Choosing IVF clinic in London

[pumyraki]

Hello,
after waiting forever for an IVF treatment through the NHS, I've decided to go privately. My AMH was very good for my age, and sperm quality test came back good as well, so I'm still hoping.

My private insurance can cover some costs, in any of the following three clinics:

1. TFP Clinics: https://tfp-fertility.com/en-gb/about-us/bupa

2. Care Fertility: https://carefertility.com/

3. Lister Fertility Clinic: https://www.hcahealthcare.co.uk/services/departments/fertility-and-reproductive-medicine

I've researched success rates online on hfea.gov.uk, but it's not straightforward.

• TFP has the lowest success rates out of all three for my age range, but has good ratings.
• Care Fertility has the best rates, but very bad reviews (2 out of 5 stars).
• Lister Fertility has slightly lower rates than Care, but I know someone had 3 failed cycles there, and then went to another clinic and had 2 successful pregnancies (but sadly no births).

It's really hard to choose, and I don't want to waste any more time with failed attempts because of a bad clinic considering my age (41).

Any recommendations on how to choose or any reviews about any of the above clinics?

Many thanks!

PS: Statistics here:
A) Live births per cycle:

• National Average: 14%
• TFP: 10%
• Care: 18%
• Lister: 16%

B) Live births per embryo transfer:

• National Average: 19%
• TFP: 13%
• Care: 25%
• Lister: 23%

I've seen quite a few people on here say they had a good experience with Lister.

I think don't worry too much about stats comparisons, so long as they are around or above the national average. This could reflect different kinds of patient intake or other factors. Not everyone the same age has the same prognosis - your success chances will mostly be individual to you regardless of where you choose.

Good luck!

I'm at the Lister and they've been great so far. I've not had success yet on a transfer, but been pleased with our egg collection rates (of course a lot of that is luck but I think their embryology team are very good) and the level of care from nurses/consultants is also great. It is very busy and you can wait a while for scans/nurse consults/the pharmacy is the only thing but I'd recommend them

Hi @Orangewillow , many thanks for sharing your experience. I think I am going to try Lister too, and if I am not happy with the initial consultation and the options they offer, then try Care at Woking.

If you don't mind sharing, did you go to Lister Fertility at the Lister Hospital? And did you choose a specific doctor for your treatment?

Many thanks!

@pumyraki yes the fertility clinic at the hospital in Chelsea. I initially went there for reproductive immunology, and my doctor is a specialist in that, and then we decided to do IVF. I've probably spoken to most of the consultants there now though through the IVF process and they're all great

Awesome - thank you so much for sharing, @Orangewillow ! That’s really reassuring.

Would you mind if I PM you once we’ve chosen a doctor, just to get your opinion? I’ve seen good feedback on forums about Dr Bora and Dr Nicopoullos, but I’ll need to research a bit more and look into their areas of expertise before making a decision.

@pumyraki please do! I've not actually met either of those two, but Dr Nicopoullos is the clinical director and heard good things about him

Many thanks, @Orangewillow !
If Dr Nicopoullos is the clinical director, there might be a long waiting time.. I'll explore the options and keep my fingers crossed there will not be long delays...
Many thanks again and I wish you all the best in your IVF journey!
In which stage are you? Have you finished treatment?

@pumyraki I've found it pretty quick to start/continue treatment there, my consultant is Dr Thum who can get busy but once we decided to start IVF it all moved pretty quickly. I've done 2 rounds of pgta tested egg collections, and 1 frozen embryo transfer which unfortunately wasn't successful. Hoping to have another go soon

@Orangewillow thanks for sharing - I hope it all goes well in the next round. It's good to know there are no long waiting times - as I've already wasted so much time with NHS already...

I did 2 rounds of stimulations, one resulted into 1 embryo and 1 failed cycle, and 1 FET though embryo didn’t implant. I have very mixed feelings about Lister. Waiting time is awful (at least 2 hours per visit to do scans, bloods and see nurse) and you have scans every 2nd day. Usually, you’d see the consultant on the initial consultation and post eggs collection (the last one - not necessarily, depending on your plan). Nurses are the ones who decide when to bring you for the retrieval and if the plan needs to be adjusted. There was no consistency in the messages and decisions for me. Also, the clinic is very busy and it feels as if you are on the conveyer belt. Prices are not transparent and be ready to pay more than it was initially discusses. As far as I know Dr Shabana does work there anymore and I had an awful experience with her. The lady who changed her recommendation on the day when we found out that we have a good embryo and recommended to proceed with the fresh embryo transfer, instead of previous recommendation to go to PGTA testing, but it was not possible anymore as I didn’t necessarily medicines. And when I told her that the answer was “I don’t remember what the plan/my recommendation was. It is Saturday, I’m busy and we talk on Monday’…. I was shaking and left in he unknown what to do. So, I wouldn’t recommend her at all.
I really liked Dr. Ben John there, very attentive and knowledgeabl.

