Surgical Sperm Retrieval on the NHS?

[Ladypii]

Hello

Has anyone had any success in getting an SSR op on the NHS in the North-West? My husband has azoospermia due to an undecended testicle when he was a child. The first consultant we have seen has said we need to pay for the SSR ourselves and then if any sperm is found the nhs will pay for the first round of IVF. The CCG guidance does state that the nhs trust should pay for the SSR if the couple qualify for IVF, which we do.

If you have a similar experience please would you care to share?

Thanks x

[Sisibaby]

We went and had our sperm retrieval done at new life in Greece the whole procedure was extremely cost-effective we then had IVF with the sperm and successfully have a baby 😻

[Ladypii in reply to Sisibaby]

Thanks Sisibaby. I have looked at some clinics in Turkey. Why did you decide to go to Greece? X

[Sisibaby in reply to Ladypii]

The clinic was recommended to me by a close friend who has success - who had also been recommended by a friend, and so on. They come to london once a month to meet new patients and I instantly felt that they understood exactly what we needed and we trusted them. They were affordable and the level of care from the start to finish was excellent. Greece is also lovely and we made a Holiday out of it!!

New Life IVF in Thessaloniki x

[Ladypii in reply to Sisibaby]

Thank you that’s really helpful, I will look them up! Xx

[NCS88]

Hi - we also need this but are very early on in the process so I don’t know. But would also be interested to see xx

[Ladypii in reply to NCS88]

Thanks. I will keep you posted, I am trying to push back and get the CCG to pay for it as we are eligible for ivf and actually paid for a lot of the preliminary tests privately so have already saved the nhs quite a bit of money but we have run out of money now so if the nhs won’t pay for his SSR we will have to save up for it x

[aamiller405]

HI.. We live in Northern Ireland and are were entitled to a SSR on the NHS as part of the treatment.

We ended up going private first but that still hasn't affected our free entitlement if we've need it.

Our SSR wa successful and we're currently in the middle of our first ICSI cycle xo

[Ladypii in reply to aamiller405]

Congrats, really pleased you found sperm! We have been given a really low chance of finding any sperm so I’m not hopeful but we need to get the op out of the way so we know and then I guess consider other options. Good luck with the ICSI xx

[aamiller405 in reply to Ladypii]

Aw well fingers crossed for you and isn't it great that we have other options these days xo

[wannabemommy]

Hi Ladypii.

Sorry to hear that. My husband is a azoospermic as well. We were told we are not eligible for NHS funded treatment hence, moved to a private clinic and did our SSR process but unfortunately, they couldn't find any sperms in the testicles. There was an advance treatment even ahead of that but the success rate was only 30% and we couldn't afford that. We went ahead with an IVF treatment using donor sperm. Had a fresh cycle but failed. Waiting for a FET cycle in April

Hope this helps.

[Ladypii in reply to wannabemommy]

Thanks wannabemommy. I’m sorry you’ve had to go through that, it just seems like an endless process sometimes and feels so easy to just give up but I need to keep going and be strong.

Good luck with your next cycle in April xx

[wannabemommy in reply to Ladypii]

Yeah, it is indeed. Emotionally drained. I read lots of people have gone through more than I have.

Sending you all the positive vibes. Stay strong!

[Kyell2]

Hi Ladypii.

We did ours privately because my OH is very impatient and had both the PESA (were they try to get sperm through a needle) and TESA (were they try to get sperm from tissue by cutting some out). Both were done in the same op because it was private, we were unsuccessful but knew we had a chromosome issue so our odds were only 50/50.

Can you speak to the NHS trust and get clarification on the process and why you need to pay? Seems a bit harsh but all these cutbacks are a nightmare 😩. Good luck x

[Ginny27]

Hi Ladypii, just wondering if you had success with getting the procedure funded by the NHS in the end? I am now starting the process. Thank you x

[Ladypii in reply to Ginny27]

Hi Ginny27, we were referred to an nhs Newcastle fertility clinic, although we live in Manchester, as Newcastle were the closest nhs facility to do SSR, M-Tese in tandem with egg collection. We have been sat on the waiting list since May 2019 though. We have decided separately to go private and that has been much more fruitful. We are going to do an Fna mapping procedure with a urologist in London in January.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask, hope it all goes well for you xx