Honest experiences needed!!

[Bubbl]

I am hoping you lovely ladies can help me in what is a huge dilemma for me. I am lucky enough to conceive naturally and I 100% feel for the ladies that can't. Our issue as a couple is my Husband has a heart condition and his Cardiologist has suggested if we want children to go down the IVF route so that we can only implant embryos without his heart condition gene present.

I would like for you ladies to give me honest stories about how your IVF journey has been like to help me make a decision. Personally my husband wants to have the treatment but I am not so sure. We are allowed 3 goes on the NHS, but after that were on our own anyway so if they don't take we'd be going the natural route anyway. Also they only allow it for one child so once successful, we wouldn't be able to have any more even if successful on first go so any other children would be conceived naturally. Im not sure if I feel its worth it... I need to know all the pro's and con's and ups and downs..

TIA

[DianeArnold Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

Hi Bubbl. Lots for you to think about. Yes, it's true that if you are successful with your first round of IVF you wouldn't be allowed further treatment on the NHS. However, if you were fortunate to be able to freeze any embryos, you could then pay for storage and then pay for FET, which would be loads cheaper than fresh IVF again. If you have PGD (pre-implantation genetic diagnosis) beforehand, you would know that any frozen embies would be free from any inherited gene. Lots to think about, and obviously I wish you both well with all of this. Hopefully, someone will respond who has actually been in a similar situation. Thinking of you. Diane

[Cyantist]

Honestly... I put off ivf for years and years until it became obvious it was now or never. And I don't know why I was so worried about it. I don't think mine Is necessarily a typical experience but the whole process was easy. No being a hormonal mess, the injections were fine, collection and transfer easy and now I'm 14.5 weeks pregnant. And the being pregnant bit is 50 times harder than the ivf was!

If a cardiologist has recommended it I wouldn't hesitate to go through with it. Without fertility problems you should get quite a few embryos even after screening out the ones carrying the problem gene and freezing our spares is only costing £300 a year and frozen transfer is much cheaper.

I would say it's worth it to avoid passing on the problem. Though it guess it does depend how bad the heart condition is.

Good luck!