Thanks for sharing, @NightingaleK.

This does sound quite alarming — especially when combined with the extremely poor reviews for Lister Clinic on Trustpilot (5 reviews in total, all of them 1-star). The recurring complaints about miscommunication, unresponsiveness, mistreatment, cancelled appointments, and ignored documentation and emails are really concerning.

I agree that long waits for tests on the day aren't ideal, but if everything else is handled well, it wouldn't be a deal-breaker for me. However, issues like the ones you mentioned (messing up your treatment plan, forgetting key details, or even missing a transfer because they didn’t provide the right medication) sound like a much bigger problem...

On the other hand, I also read some positive feedback about Lister (here).

I'm really undecided about whether to go with Lister Fertility (in Lister Hospital), or Care Fertility (in Woking).

Also, It is almost impossible to get in touch with Lister on the phone, to book my initial assessment - I'm already in the queue for 30 minutes now, and I've only moved from number 3 to number 2 in the queue so far.
I've also tried to email them, but I got an automatic response back saying that "it is currently taking longer than 48 hours to respond to e-mails."

If this is the norm even after I start treatment, it's a bit frustrating to not be able to communicate with them...

How is communication once you start treatment? Do they provide a dedicated line to get in touch ?

Sounds like you have to use particular clinics but if there's any flexibility, King's doesn't have these issues. Phone answered straight away. Consultants not nurses do all scans and protocol discussions. No big waits for blood tests. Also cheaper (eg. no nickle and diming with extra blood test charges. Advanced embryology included).

I assume you’re with Bupa as I could have written this post!

We went with Lister at the Portland. I also read that their embryology team is quite good which is the main priority in IVF I think. I’m 34 with one slow tube and a husband with slow sperm.

I agree, their modes of communication aren’t great and I’ve sent some results which haven’t been picked up by them and needed a lot of back and forth. Generally though, they’ve been pretty prompt. I initially contacted them in early March and today, had my coordination appointment with the nurse. I will say, I thought they’d have snazzier offices being The Portland! Other than that though, the care I received was good and they were kind.

I think their admin staff might not be great and a lot falls on the nurses who have other responsibilities. For example i tried to make an appointment with reception for blood tests and the guy couldn’t do it and I had to wait 10 mins for a nurse…

Forgot to say, we went with them as my office is in Moorgate so it’s easy to get there and the last I spoke to at Bupa said she would rank Lister number 1 and Care as the budget friendly option. Figured if Bupa are paying, I’d go with Lister.

The communication with clinic was fine. I was calling on their usual number and choosing existing customer and waiting time on the line wasn’t bad. As soon as you start you don’t need to call as they give you the date and time of your next appointment while you are in the clinic. What I found really difficult to have my blood test results and consultant notes sent to me. It took me couple follow-up emails to the consultant nurse to receive it and not all of them.

@pumyraki I can share with you my personal opinion on Care Woking as I have done 2 cycles with them (1 NHS funded & 1 private).

I initially chose this clinic because of the high success rate. Once I got all the initial tests done (scans, blood tests…), I was able to start treatment quickly. I appreciated that they didn’t push us to do any add-ons that we were not sure about, and the pricing was transparent. I only saw the consultant twice for each cycles, once before the start to discuss the treatment and once after the cycle to review the outcomes (and also for egg collection but it was a different doctor). The rest of the appointments were managed by the nurses/sonographers. To my biggest surprise my latest transfer was also done by a sonographer. All the nurses are very kind and helpful, but I feel like it would be better to be assigned one contact point rather than seeing someone different at each appointment. The communication during treatment is done via an App, responses are of course not immediate but I always got the information I needed on time.

