Ivf on the NHS - choosing a clinic, confused!

[tindog]

Hi everyone

I'm based in Hertfordshire and have been given a choice of 5 clinics for our ivf. All have similar stats so I thought it was an easy choice and told the nurse doing the referral that we'd probably go with the nearest for easiness.

But later on I did a bit of online research and came across all of these procedures that can increase your chances - scratch, embryo glue, sure 24 chromosomal test, blastocyst transfer, mitochondrial dna test, pgs ...

My question is, do you think all clinics on the NHS will do a standard procedure and all include the same thing?

Or do some nhs ivf clinics do more of these tests/screenings and should I ring every clinic out of the 5 clinics I was offered to see which ones do what?

Any tips would be much appreciated!

Thanks X

[Hollibob]

Different clinics offer different things under the NHS funding. My clinic offer embryo glue at the transfer stage as their normal practice.

Have you looked on the HFEA website? It can give you an indication on the waiting times etc and what they do.

I'd also ring the clinics to see if they are offering open days for you to have a wonder round and meet the staff as it's important to feel at ease as much as possible when you are there.

We were quite lucky to only have to pick from 3 and we knew several people who had been to our first choice and ended up with happy endings

[tindog in reply to Hollibob]

Hi

Thanks for your reply X

I will do as you suggest and do a but of ringing round before I settle on a clinic. We have a bit of time yet as we're getting our bloods done pre referral so will use it to just make certain, after all, if anything can improve our chances even by the slightest percentage its worth doing. After over 3 yrs of trying, and finding out we're only allowed 2 cycles on the NHS and the average success rate is 25% I am terrified the odds are against us

Thanks again for your advice, will get to work on the research!

[robbie03]

Also Herts and we were given bourn hall in Cambridge from L&D. where we are in Herts funding has been cut to 0 cycles - so great you are getting 2!! Good luck with your journey! Xx