NHS & private IVF London

[Amart710]

Hi
Unfortunately I’ve just lost my remaining tube due to ectopic which now means IVF is only option.

I will be eligible for NHS funding. I am in North Central London ICB. Does anyone have any experience or recommendations for specific NHS providers/hospital in this area or an idea on waiting times?

Also considering options for private so welcome any suggestions/recs. I’m 30 with no other known fertility issues with my husband and I.

Thanks!

Hi, we did an NHS round and Guys and St Thomas and they were appalling. From sneering nurses that couldn't be bothered to be polite to long waiting times to disorganised (telling us to come in on Sunday and then there not being staff ect) to them giving me to little medication and the wrong prescriptions etc etc I could go on. They are very short staffed so this probably explains the above. Essentially they are an NHS hospital so I guess they face the same stresses the rest of the NHS does. We also did private cycle with the which was the same chaos as above even though private! This was in Maybe 2018/ 2019 so may have pulled their socks up by now. But would 100% not recommend. I would say try a completely private hospital if your paying anyway eg the Lister which we loved.

We got referred to Kings Fertility by South London ICB and it was all very quick in terms of getting seen and starting treatment. We were planning private but then we got funding and everything through before we started. We were told we were lucky to be referred to Kings as Guys had over a year wait.

Sorry you had that experience @Cherryblossom90 - sounds absolutely awful.

Thank you @Cherryblossom90 @OneWaryCat. I’ve heard good things about Kings - may be worth travelling, and mixed about Guys!

I recently did a cycle at guys and also would not recommend. It was a stressful experience as you see a different person each time and they tell you different things. We have two more nhs cycles but opted to go private instead. I suspect the issues with guys is likely same elsewhere. A friend had a bad expeirence ar chelsea westminster too.

I have been seeing different people each time at Kings too so far, but they have all been good, except one who was a bit behind on what my plan is.

Hey @Amart710 i am currently doing 1st cycle at St Bart’s, and our experience so far has been amazing. Obviously I don’t know what the outcome will be, but the staff have all been lovely and it’s all happened very quickly. I should add though that we had already done most tests before we had our first appointment there, which probably sped things up

Hi @Amart710, I've done 2 rounds of egg collection at the Lister having been initially referred there to look into immunology concerns, I'm now planning a frozen embryo transfer imminently and I have found them really great so far. The staff are all lovely and while I haven't been in direct contact with my consultant much through the process, other (very knowledgeable) consultants are available to answer questions and the nurses/sonographers are also very kind and helpful. If you're going private, I'd recommend them. I briefly started looking into Kings fertility for private or NHS, they said they'd find out if i qualified for NHS and come back to me but never did and we really liked the consultant at the Lister so went with that (also I wasn't willing to wait for NHS referral!) Good luck, happy to answer any more questions you like

@jenk91 oh this is good to hear! I hadn’t even really thought about Barts so may be one to consider

Hi, I'm NCL ICB too and have tubes blocked by scar tissue rather than removed.

I went to my GP in May 2024 already knowing I had tubal infertility.
I had blood tests, SA for partner (twice due to abnormalities), ultrasound etc
I was referred on to community gynaecology October 2024.
Seen very beginning of December 2024 and referred to UCLH immediately, as you will be too due to no chance of natural conception.
Currently on waiting list, not had an initial appointment yet. Gyne said around 30 weeks waiting list to me, but anecdotally and on forums I've heard UCLH are telling people to expect a 9-10 month wait.
The gyne offered a referral to Guys as they respond quickly, but we turned it down as we are are far, far North London so the journey would have been a lot, and also Guys don't have great success rates.

Hope that timeline gives you some idea.

We have been at Uclh and they have been really good. They partner with CRGH for the retrievals/transfers etc and they are really great. We will go with the for private if this cycle doesn't work.

Issues with NHS is maybe longer waiting times and especially having to wait for scans but on the whole I think that has been worth putting up with to save the money this time.

Just to add, was referred around February, had my first appointment July and could have stated October but had to wait for Urology tests for DH (which was annoyingly pointless!)

I don't realise at the time but if you go private you loose all nhs eligibility

Hey, could I ask how long it took from referral to getting your appointment at Kings and then how long it was before you started treatment? My GP is going to refer me, just waiting to do some hormone tests on day 2-5 of my cycle and then they will send it off. I’m going to be 37 in April so keen to start it as soon as possible. What has your experience been like? Thank you so much

I'm in north london but didn't like the look/reviews of any of the NHS clinics near me, so I asked to be referred to Kings. Overall, I have found my experience there to be good. We've now done one NHS round and one private round as we wanted to bank more than one embryo before starting transfers. Although you do see different doctors each time, they are all pretty knowledgeable, kind, etc -- and the nurses are great, the embryology team are also lovely. I think this compassion makes a huge difference to the experience and was important to me. They have also adapted my treatment protocol between rounds which has been very successful for us in getting our numbers up. It took us about 4/5 months from referral to first appointment and then they were ready for us to start the next month. I would usually say think about the reason for your infertility and choose a clinic based on that, e.g. male fertility, female age/endo etc, but it sounds like you are relatively straightforward so it probably doesn't make too much difference.