My biggest issue with Care Woking is that they only do egg collections 3 days a week (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays), so I felt like the treatment duration had to fit their schedule rather than my cycle. They also have a very hands-off approach compared to other clinics: they do 1 baseline scan at the beginning of the cycle where they give the greenlight to start treatment, and the following scan is only after 9 days of stims. I personally would be more reassured with more frequent scans to ensure that I trigger at the most appropriate time for my cycle!

Despite these negative points, we still decided to continue with them for our private cycle after our NHS funded cycle because we got good results during our NHS cycle, and I got pregnant after each cycles (unfortunately both ended in MMC).

We are thinking about trying a different clinic for our next cycle because we hope that we could get better results with a better-timed trigger and more monitoring.

Good luck for choosing a clinic, I know how complicated it can be!

Thank you so much @YellowTack for sharing your experience at Care Woking! This is all super useful and you mentioned many good points to consider!

I wonder this compares to treatment in Lister, with regards to monitoring and egg collection scheduling.

Monitoring and scans during stimulation phase:

• How frequently do they perform scans during the stimulation phase at Lister?
• Do they also monitor hormone levels (with blood tests) during stimulation?
• Is the frequency of monitoring tailored to each patient based on their protocol?

Trigger timing and egg collection:

• Do they only do egg collection on specific weekdays?
• Are they flexible with adjusting trigger timing to align with each patient’s individual response to stimulation?

I'll try calling Lister again today and get some answers (last time I tried I was in the queue for 1hr 10 mins and then it was already 6pm).

It would be super useful if you could share your experience on the above, @Orangewillow , @NightingaleK , @Limmers14 !

Thank you so much for your support and for sharing your experiences - it’s truly appreciated!

@pumyraki I had scans and blood tests every 3 days or so during the stimulation phase. Approx 4/5 scans total. Yes this was tailored to my situation. They do do egg collection and embryo transfers on weekends if that's the best time for you, where possible they avoid other appointments happening on weekends though. Trigger timing was also tailored to me

Yes at Lister they do 3 scans and blood tests during stims. I guess you could have more if needed but it says 3 on my protocol. I think egg collection happens whenever it’s right for you? They didn’t mention any limitations to me on Wednesday.

Many thanks @Limmers14 and @Orangewillow !

@YellowTack could you please let me know if you had treatment recently or a while ago at Care Woking? I got in touch with Care and they say that egg collection can be scheduled any day of the week (not limited to Mon-Wedn-Friday).
I'm wondering whether they have changed their collection days, or if they are just trying to sell me their service and tell me what I would like to hear...

Can you ask the clinics you're considering to share their success rates based on your age and specific condition. I’ve seen some clinics only show success rates for patients under 30, which makes their numbers look really high. But when I asked about the success rates for my own age group, the numbers were much lower. Success rates can be a bit misleading, so it’s important to ask the right questions.

The collection is happening everyday except Sunday, but tbh i felt as if they are pushing for workdays as twice my collection was planned for Saturday and both times they changed it last minute to Monday without any obvious explanation. The last time, I even challenged them as my follicles were already big and boarder line for growing over the highest recommended size.
Usually, scans are happening everyday except Sunday second day and they take bloods every time (but they never tell you what they are checking) if you are on a short protocol, slightly different if you are on a long protocol. Towards the end of the stimulation they might as you to come for the next day scan. You can’t really control the time of scans, they tell you the time as per their availability and its mission impossible to change the time. Interesting that with all these scans and blood test, they don’t make any changes in your plan.
So what’s the point of doing it that frequently. it has been a constant stress for me run to the clinic, waiting there for 2 hours, hearing inconsistent messages, managing work & etc.
Ive changed the clinic and they do more relaxed approach (less scans and bloods). When I asked my consultant, she said that if I want to they can do it more frequently but what’s the point cause as soon as you start the plan, not much could be done or adjusted, except the cases with the risk of hypo stimulation (which is not my case with my lower AMH).

@NightingaleK If they don't change anything based on the blood tests that likely means everything is on track. They test for oestrogen, progesterone and LH to ensure premature lutenisation/ early ovulation doesn't happen, to ensure follicles are maturing and to time trigger.

Recommend proactively asking for every result - blood test and follicle measurement (I take a photo of the graph every appointment - unsure if Lister use a similar system). For your own understanding and if you ever need to seek a second opinion on your protocol/ round down the line.