Clinic recommendations - London/South East - Over 40

[ItsAJourney]

Hi all,

Hoping I might be able to get some recommendations for a clinic or specific doctor that you have used in London or wider South East.

I fear we’re nearing the end of our fertility journey and want to make sure I give these last tries absolutely everything. I’m losing faith in our current clinic - I feel they’ve been unsupportive in between cycles, unavailable for appointments, and that they’re not treating our circumstances differently to the ‘norm’.

Are there any clinics and doctors out there who really focus on creating a personal treatment plan for their patients? Where you don’t have to wait a month to speak to the consultant after losing all your embryos? That have a good success rate in over 40s?

Any suggestions, please do let me know? Thanks so much!

Hi @ItsAJourney I've been at the Lister in Chelsea and happy with them. I've been under Dr Thum and found he gave me a tailored approach and was very willing to change things (and discuss why!) when things didn't go to plan. I'm 39, so not personally sure about their approach after 40, bur I think they do treat a lot of people over 40. They're not cheap and appointments neatly always run late, bur I was happy with them overall. Dr thum does get very booked up, other Dr's may be less so as he is the immunology specialist, but tbh if I really needed to speak to him I generally could- like when my FET failed and we wanted to get on with whatever we had to do next, I think I spoke to him within a week (sometimes longer though!)

I hear you, it’s so tough when you feel like your clinic isn’t really seeing you or giving you the support you need. especially at your stage. Wanting a personal plan and quicker access to your consultant is completely understanable.
You might find Fertility Mapper helpful, it’s a patient-led where people share their experiences with diff clinics/doctors, it could give you a feel for which places might suit you before booking. You should be able to chat with them as well.
Sending you lots of strength as you look for the right team to stand beside you. <3

Would you consider Spain or Greece? I have heard the treatment is far superior to UK & Irl x

Thanks @Orangewillow, that’s really helpful. The fact you’re able to tell me name of your specific doctor is a massive improvement on the experience we’ve had where we’ve seen three or four different doctors. There’s just no continuity in our care.

Thanks so much @YourTwinklyBear, I’ll definitely check that out! And yeah, you’re so right. I just want to know that they’re truly doing everything they can for us and once the doubt starts to creep in it’s a really hard thing to shake.

In the last two months, we’ve had a failed FET and then lost all of our frozen embryos after they tested abnormal. We had to wait a month to talk to a consultant and it’s this call that just didn’t give me confidence. For example, we asked about supplements and anything we should change as we plan for another (likely our last) egg collection, and she just told us the standard advice. When I queried this as we’d previously been told to take higher doses and different types of supplements (after our first collection resulted in 23 eggs but 0 blastocysts), she then said that we could take the higher dosages again if we want but that it really doesn’t make much difference. I don’t know, it just felt like the advice wasn’t based on our previous history and the specific struggles we’ve been facing.

@confused2025 Thank you. I’m not sure but I don’t think so. I’m just not sure how it would work with work and being there for appointments.

@ItsAJourney during the stims cycles I didn't see my consultant, but there was an on call Dr to speak to if needed (and I thought they were all very good) but when it came to deciding/discussing the protocol and results/next steps that was all under dr thum so definitely good continuity if care. The consultants also get together to discuss cases and get input from each other, which I think was helpful for us when things were a bit tricky during transfer attempts

@ItsAJourney I thought this too but from talking to folks who have done it, they only need few days and can do things like lining scans and bloods here in the UK. It might be worth exploring. There will be Facebook groups and I’m sure threads here that can help with your research. I’m also part of the 40+ club and I found my NHS experience harrowing. Thankfully my second clinic (Ireland) are actually very good with my age group and I had success. For UK clinics, I would look at the HFEA website and you can do a location search there and I would focus in on the results for the +38 years group. Also, I’m not in London but have been so impressed with the Evewell and follow Emma the Embryologist. It was a consideration for me (and a clinic in Madrid and Alicante) if my last round didn’t work. I’m based in NI.

@ItsAJourney has your partner had a sperm DNA frag test? There may be other reasons of course and I'm not an expert, but seeing you had 20+ eggs and no blasts made me think about this, as I understand DNA frag can be a factor in fertilised embryos failing, esp around day 3. Emma the Embryologist who is at the evewell has done a fair bit of info around this, might be useful, I've found her super helpful to understand the IVF process as well

Thanks @Orangewillow and @confused2025, this is all really useful information.

