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%

thank you for your advice. Though I know what they are testing on (ideally the early ovulation shouldn’t happen cause you are doing an injection to stop it). Scans are done to time the trigger (but you don’t need as much as they do) PS I mentioned earlier that to get any test results from Lister it’s a nightmare. And yes, I was doing the pic of the scan graphs every time and cause of the good memory & low number of follicles I remembered the progress anyway.

@NightingaleK Those ganirelix injections do keep ovulation at bay for most people but if your LH goes too high they can't stop ovulation. If progesterone goes high too early that can also be detrimental, particularly if fresh transfer is intended.

Apologies I’m struggling to understand why you are addressing the messaging to me. I wasn’t asking anything, I was answering a specific question that was addressed to me based on my experience with Lister

@NightingaleK based on what you wrote in a previous message - "they take bloods every time (but they never tell you what they are checking)" - it seemed you weren't sure what they were checking for, so I was clarifying, also for the OP. Perhaps this was a misunderstanding.

This appears to have somehow caused irritation so I'll refrain from further comment!

Many thanks for the advise, @SharpBlueLemur !
Are there any downsides on going through Fertility Mapper (with a referral from them) vs going directly to the clinic?
Are there any hidden charges or problems with getting access to coverage through your private insurance?
(if you happen to know)

Hi @Limmers14 - I am with Bupa and they told me that in order to get the IVF claim approved at the Lister Portland that I would need to ensure that the invoices that the Lister Portland issue to Bupa are issued from the main Lister Hospital in Chelsea as the Lister Portland is technically a "satellite location" and if they received an invoice from the Lister Portland it wouldn't be eligible for claiming.

Did you encounter the same issue? And was it difficult for you to claim on your treatment?

I'd much prefer to go to the Lister Portland because my offices are much closer to it rather than Chelsea, but want to make sure it's covered under my Bupa policy and if I need to make a work-around then make sure that I'm doing it correctly.

Thanks in advance.

Hi @Flippityfish!

No I haven’t had that issue at all. The lady I spoke to at Bupa said the Lister are really bad at sending invoices but didn’t mention this. Anytime I’ve picked up medication, they’ve just taken my policy number and pre-approval number and stamped my prescription.

I did ask the admin team at the Portland if they could chase the finance team to send the bill to Bupa so that I know how much is left to spend on my policy for things like medication but still haven’t heard anything from them.

Also, I’ve now had my egg collection, all my scans and blood tests at the Portland and they’ve never asked me for money, only my policy number. I’ve seen other patients paying and it’s also written clearly in their guidance you must pay before egg collection. If they wanted money they would have asked by now so I think it’s all fine.

I’d suggest emailing the Lister at the Portland to check with them if you’re unsure but as far as my experience goes, once Bupa authorise it, you’re good to go.

Also @Flippityfish as you’re deciding on clinic, since I wrote that post back in April, I’ve had way more contact with them and they’ve been fabulous. Such a kind and knowledgable team.

@Limmers14 - thank you so much for responding. I did double check with the Lister and Bupa and it turns out, it's all ok and they can bill under the main clinic. May I ask which consultant you are under? I am thinking of Rehim Salim as I have a history of recurrent miscarriages and my husband has dna fragmentation issue with his sperm. I'm so anxious about the whole process (which is also why i want to switch to the portland for logistic reasons as i read there's a lot of back and forth during egg collection) and given the insurance allocation amount we only have one shot so don't want to mess it up...

@Flippityfish glad you got it sorted.

We’re under Emanuelle d’Argent who I really like. She’s very matter of fact but also kind and encouraging. Dr Salim did my egg collection and came to chat to me afterwards. He seems nice! You might not get the same person each time but I think they try to keep it relatively consistent for example I had 2 different nurses and Dr d’Argent do my follicle scans. My follow-up call and planning for my frozen transfer will be with her too.

We have unexplained fertility and managed to get a high amount of Day 5 blastocysts so I haven’t been too concerned with seeing Dr d’Argent each time. For your situation I can understand wanting more consistency but the nursing team are wonderful so you’re in good hands.

On the logistics, I think I had a scan and bloods every 2/3 days, usually in the morning. I got lucky with being given 8.30 appointments so I just headed to work afterwards. It definitely helped my stress levels knowing I only had a few stops on the tube and didn’t have to deal with the morning crush

I’ve also found the HFEA stats difficult to interpret in a meaningful way.
My wife and I are currently with King’s in London (NHS side). Our first transfer recently failed, and the turnaround time to try again has been quite slow, which is why we’ve started looking at private options as well. So we’ve been in a very similar place — trying to make sense of success rates, reviews and real-world experiences while feeling the time pressure.

Something I’ve learned along the way:

• HFEA success rates are useful but not the full picture — some clinics take on more complex cases or have different patient demographics.
• Reviews often reflect communication style more than lab quality. CARE in particular seems to have very mixed patient experiences.
• Knowing someone who didn’t succeed at a clinic doesn’t necessarily reflect their overall quality, though I completely understand why it affects confidence.

While trying to compare clinics ourselves, I actually made a small tool called Seedling because I found it genuinely difficult to get everything in one place. It’s only been live a few weeks, so the user-feedback side is still very early, but it does help simplify:

• Success rates vs age
• Treatment options (ICSI, PGT, multi-cycle packages, etc.)
• Differences in services between clinics
• Basic cost structures

It might help you sanity-check TFP vs CARE vs Lister alongside the HFEA data.

I know this is an old post but just have a couple of questions about Lister Portland as we are considering going private here after recurrent implantation failure.

Did you have to wait quite a while to book in for an egg retrieval or FET? Or was the process quite smooth?

Trying to work out if I should go to Lister Portland or Lister in Chelsea x