Anyone trying the Coventry NK tests?

[Danlsb]

Yesterday went to Coventry and had the scratch and biopsy - now have 4 week wait for results. Just wanted to find out others experiences and thoughts.

Had five miscarriages. Went to Coventry clinic. Had a successful pregnancy. I think they're fab.

Know of lots of others who've also had success with them, irrespective of whether they had high NK cells or not.

Good luck.

I was recommended to go on a board here. I found them really helpful and got my results back in just over three weeks. They found my Nk was in the normal range, but prescribed progesterone. So hoping it will do the trick, so firmly on the ttc roller coaster.

I'm debating going

But from stalking the Quenby threads on FF it seems it could raise more questions than answers. Quite a few women get wildly different levels of uNK cells from one month to the next - which of course doesn't get you any closer to identifying whether pred would or wouldn't be beneficial in a treatment cycle.

Prof Quenby and Brosens say that (even if peripheral blood levels are high) that you need some inflammation for successful implantation, and that in some cases pred and intralipids can do more harm than good.

This seems to be the case for me as I had successful implantation (but MMC at 10w) with my first pregnancy - from my second round of IVF, without any immunes tx - but poor implantation in my second pregnancy (just miscarried at 5w, from my 4th round of IVF, treated with pred and intralipids)

I suspect I may have been over suppressed by the pred and iintralipids this time, but I'm not sure whether the biopsy will shed any light on it when results can vary so much. Hmm!!!

I went in 2013 after 4 miscarriages and had my DD in May 2014 on my first attempt on their protocol ( heparin, progesterone, steroids) after my NK cells came back at 13%. Good luck!

Thanks for your feed back glad to hear some positive out comes.
Out of interest how long did those of you who had the biopsy bleed for afterwards?
Bannafish - you are so right it's very confusing as lots of the experts have different and sometimes conflicting views. They did say that the scratch and biopsy would have a beneficial effect on the womb for 3 months.
waitandwine - good luck hope you have a sticky bean very soon ( let us know when you do)

Hi all. I've been looking and thankfully come across this.
Wondering if anyone can give me some more info about Coventry clinic ?
I miscarried again in May after my 3rd round off ivf , I have had two eptopics and have miscarried twice.
At a complete lost at the moment and need some desperate advice what to do next and where I could go to get test etc ? What it involves?
Just need to do something to see if there is a reason to why this keeps happening.
Thankyou
X

Hi Rach

I'm sorry for your losses

Here's the info leaflet on the clinic and how to get an appointment, what's involved

https://www.mededcoventry.com/Researchandd_Development/Facilities/Implantation%20Clinic%20leaflet.pdf

Hello Rach - Sorry for your losses.
I found the whole process with Coventry very efficient (as you will see in the link Bannafish sent you) - I contacted Kerri the admin person to let them know I was interested then used ovulation sticks and as soon as I had a positive I called the clinic and 7 days later had the test. Much quicker than the nhs rcm clinic. The staff were all lovely and the scratch and biopsy was just like having a smear so not too uncomfortable. They said results will be back in 4 weeks. I think we can all sympathise with how lost you are feeling right now. I find the waiting so hard which is why I went to Coventry when I found out my rcm appointment would not be until December. At least I feel like something is happening. I hope this helps if you have any other question about it I am happy to let you know what I experienced/was told.

Thankyou bananafish and Dan.
I will take a look at the information.
Appreciate yous getting back to me.
So what does the test involve ? And am I right in thinking that this test is see if they can find any reasons why one maybe losing their precious babies.
I'm not sure if I'm ready to start the process all over again just yet but I want to in the new year. Just hope if I do have something wrong then they can fix . Fingers crossed :)

Rach you need to be at least 2 cycles post miscarriage and definitely not pregnant to have the test so if you are having a rest from TTC that's a perfect time to get it done. You monitor ovulation and go to the Coventry clinic 7-10 days post ov. They put a thin flexible biopsy tube through your cervix to grab a small piece of uterine lining which is then assessed for NK cell levels and for how well the lining decidualises (prepares for pregnancy). I found it no worse than a smear test, others have found it uncomfortable, they have gas and air if you need it. Results about 4 weeks later and a telephone consultation to recommend treatment. It was a last ditch effort for us, we had decided unless they could offer us an explanation for our chromosomally normal losses and some treatment we were not trying again. I had very high NK cells of 13.55% ( normal

Hello,

I went to Coventry last Friday and just waiting for results. I found them lovely and whilst it was painful (partly due to awkward angle of my uterus!!?) I was fine after. No bleeding at all but then early and very light period a few days after??

How's everyone else getting on? I am hoping to start trying this month and that my results come back by the time I am testing!

Hope everyone getting on ok!! xx

Just incase someone comes across this thread and wonders what happened. I didn't have killer cells but was given progesterone by dr Branson and then progesterone and heparin by my local NHS r m c and now have a lovely 6 week baby boy. Good luck to all of you who are struggling x

Hi Danlsb thank you so much for coming back and posting an update, that's so encouraging. Huge congratulations on your baby boy!
Do you mind me asking how many losses you'd had when you went to Coventry and if any other issues were found at your NHS clinic? Thank you

Thanks so much for updating - just waiting on my results from Coventry (and from NHS testing) now and will be starting on the progesterone next cycle so great to hear a happy ending!

@LisaSimpsonsbff do you mind me asking whether you decided to go for one or two months' worth of biopsies? I spoke to the clinic earlier this week and was surprised to hear that they offer testing over 2 cycles. I'm torn - I would love to rule in / rule out NK cells as a cause but it's a long time to take off TTC and I'm not far off 35 so 'wasting' 2 cycles feels like a big deal.

Hi schnitzel. I had two biopsies. My understanding is that they prescribe steroids if either one (or both) of the biopsies come back with high NK cells, so if the first one came back high you wouldn't need a second - the problem is that the results take 4-5 weeks so depending on your cycle length you might not have your first results by the time of the second (I didn't - but as it happened my first one was normal anyway, so I guess I needed a second).

It does feel like a bloody long time, since they say you need to be two months post the most recent miscarriage for the first biopsy, so it's four months, give or take, in the end that you can't try for. I had it done in part because we were waiting anyway for the results from our NHS recurrent miscarriage results and had been told not to try during that time (still waiting!), so we thought that it made sense to get this done during that period too. Part of our logic was that if we waited until after a fourth loss to have it done we'd have to take all that time off again, so I completely understand your reluctance.