Additional (private) egg collection before NHS embryo transfer

[leaflake]

35, unexplained infertility. We will be eligible for NHS IVF soon.

Ideally we'd like two kids - clinging onto optimism that this isn't too much to hope for. If we do an egg collection and then only get say one or two
embryos - is it possible to do another egg collection (and fertilisation?) round privately before implanting the embryo(s) from the NHS round?

I'm thinking if we would have to pay privately for another round for a second child later it might be better to try and get more embryos earlier on with "younger" eggs and sperm to try and improve our chances of a second?

Is this something you can do - combine NHS and private like this? I suppose you can't do this before a fresh transfer but maybe before a frozen one?

Look up the care board stipulations for your particular area. There should just be one national policy but there isn't.

It will depend on your NHS trust policy. In some if you’ve paid for your own round before you might not get your free round with NHS.

Also if you start on an IVF cycle you might get called for your NHS cycle.

Best might be to get NHS cycle. Perhaps ask them to freeze before transfer if possible. Then do your private round.

Yes @ChildrenAreTheFuture that's what I was thinking - starting the NHS round, and then doing a private round before transfer if we don't get many embryos.

Then if we were lucky enough to get several embryos from the NHS round and were able to freeze some we wouldn't need to do the private round as we'd have some banked.

As someones said above, the rules about what tou can do vary hugely by area, in some places you can do private IVF and still get NHS treatment, but in other areas any private IVF makes you ineligible for Nhs cover, which is hugely unfair, but much of the NHS IVF provision is! So definitely check that carefully before you do anything

Joining the litany of, ‘it depends on the rules in your area’! Where I live, private rounds don’t count towards your nhs rounds, however they will not do ivf if you have frozen embryos.

So in my area the NHS will fund one cycle (including a fresh transfer), and a frozen transfer, as long as you haven't had 3 cycles already (whether NHS or private).
So I think it would be possible to do an NHS cycle inc fresh transfer as the first cycle, if unsuccessful do a private egg collection as the second cycle, and then be eligible for an NHS frozen transfer from the first cycle. The policy doesn't say anything about not being eligible if you have any frozen eggs or embryos

That’s great then! (Just to clarity, I didn’t mean the won’t do it at all, but you have to use up frozen embryos before they’ll do it. Sorry if that was misleading in my original wording). But also, irrelevant to you anyway :)