We have been told that for where we live, we will qualify for one fresh transfer and one frozen transfer. If the first round was successful and we had a child, would we still be allowed our second go? (the frozen round).
I was assuming we would but my husband just read that if you have a child already then you don’t qualify, but I thought that meant from before you have started ivf at all?
Does anyone know if we would get the second attempt if the first one worked? We’ve always wanted a big family and I’m panicking now that we’ll actually only get one attempt
Thank you xx
Written by
Strawberry17
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
I might be wrong but I assume that if round 1 works and you have embryos that you can freeze then you'd have to pay for the frozen transfer (which would be much cheaper than going through another ivf round).
I don't know about the UK...but here in New Zealand we get 2 funded rounds. 1 round consist of a fresh transfer...and any viable frozen embryos must be used within 18 months. So if not used in that time I'd say you have to pay for frozen transfer and storage. Good luck and lots of baby dust! Xxx
If you have a successful fresh cycle you would have to pay for your frozen cycle. If of course you have embryos to freeze (fingers crossed you have lots!). This is how most clinics do it. Frozen cycles are a lot cheaper as most of the work is done. Also, you pay the clinic an annual fee to store your embryos after they’ve froze them. I’m pretty sure this is most clinic policy.
I really hope your cycle works, but you have to be prepared it wont work, a woman under 30 has less than 50% of her first cycle working, it something like 46%.
It becomes less likely once over 30, over 40 and it drops to about 12% chance
I think you and your partner need to prepare for that rather than fretting if you have to pay if it works first time. If you want a big family, you should be thinking of alternative plans, like how you would pay for more cycles, adoption, etc.
I don't want to be a killjoy, but we really believed our first (and only free NHS cycle) was going to work and when it didn't it really floored us. If I knew what I know now, I would have told myself, IVF is hit and miss and be prepared that the chances are it wont work. When it did work, we were really expecting it not to!!!
Have a plan. When your grieving over a failed cycle or an early miscarriage, having that plan really helps to pick yourself up.
Your consultant should explain exactly what you have to pay for, so I'd be on the phone to them to clarify what you pay for, rather than second guessing.
I'm sorry if the above is upsetting, but with IVF I really do believe hope for the best, prepare for the worst is the only way to survive it.
Stay positive, and I really hope you have a BFP, I'm sure you will xx
I am under no impression the first round will work. In fact I am a pessimist and am convinced it won’t work. I am simply trying to collect information so that however this journey goes for us, we have a rough idea of what to expect. I am very aware of the percentage numbers of how little our chances are but my post was not about that. I was simply asking how the ivf process works so don’t appreciate a reply telling me not to get my hopes up. I pretty much have no hope and am desperately trying to find some, so replies like yours a really not helpful.
We are not ‘fretting’, we are simply trying to deal with the fact that we have just been told we will need ivf and do not understand the process. I thought this forum was a place to ask advice and find out answers, not to be told to not get my hopes up. This is our only hope. So I have every intention of trying to get my hopes up. Otherwise what’s the point?
I really didn't mean to upset you, I'm very, very sorry.
My wife and I are IVF veterans and I really thought I was trying to help. I read your message incorrectly as I worried you were preparing if the cycle didn't work ( which is what we did) I was just worried for you, especially seeing my wife pin her hopes on free NHS cycle and how hard it hit her when it didn't work.
I really do hope the best outcome for you and please understand I was trying to help, that's all I've ever done on this forum. So apologies again, I really mean that.
For your question, I would say the NHS is such a postcode lottery, health authorities are changing their policies what feels like on a weekly basis, so I would pin them down what exactly you're getting if you're in any doubt.
best of luck with your cycle, and please accept my apologies, I really wasn't having a go at all. I'm one of the few husbands who posts here , and being a typical man sometimes I'm a bit heavy handed in my language!
Sorry. I just re-read my reply and I think I might be a little emotional right now. We only found out just under two weeks ago and I’m all over the place (and possibly a little over sensitive). Thank you for your reply xx
Me being a typical man, my wife just read my first reply and chewed my head off!!!!
My post came across as incredibly patronising, I'm really sorry, you definitely don't have anything to say sorry for!!!
There's so much info, so many procedures, all on top of the heartache of simply just wanting to make a baby, you don't need a preachy man telling you anything!!
After going through IVF for 4 years, I have to say this forum is a GREAT comfort, there are some incredibly strong women on here who provide really good information and support and you are in the right place to get you through your journey.
Never give up, is the message I get from here, that if you never give up you will have a child, however you get there, it will happen. I'm 100% sure of that for you!!!
You're doing the right thing by asking mums and mums to be on this forum at the start of your first cycle!
I never thought for a minute that frozen transfers would be covered after a successful cycle. It’s a shame as fets at my clinic are £4900! But then we were extremely lucky to have nhs funding in the first place and the nhs certainly can’t afford to cover the costs of us having subsequent children.
But... don’t be so negative. I’m convinced my cycle only worked because I really believed it would. Though that was entirely down to an amazing consultant who refused to let me think for a minute it wouldn’t work first time to the extent she refused to answer any questions about subsequent cycles as “I definitely wouldn’t need them”.
Also I always wanted 4 children. But now I have my daughter my outlook has completely changed. She is so perfect that if I could never have any more children it wouldn’t really matter. We aren’t even sure whether to use or remaining embryos in the first place as we just feel so grateful even to have her and she is enough for us. And we never for a minute thought we’d feel like this so don’t worry about subsequent goes as you never know how you’ll feel.
I assume that you wouldn’t get your frozen transfer free if you had a live birth, that is the case in my ccg. I’m not sure if you have to continue to pay freezing costs though.
You sound like a real planner, and it can be really helpful to have a plan. However, please don’t panic about the maybes of a second child before getting your first. You will find a way to fund a second round of ivf if you need to. And I have a number of friends who needed ivf for their first child and then had surprise natural pregnancies with their second so you just never know! Keep the faith, what’s meant to be will be and you are determined enough to reach your dreams x
I believe that as others said you’d need to pay to store yours but only possibly over a certain amount of time. The same allocation is for where I live and what happened was we suffered an early miscarriage with the fresh and we had a year free storage on the NHS so went almost straight on to the frozen blast, which is about to be born any day!
We now have blasts in storage but have to start paying for the storage when the year is up which is soon x
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
Help please! How many in? 
How many donor eggs did you purchase?
How many transfers before your bfp? 
How many cycles counts as a lot?
How many DE FETs before BFP?
