NHS IVF funding - does it cover / can we pay for PGT-A?

[Queenofswords88]

We’ve finally been approved for NHS IVF funding and have been asked to select a clinic from a list of options. Our ICB is Central East and the funding covers one egg collection and up to two embryo transfers.

We would like to do PGT-A testing but we haven’t been able to get a clear answer from anyone about whether this is covered by our NHS funding and, if it is not covered, whether we can pay to add it on privately (and whether this would vary from clinic to clinic).

Does anyone have any experience with this?

It looks as though it’s not currently funded:

www.hfea.gov.uk/treatments/explore-all-treatments/frequently-asked-questions-about-pre-implantation-genetic-testing-for-aneuploidy-pgt-a/

Thanks that’s really helpful! Any idea whether we might be able to pay privately to add it on to our NHS treatment? If it’s a definite no then we can accept that, we just don’t want to pick a clinic that doesn’t allow it if another clinic would allow it. We’ve been trying for weeks to get a straight answer from the clinics we’re considering, with no joy so far.

Sorry, I don’t know at all. Not something I have gone through, but I knew the HFEA had information about it. Hope all goes well for you.

Hey @Queenofswords88 i don’t have an answer for you however I am wondering the same! We have just finished our first cycle with the NHS and out of 4 ‘good quality’ embryos only one implanted and that ended in miscarriage at 7 weeks.

I know nhs don’t offer pgta testing because they have told us that before, however we have an appointment with doctor this Thursday and I’m going to ask them if it’s possible for us to pay to have the embryos in our next egg collection tested, because we have had every test under the sun and everything comes back ‘normal’, so I would really love to be able to test them, to avoid having to go through all of this again if the embryos we are making are abnormal!

I will let you know after Thursday what they say!

Thanks, that would be really helpful!

My clinics lets you add on PGTA testing but this seems to vary as I've heard other people say they can't. Not sure if it depends if its a pure NHS clinic or NHS funding paying a private clinic? Mine is a Care clinic.

The NHS does not offer PGT-A testing. You’d have to ask whether you can pay for it privately as it will vary from clinic to clinic, depending on whether they have to equipment / professionals available to do it

Hey, no idea if your clinic would allow you to, but mine would have.. However they never mentioned it and we were a bit naive going into it all. After several failed transfers I asked to pgta the rest of them (to avoid more failed transfers/miscarriages) and they said it wasnt advisable because they'd have to unfreeze, test, refreeze then obviously unfreeze again for transfer which could damage or kill the embryo. So make sure you do it straight after making the embryos and before freezing if you do have any spare.

I've heard of some people being able to pay for pgta as an add on to nhs ivf, if yhr clinic does it, but other clinics not allowing it even if you're paying, it seems to vary by area what the rules are, which is mad!

Whether you can add it on varies clinic to clinic. I’m also with Care Fertility but the Manchester clinic, and they don’t allow any private add ons to nhs funded cycles. It was really disappointing to discover this once I’d began the process with them. I’d definitely advise checking with your clinic in advance so you know what to expect.

Hey @Queenofswords88 I had my consultants appointment today. Our clinic don’t offer PGTA testing even if we paid, but they said we could send them to a private clinic to get tested, and then send them back to them and continue with our nhs cycle. But she did say that we couldn’t do a freeze all cycle (unless I was at risk of OHSS), so we would have to go ahead with the fresh transfer and then test any frozen ones - if we get that many. She also warned that some private clinics might not let you test with them unless you do the transfers with them, but she recommended some NHS clinics that also offer private services and said they would very likely be more happy to send back to them.

For us she said it’s probably a good idea because all of our embryos failed, so we will see how the next egg collection goes and go from there!

Hope this is helpful ☺️

Thanks for coming back on this, this is really good to know! (And thanks everyone for all the other responses too.)