling with IVF abd referrals can chip in.

Until recently I moved around a lot for work and stayed with my parents over the weekends, so stayed registered with my old GP near theirs for continuity.

I've since moved in with my partner in another area. I remained registered at my GP as I was having testing for a non-fertility issue and the GP let me continue there. My GP has referred us to the fertility team, appointment pending. I'm 37 and there have been multiple delays since I approached my GP after TTC 6 months, as per guidelines. So we're 1.5 years into TTC.

My partner and I are also selling our place and moving- potentially to be close to my parents. Collecting post from there is fine and we may stay with my parents whilst we get treatment or buy a place.

The ICB at my old place covers 3 cycles as opposed to 1 where I live now. They are close to each other, so travel won't be an issue.

I don't want to lie, or do anything to get the fertiity team in trouble. But I also don't want to be put at the back of the queue potentially twice, guven waut times are long, if i update my address to my current one, or a new one when we move. I know for a fact that if you age out whilst waiting, you will not be given IVF.

If we move, do I have to tell the fertility team? Is there going to be an issue if I keep my old address on file for simplicity? How much importance do the fertility team place on your address? Do they care if you and a partner are listed at separate addresses?

The funding rules just seem to be that you have to be registered with a local GP but I'm still worried.

Has anyone gone through something similar? How strict are they?

Full disclosure i posted this on the conception board but I feel that it's more appropriate here. I'm new to MN so wasn't allowed to post here, yet.

We moved house in the middle of NHS investigations, I made sure I asked them about what would happy if I changed address half way through. It was fine for us as we moved within the same town.

For us they saw me as the primary patient, so all communication etc went through me not my partner.

Do you know where your local IVF clinic is? We had a choice of 3, and could make use of the satellite clinic which was 10 mins away as opposed to the 1.5hr journey. That made it useful as there is a lot of appointments to attend (multiple blood tests, scans, more scans, signing paperwork, medication demonstrations, more scans 😁)

Whatever address you are registered at mattered in my case as the medication got delivered there!

Are you saying you’ve always stayed registered at your parents’ address? I can’t remember what details we had to give but I think there was an ID check at the start for funded treatment. I’ve since learned through this forum that clinics all seem to operate in their own way so other people’s experiences vary greatly.

So we have a few options and could potentially be referred to the same local centre either way. I think all options would be between 30 mins to an hour away, maybe an hour and a half in peak traffic, so not terrible compared to how far most people have to travel. You're right that it would potentially be a lot of appointments so I will bear that in mind.

Thank you for your input :) Yeah I essentially stayed there part of the week for years and am still over there pretty often as we are close. We genuinely might move in there whilst we sell this place, too. But haven't made progress on moving because I've been fussing over getting referred and getting investigations done.

Collecting meds therefore shouldn't be a big issue, I didn't realise that they post it to you!

I do wonder how much information they need/store. I know we've been asked for passport photos to prove eligibility.

Hi, I jave two addresses but I'm registered with my GP in the one I don't live in just because I work there and it's easier for me to go to an appointment when I'm at work. When I was referred to my clinic for IVF I told them if I could change the address for correspondence to be sent to the house I live and they say yes, they would change it in their system just for letters but for me not to change it with my GP as it could affect the number of cycles I had been offered. Talk to them, they may be able to do the same.

When collecting my medicines etc I always have to give the address my GP has though. They don't post it to me, I collect them from the hospital

Thanks for sharing your experience! I can definitely talk to them about it.

That's similar to me- i stayed with my parents every week for a long time, and didn't change addresses after chatting to my GP (as I moved around a lit for weekdays due to work).

I don't even mind which address they use. It's mainly that changing my address and GP officially would delay treatment for me. And given we're likely moving, I'm worried about potentially delaying things again if we update them when we move.