Tell me about IVF

[Ferihah]

I am a 40 year old woman, sound, healthy in every way who wants a baby and have been told that I am fertile and able. Sadly, my husband, who is 65, has diabetes and has been told that he sperm count is nil. I really would like to have a child and have nearly convinced my husband that we should go the IVF route, but I need to know more about others experiences, the steps that need to be taken and idea of where to go and the cost. We are in London. Any guidence from fellow members will be really appreciated.

they offer it kings college hospital camperwell in se5, london, they will give you all the prices and information, i had mine their, if you need more information just ask me.

It sounds as though you will need to have ICSI, which is where they inject an individual sperm into an individual egg. This is because your DH is probably azoospermic and will need to have his sperm surgically collected. It will then be frozen into several vials.

You will be put on a regime of fertility drugs designed to get you to produce more eggs than the usual one or two, which will be collected from your ovaries before you ovulate.

One vial of DH's sperm will be thawed ready for the ICSI once your eggs have been collected.

Availability on NHS depends on the policy of your local healthcare trust. If you see your GP you should be referred to the nearest NHS subfertility service. They will tell you what's available to you and if it's not free, how much it will cost.

I'm 43. I have a beautiful 3.5 year old DS and another DS on the way. Cost us around £25K though, as we had six attempts and had to pay for them all.

Good luck!

I was amazed at how easy it was to initiate private IVF treatment. I found a clinic which was recommended by some friends. Looked at the website, gave them a call, they needed a referral letter from our GP, then we had the initial appointment to discuss our options. Once we had made the decision to go down the route of IVF, it seemed very fast. The clinic was very helpful, with hindsight I think being a paying customer makes a big difference.

We went to the Herts and Essex fertility clinic.

its deffirent between sperm count low and nil, i am realy not sure about nil, but my husband had low, so i went for ICSI, When they take the sperm and choose the strong one, than inject it to the egg that they take from you, the prices depend of your situation, you may even be able to have it done for free, even if your husband working, depend of the income, thats way you have to ask before go to private, i have mine done for free, with the drugs, and i had my lovely ds he is now 2years, i am now 25+weeks pregnant with my second, nut it cames normal, i never thought about it, it just hapend, because my DH sperm was low at the time, now is just return to normal.
so good luck for you too.

I don't think any of the London PCTs fund IVF if you are over 39 at start of treatment. Lots of clinic choice in London - pick a clinic thats easy to get to as you will have lots of appointments and depending on your response to drugs etc you may have to attend v frequently for blood tests and been stuck on the Tube when you are going through treatment is no fun.

If your DH sperm count is nil then you will probably need donor sperm so need to check which clinics can provide that. UK law states that donors have to be willing to have their identity disclosed to any children when they are 18 (I think). If you don't want a donor who a child could identify you will have to go abroad - complicated issue and needs thinking through.

I had my ISCI done for free in King college hospital in SE5 LONDON, I was 34yrs at time.

Can't really add much, except that I think the age 39 cutoff is across the whole NHS, and even if it isn't in your area, there are a host of other rules designed to get the NHS out of paying for the treatment - including the consultant's random assessment of chances of success.

Having gone into IVF (and thinking we were going to need to do ICSI, although it became unnecessary) thinking I was healthy, and my insides were behaving normally, to then find out that my FSH levels were through the roof and my ovaries had pretty much packed up and retired at 38, it might be useful for you to get your GP to run the Day 3 hormone tests on you. If these are normal, then there are private clinics which do 3 for 2 type offers as well, but not if you're going to be a complicated case - and being private, you'd be surprised what they consider complicated (to be cynical, anyone who is going to make their success rates look bad...). Also, you may find that particular clinics specialise in particular problems, so having all the information at your fingertips about both of you can help here.

Good luck! We were told we had less than 1% chance of success. So here am I, 12 weeks gone today with twins, after our first try :-)

You will need donor sperm as another poster said and you need to talk to the clinics to find out waiting times. There is a very long wait for it on the NHS but I didn't have to wait at all for it privately.

Contact the HFEA for success rates for clinics - obviously you need one that is close but you may as well choose one that has a good success rate. In London the Hammersmith and Fulham (private part of NHS trust) and the London Women's Clinic (entirely private) both got good results when I had treatment.

It would also be worth you contacting the Donor Conception Network who provide useful information about the issues around using donor sperm so you can think it through properly before you start.

Good luck.

I can't believe how helpful everyone is and how willing to exchange experiences and give advice. Thank you all so very, very much. I will go through all these suggestions with my husband and we shall choose, from your advice, what our next step is. I shall report my success - I now feel confident I will have success - on mumsnet. The only thing I would really like to know is how much? I will not be able to take advantage of the NHS as I am past the cut-off point and anyway we are not UK nationals. So any further ball park type figures would be useful. Thanks again to everyone.

Might depend on the clinic and where you are, but ours for full IVF/ICSI was £2,500 for the basic treatment (consultations, scans), plus £750 for the ICSI (got a refund!), plus the drugs, which were anything from £600-£1200. If you're fully functioning, as it were, and not overweight, then the drug cost should be at the low end. Mine was £1100 (and I ended up not using about £200 of the drugs, which made me a bit 'grrrr' because I couldn't sell them back, or even donate them to someone who was struggling with the cost - and it would have been almost an entire course of one of the drugs for someone who wasn't as non-functioning as I was.

It will also depend on whether you do the long protocol or the short one.

If a cycle is cancelled, then I think it was £650, but I know that if we'd gone through a different clinic, this would have been over £1k.

Thinking about it, if your OH is able to provide a couple of wrigglers, even if it's through collecting by syringe (ouch!), you might be able to do a natural cycle one....

My suggestion is you have a good look at some of the IVF versions of MN - fertilityfriends, or some such - but make sure you get a UK one - US treatment is different, and have a good look at their experiences and guidance.

Oh, and even if the NHS won't pay, they will probably be prepared to treat you - just charge you - as they did us. This could be an option if you have a very good NHS facility near you.

Our single cycle of IVF cost IRO £5k - but may have been more as the drugs are expensive and were paid for separately from the actual treatment so may well have added up to more than expected.

Have a look at the ARGC in London, their results seem fantastic compared to other London clinics www.argc.co.uk/statistics.html