Beginning IVF

[Tryingmomma32]

Me and DP have decided after multiple miscarriages and ecptopic pregnancies we are going to begin IVF at the end of the summer. We are currently under the recurrant miscarriage clinic but have not had a pregnancy for a year now and they have advised we try IVF.

We are unable to get it on the NHS as I have a child from a previous relationship. We are therefore going privately but are have not decided which clinic. Can anyone give us any advice or share their IVF journey? Thanks in advance 💕

I am so sorry to hear about your losses.

I’m not an expert but I do know with IVF you can do PGTA or other testing on the embryos to reduce the risk of miscarriages. Have a look at clinic pricing thought because some clinics like my clinic you pay for a batch of 6 embryos to be tested even if you only make a few.. so financially it doesn’t make sense (we only ever get a max of two embryos per cycle). Whereas other clinics you pay for testing per embryo.

I recommend looking into payment packages like Access Fertility where it can work out cheaper to buy a multi cycle package. The one we bought was for 2 fresh cycles and unlimited frozen transfers.

I also really recommended if you haven’t already looking into vitamins and supplements for egg quality prior to IVF so they start getting in your system by the time you start. The book ‘it starts with the egg’ has good advice on vitamins 😊

Agree with @lemons44 response. If not already, start taking supplements. Also shop around for clinic prices, what they offer per round and what tests they include in their prices. Ask how many rounds they offer in packages and what are involved in those packages as in, how many frozen transfers if a fresh transfer fails. Also costs for embryo freezing, are these in the cycle prices or separate. And again if testing embryos, ask if costs are per embryo or is there a minimum of embryos you are charged for. Also look for clinics who base your care on your needs not what is done for everyone in that clinic. Good luck on your journey.

I’d recommend planning an alternative year. Last minute holidays you can book, things to look forward to, goals and things to think/ talk about outside of IVF. If you get pregnant, amazing and you can happily cancel and if you don’t get pregnant your life isn’t put on hold.

The other thing I’d recommend is not finding out how many eggs or embryos you have until transfer day. I asked to know headlines I.e it’s going well, there should be some to freeze etc but no numbers. I had 9 eggs and 5 fertilised and made it to day 5, which is above average odds. But knowing I’d lost four would have been torture. At transfer day I wanted all the info, but until that point knowing wouldn’t have changed anything and would only have made me more anxious.

Best of luck!