My husband has had a semen analysis but I'm not aware if it included a DNA frag test so I'll mention that to the consultant when we move forward. We've become so good at advocating for ourselves but it's so hard when you don't know what you don't know, if you see what I mean.

Following lots of research we've decided to book an initial consultation with Mr Colin Davis at The Evewell and will see what he says. We were quite impressed with the embryology team there and with our issues so far of poor fertilisation and poor embryo quality, we hope this is something their expertise might help with.

I need to get my files from my existing clinic before that consultation so that he can review everything properly. I feel weirdly nervous about pulling the plug on them even though I've lost faith. I think once that faith is lost it's very hard to get back and so while I know it's probably the right thing to do, it still feels weird after so many years with them. I want treatment that is Doctor-led and that's just not what they've been providing us with.

I've heard good things about the Evewell and think they'll be very thorough, I'm sure they could sort you out with a sperm dna frag test if they thought it was useful, and have many other suggestions too. A standard sperm test is different to a dna frag, which is much less standard, amd I think its possible to get a normal semen analysis but then find there's high DNA frag (I don't know heaps about it, we weren't recommended to do a dna test but I got my husband to do one anyway just in case!)

@ItsAJourney I think you have picked a really good clinic. Request your notes asap as clinics tend to drag their heels with this and normally follow GDPR guidelines and make you wait 30 days. If you have anything from your portal, I would be downloading/printing. Let us know how you get on. You’ll be in my thoughts x

I see you have something booked in elsewhere, but I recommend Dr Kemball at the Lister too if that proves helpful.

Thanks so much @Scandalicious. We have moved ahead with The Evewell now but appreciate the recommendation!

Hey @Orangewillow and @confused2025, just a little update as we had our consultation with Mr Davis on Friday. We came away from it feeling more hopeful than we have in a long time! We know there’s no guarantee our treatment will work but we immediately felt listened to and that our specific circumstances were being considered when discussing what we can do.

We were recommended to do the DNA sperm frag test and because it was mentioned above, I already felt confident in us agreeing to it, so thank you!

We’re getting our blood tests redone so they’re up to date as they are about to expire anyway, and then all being well, we’re going to try and aim to start an egg retrieval cycle towards the end of October, so about a month from now.

Mr Davis was very adamant that we shouldn’t just be assuming that the reason it’s not worked so far is because of my age. He said with the number of eggs that have been collected from me before (26 and 27), that it’s not possible for them all to be of bad quality. It’s just nice to hear him say that as it did feel like our previous clinic were just saying that as an easy excuse to give.

From our experience on Friday, I feel hopeful for the first time in a long time and that, even if it doesn’t work out, we’ll have a better understanding of why, which is a large part of the battle that we call this journey.

Sounds like a great appointment @ItsAJourney, so glad you felt listened to and you were happy with his suggestions! Wishing you all the best with your cycle xx

@ItsAJourneythats so good to hear and I agree with him. I think some clinics are just lazy. I think you’re in good hands and I am sending you all the luck for the next part of your journey x

Hi @ItsAJourney Hope everything went well with your cycle.
How did your find the clinic and the doctors over all?

Hi @Affirmative, I’m very happy there. Due to a lot of our personal factors, we only ended up with one normal embryo from our egg collection with them, but I’ve found the clinic have managed my care plan in a way that was lacking with my previous clinic. I feel listened to and that my plan is tailored to me. Everyone is very friendly and helpful, and I’ve not had any issues with anything like admin or wait times etc.

I should have had my embryo transferred today but unfortunately, during scans, it was found that I have a polyp on my uterus. So, I’m instead booked in for a hysteroscopy to remove the polyp on Friday.

I had my second consultation with Dr Thum today. I already think he is amazing. My first consultation was for recurrent miscarriage (in late November), but I want to be more proactive as it's not happened again yet (only been 3 cycles but I'm 38 and time is not on my side).

We are proceeding with IVF with him with full PGA testing, and freezing embryos. It is a world-class clinic, with world-class embryologists and I know they will do their very best to make it happen and be advanced in all research to support that.