Update on IVF

[Wannabedadlei]

Hi,

My wife and I have been trying to conceive for just over a year. We were referred to a gynaecologist and put on a waiting list, but we haven’t been given any indication of how long this might take. We’ve tried contacting the NHS for updates, but they haven’t been able to give us any clear answers.

We’re now debating whether to wait for the NHS or go private. Ideally, we’d rather not go private, but the waiting times are making us anxious. Our workplace insurance would cover some initial testing, and if we did go private for treatment, we’d likely use Access Fertility.

We’re unsure whether doing private tests would affect eligibility for NHS-funded fertility treatment later on, and whether taking private results back to the GP could speed things up at all.

Has anyone been in a similar situation?

• Did you wait for the NHS or go private?
• Did private testing help move things along with the NHS?
• What are people’s experiences with Access Fertility?

Any advice or experiences would be really appreciated.

We did a private round while waiting for our NHS referral to come through and it basically meant they took it off our entitlement - so in our area we were entitled to three NHS rounds but because we had had one private it was two. In retrospect, I just wouldn't have told them to be honest. I didnt want to hide it as I thought they might learn from the protocol and what our results were and make adjustments but that wasn't really the case - they were pretty rigid and didnt seem to really pay any heed to our previous protocol and results. So maybe just dont tell them if you do get to the point of needing NHS treatment.

They still wanted to do all their own tests again etc so it wasn't like I saved any time in that regard either. I will say once I was actually in with the clinic, it was all very quick from that point. It was just the admin of getting referred and all the preliminary tests that they insisted on that delayed things and were an absolute nightmare. Good luck!

I get you. Unfortunately where I’m based we only get 1 round with unlimited transfers (I think) but it’s genuinely the wait time for all the admin and stuff.

Ah thats rubbish- it's such a postcode lottery. Ours was three full rounds, with three frozen transfers each time (but two for us). I had such a long wait for the referral too - the referral got lost and then loads of my tests got messed up and delayed so I know your pain. If you do decide to go private and it doesn't work I would definitely consider just not telling NHS though- I really dont think they would know!

Depending on how old you both are and if you have time to wait. late 30s--- dont wait. 20s-probably okay to wait for nhs.

We paid privately (partly though health insurance) for all of our tests and some treatment for PCOS and endo, and paid to have a couple of letrozole cycles while we were in the NHS queue for actual treatment.
We chose a Dr that did both private and NHS care and it meant that once our number came up and we could have the NHS treatment, there was no waiting, we just flipped over.
the big hold up for us would have been waiting for a laparoscopy on the NHS.
we had all of the testing, the surgery, recovery and was 20 weeks pregnant, all before I got a letter for a gynaecology referral on the NHS.
if you are in a position to do it, I would definitely recommend paying for the investigation x

Hey update for anyone interested.

My wife and I paid for the private testing at the ‘NHS clinic’ (so the clinic also did private and we paid for the testing and consultation). The consultant then referred us to a private clinic under the nhs funding. We managed to skip the entire 2 year queue in less than a month by paying £700 and we are staying IVF next month.

Can you explain more about how you were able to "skip the queue" - did they find anything specific in your test results?

This was exactly the same as us.
All tests and treatments for endo, PCOS and blocked tubes done and dusted before the NHS referral even came through.
i was 20 weeks pregnant from an NHS funded cycle before by original referral came though.

it’s so sad it comes down to money but it was worth it for us.

So my wife and I just paid for the test privately from care fertility (cost us £575) and then paid for a consultation at our nhs fertility clinic which was £200, this consultation is going to refer us to care fertility to do the nhs funded one. My wife and I have been tested and they can’t seem to find a cause so it has gone down as unexplained. We will be starting in march once everything goes through.

I will say this, it would have been cheaper for us to do our tests at the nhs fertility clinic privately and then had a consultant refer us to a private clinic that does nhs funded ivf. That would have costed us around £500.

It is sad we had to pay our way to the top, hence me sharing this. I would rather everyone know it’s an option.

So the NHS guidelines say you can't be referred for NHS IVF unless you've been trying for 2 years - have they explained why you're eligible when it's been less time than this?

I think that might depend on where you are.
In South Yorkshire it was 12 months.
for me, I hadn’t had a cycle for 9m so in the time it took to have the tests done, we very quickly got to the 12m mark.