NHS ivf referral time

[Ruby26]

I was just wondering if anyone had any idea of the referral time for an NHS IVF referral. I’m signing the forms at the hospital for referral in a couple of weeks and I just wanted to know when I could expect to have my first appointment with the IVF clinic. The consultant a few months ago I am sure said 6-8 weeks but I don’t think if what she meant was months!!! Any advice is appreciated xx

[CC2018]

We had our referral sent before xmas, wenr to the lecture and recieved packs in Feb, signed permission paper work in March and started out treatment in June. Just be aware they may not see you on your 1st cycle after signing off the paper work due to waiting lists xx

[CatDV]

I think it varies a lot depending on the clinics.

I see some ladies here that in a few weeks/months after their first appointment start their cycle.

I was referred to the fertility clinic in March 2018, I went to my appointment in May 2018 and received a letter at the end of July saying my first cycle will start in May 2019 😢

I am going abroad in a couple of weeks for IVF as I could not deal with any more waiting...

Good luck, I hope you won’t have to wait long in your clinic xx

[Buisquits]

I was referred in March 2017 and had 1st appointment in June, followed up by a laparoscopy and more appointmentsI had my first transfer April 2018. It all varies on the area and your struggles I’m afraid...

[CLN1986]

We signed referral paperwork in Feb 2018 and are going for our training/information session at the end of September. So hoping might get an October/November start?! We are attending Barts in London.

[CatDV in reply to CLN1986]

Is it homerton? Same clinic, not sure why is taking a lot more time for us 😕

We are not waiting for any investigations or anything... 🙁

[CLN1986 in reply to CatDV]

No it’s St Barts. I assume that’s a diff clinic to homerton? I think it just takes time unfortunately. At our last meeting they said my iron was too low so needed to get the level up before they would put us on the list for the information session. So that’s delayed us. My husband calls it the ‘3 months NHS’! Every appointment you go to, something means you’ll have to go away and come back in 3 months 😂

[CatDV in reply to CLN1986]

Ah of course they are different hospitals, I was a bit confused this morning 😂

I also had low iron but luckily my GP spotted it before I was referred to clinic so os hasn’t caused any delays

[Magdalenach]

We've been referred by my GP at the end of Sep last year and two weeks later we had first appointment with the clinic. I just had embrio transfer on Sun, in 2ww at the moment.

We live in Scotland now so everything is going really smoothly. I never got the chance for referral when we were in London or Wales.

Good luck Ruby 🤞🍀😊

[Barkely]

Hello,

I am sure they meant weeks,

We got referred from GP to hospital pretty quickly. I would say it was about 3 weeks and we had our first appointment.

We were at Liverpool's Hewitt centre, brilliant staff really made me and my partner feel more comfortable with the situation.

It depends on the clinic you go to and how busy they are at that time, I pray for you that your clinic isn't busy and you get seen ASAP.

Hope it all goes well girl!! xxxxxx

[Hidden]

I’m still waiting, referred in feb , am 40 in early November , there’s no guarantee it will come in before then as we’ve just opted to go privately. I had my transfer yesterday. I live in East Sussex

[Lizzielizzielizzie]

It really varies depending on your area. My ccg refers to private clinics not a hospital so it was pretty quick, definitely weeks not months.

[glt01]

If it's from gp to clinic it can be up to 4 months depending on clinic timelines.

We've had all our work up and have just signed our paperwork to request the funding (nhs) and they told us it's about 3 - 4 weeks for the funding to be approved (🤞) then however long the waiting list is for a clinic appointment to start IVF. We're keeping everything crossed it's before Christmas. It depends on how busy your clinic is, but they only have 6 months to use the funding otherwise they loose the money

[2018hopeful]

I was referred July last year, received a letter from ivf clinic in October to call them and be put on waiting list, but my BMI was too high, so was told to call them again when I lost weight. I called them in Decemberand was told my 6month wait would start from then. We got seen 29th May. Hope this helps - this was NHS Wales. We started our down regulating injections on 11th July, and it was pretty fast from that first appt. Good luck x

[Ruby26]

Thank you all for your replies! I think there is no definite answer. I’ll ask at my next clinic appointment in 2 weeks (after all I am used to 2ww’s lol) x