DH and I have big holiday planned, now we're on waitlist unsure what to do, thoughts?

[chingachush]

DH and I have a big holiday planned, booked and paid for prior to getting on the NHS waitlist - we got told this would be approximately 12 months when we got on it which would be June so 3 months after our holiday - I've received my confirmation letter from the clinic and they said it could be 9-12 months and that we must attend once we get called for it now I'm nervous as what if they call us before or during the holiday, what would we do then? Obviously don't want to cancel our holiday but also IVF is more important to us but just nervous since it says we'd only get 12 weeks approximate notice. Unsure whether to cancel holiday which would be better to do now and try recoup some money. Would the clinic allow you to start once you're back from holiday or is it this is the date and that's it? Really don't want to go back to the bottom of waitlist if we can't make it and that's why we would rather cancel it but obviously we're not guaranteed that it would be 9 months and could easily be 12 months.

Hi @chingachush I guess everyone's clinic is different but, in our case, once we got to the top of the waiting list we did have some flexibility with our appointments and didn't need to go back on the waiting list when we asked to wait a few weeks.

We were away for long stretches whilst working remotely during/post COVID, and I was extremely anxious thinking that they will call us for an appointment and we wouldn't be back on time, and probably drove the receptionist mad calling and checking every few weeks but, with hindsight, it was all unnecessary and fell into place easily. Our clinic were not at all good at communicating waiting lists, timing, etc. - I now laugh thinking that once I went to swim with my phone in a plastic bag because they said they would call me back with more info about scheduling and I didn't want to miss the call (they didn't call) - but were pretty understanding when it came to delaying a few weeks to start. I definitely wouldn't cancel the holiday because you have absolutely no idea of knowing when they'd call you - if you think it's going to weigh on your mind, maybe give them a call just to confirm that you won't fall back to the bottom of the waiting list if you need to reschedule your initial appointment.

Best of luck!

Go on holiday. Waiting list lengths change all the time. And once you start treatment is much harder to plan things. I'd go, and if you do get to the top of the list you can always delay appointment by a few weeks.

I think it will also depend on what type of IVF you are doing, and at what point in your menstrual cycle you need to start medications.

We had 2 holidays planned whilst waiting for IVF. We were told we had funding and were top of the list in March, had a holiday booked in April. We couldn't start treatment straight away as we had more forms to sign, and needed to plan treatment around menstrual cycle dates. So we went on the April holiday. Ended up starting IVF in late May.

Our second holiday we did cancel as it was within 12 weeks of egg transfer, and we were advised not to leave the country, so had a UK break instead.