Which clinic recommend for unexplained infertility?

[ThatNimbleOP]

As the title says really!

32 years old, secondary unexplained infertility. Everything "textbook" on paper and daughter conceived first cycle so doesn't seem to be a sperm meeting egg problem (although a lot can change in 2-3 years i know)

Considering IVF at ABC IVF in St Albans and Herts and Essex Fertility. Aware they're very different.

Our case would leave us in good stead for ABC's mild IVF but is it as affordable as they claim?

Any information/advice would be much appreciated.

Go to lyn chapman in beacons field. She was able to crack my frustrating infertility label and saved me wasting thousands of pounds.

@Hatchyhatch thats so interesting! I was due to see her in January but I cancelled the appointment as another gynae said to go straight to IVF…

What did she say was the issue? Feel free to DM me.

Hi, sorry to jump on this thread, just out of curiosity what sort of things/markers did she check. I've had 7 MCs after my first child (6) and even though I'm doing IVF they haven't looked at any root causes which I do feel would help ALOT!xx

She strongly suggested we look more at my husband- she recommended a test called ‘extend’ or it’s sometimes called the comet. It cost us £900 but showed that actually on 12% of my husband sperm was healthy. This was why I had had four miscarriages, three failed ivf rounds and couldn’t get pregnant naturally. I had planned to go on to donated eggs as despite all other tests coming back fine for me, I was convinced it was my egg quality. To add, My husband had had the standard sperm test and standard dna test which had come back fine…it was the best £900 we ever spent and I’m incredibly grateful to her.

Wow thats amazing that they found what had caused all the heartache (although I'm sorry the findings also aren't good, but its just so much better to be aware). Did they make any suggestions going forward for your husband?
xx

@Hatchyhatch thanks for following up! What was the outcome though with the results? Also what does 12% healthy mean in the contex...is that from birth or in one sample? Could it be fixed with supplements/ICSI.

Also if sperm count is good, isn't 12% a decent figure...

Bit confused!

Hello,
I’ve attached a bar graph which will hopefully help explain. Out of a normal male ejaculate you should have 5% of high frag sperm with 75% being low. My husband has only 12% low.

We were supposed to have an an apt with Dr Ramsey but we did our own research and found out intense and constant ejaculation might help. We decided to try at home insemination where in my ovulation window and the week before it my husband mastubated (grand total was 13 times) and it while it took a couple of months we fell pregnant naturally. We had decided to stop with invasive treatments and hope that maybe one good sperm would work and accept child free life if it didn’t. I’m 38 and we gave a year deadline of trying naturally before giving up. My husband really committed to trying naturally in a way I don’t think he would have done without knowing the problem was him. I think the whole industry is just set up to blame the woman and the process is so female focused he just felt like a passenger. This put a lot of agency onto him whilst I think I just realised nothing was wrong my body or my eggs and it brought me peace I hadn’t had in years. I think for us, finding out the reason just gave us some peace. I genuinely feel like I’m carrying a miracle and I’m due in Jan so hope that gives some hope. The unexplained label caused me so much distress and again I’m so grateful to Lyn chapman because even if I wasn’t pregnant we at least knew the why! I hope this helps. Sorry if I have rambled x

A friend of mine went through something very similar. If you’re open to it, you might consider treatment abroad. She went to the Czech Republic and used FertilityClinicsAbroad to shortlist clinics, which really helped her choose the right one.

Totally get why you’re weighing up the two — unexplained secondary infertility is frustrating, especially when everything looks fine on paper.

My wife and I are going through treatment too (we’re at King’s in Denmark Hill) and we’ve also been looking at different IVF models. I’m definitely not an expert, but from what I’ve seen while researching for our own situation ABC can be cheaper, but only if your treatment stays very straightforward.

Because I was getting overwhelmed comparing everything, I ended up putting together a little tool to see clinics side by side (costs, approaches, what they offer) Seedling. It’s still pretty new, but it helped us understand the differences without opening a million tabs — might help you too.