Hi everyone,
I've just posted on another thread about my terrible experience at the Agora clinic in Brighton and it got me thinking that I should really start a thread about it, just to try and raise awareness. (This is the other thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/infertility/5052522-agora-vs-lister-for-embryo-freezing)
Me and DH had a really difficult time there and find it very hard to go over it again and drag it up now that we have moved on to another clinic (The Lister), but I think it's important that people know how bad they are.
I tried to leave a Google review of the Agora, but because I put it under a different name (bc I didn't want to out myself as having had fertility treatment), the Agora accused me of writing a fake review and got it taken down. So this is really the only way I can think to tell people about my experience there.
I want to say firstly that I know there are plenty of people who have had a good experience there and I'm really glad. Perhaps for people who have more straightforward cases than ours. We have male factor fertility issues and were with the Agora for almost 4 years, so it was a very long slog. I imagine that if I had gotten pregnant within the first year, I might feel differently - so I do not refute anyone who says that they found them OK. This is just my experience.
We've now moved to the Lister and my experience there has been so, so different - I feel like my eyes have been opened to what this should have been like all along. The contrast is insane.
Me and my DH just found the Agora very cold, lacking empathy, disorganised and at times (more than once) incompetent in my care, to the extent it almost definitely impacted on our success rate. For example, being given the wrong dose of medication which almost certainly impacted my outcomes. I was also given an Ovitrelle trigger which caused OHSS multiple times. I've realised since being at the Lister and being offered a different trigger that the trigger was the cause - the Agora told me there was no other trigger I could have. My Lister consultant was 100% certain that it was the trigger (and it was) - whereas my Agora consultant didn't seem to even consider it. She just reduced my stims to the point where I got a very tiny number of eggs - and then gave me Ovitrelle again so I got OHSS anyway!
I was also left with massive bruises all over my arm from the sedative on egg collection (it should be straightforward to give a sedative, but I had huge bruises right up my forearm). No one else has ever struggled to get a sedative into me, and I have had quite a few.
Admin at various times lost our notes, got our names wrong, wrote our notes on the wrong record, told me personal information about another patient with the same first name as me, told me the wrong appointment time, gave me misinformation, and made me pay for tests I didn't need to pay for (hundreds of £ for a HyCoSy that was unnecessary, as well as tests you can get for free at the GP like chlamydia). The admin is absolutely horrendous and has no empathy, I have never seen anything like it.
If you are going to be a patient here, just make sure you can keep track of everything yourself and that you are strong and resilient enough to advocate for yourself, because you will need to.
You see a different person every time you go in (The Lister at least try to give you consistency and have the same person doing your scans). After multiple rounds of treatment, we had no one person assigned to look after us through the journey, no point of contact who knows what's going on for us, so we had to explain over and over every time as if they didn't know us. I felt like a number, not a person. The whole process was dehumanising and there was little if any recognition of the emotional impact of fertility treatment. They didn't even tell us that we were entitled to free counselling with our treatment package!
We had to advocate for ourselves so much, it was completely exhausting. Some of the nurses are nice, but the overall patient care and understanding of the patient journey is non-existant. Do not expect emotional support or empathy or even clinical competence. They are a business and they feel like one.
Honestly, being a patient at the Agora was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life. Infertility is difficult but the Agora made it so much harder.
If anybody would like to DM me about the Agora (or the Lister) please feel free. I am happy to chat.