Trying to decide on a fertility clinic. Has anybody had experience with ARGC or CRGH?

[josephnsn]

I am planning on doing short protocol and frozen embryo transfer so would be really sueful if anyone has had experience of this at either of these clinics

[Babysitt]

Hello Josephnsn

My consultant referred me to ARGC and we mistakenly went to CRGH. My mum taught it was the same place after she went to an open fertility forum and met the group from CRGH. They are ok I had 3 circles of if with them which didn't work but bear in mind each person is different in terms of health problems and etc. So read about both of them and you can decide. Every clinic have their own issues. They have moved to their new place and now communications are better. In short words they were good but had a bit of poor communication when it comes to waiting for am answer. They will call but not at the time you want and it's a bit frustrating otherwise very good. As I said its improved since they moved but haven't bn there for 2 years now

[Bistbee]

We’re with CRGH at the moment and on the whole it’s been a good experience. Our last cycle failed but that’s not due to anything i think the clinic did or didn’t do. I do feel they threw everything at us they could for our round based on our situation and tried as hard as possible to get us pregnant. The clinical/medical team are great but the people in the admin team are a bit hit and miss - we have raised this with the clinic manager as something we wanted them to address if we were to come back for another round because we had a few insensitive comments from members of the admin team which were really unwarranted. My only comparison is with an nhs clinic where we had our first round and crgh have been 100% better. We are going back to CRGH for a FET in a few months and then if that doesn’t work we will try another fresh round with some adaptation that they suggested so i do have hope they will get us to where we want to be 🤞🏻

Message me if you’ve got any specific question over CRGH’s processes etc x

[josephnsn in reply to Bistbee]

Thanks for the info. Did you do the short protocol? If so how often do they scan you and take blood tests? Do you know how often they monitor you for FET too? When you say they threw everything at you, is this in terms of drugs to take?

[Bistbee in reply to josephnsn]

I was on long protocol so started taking tablets (can’t even remember which ones now there’s been so many 🤦🏻‍♀️ might have been progynova or busrelin) from day 14 of my cycle until day 25,

then I had a short bleed and I started on injections around day 3, after baseline scan. They did detect an ovarian cyst at that point which nearly put a stop to our whole cycle but luckily it wasn’t producing hormones and had actually disappeared by the time of my next scan.

I was scanned and had bloods taken every other day during the stims phase, which was more than I was anticipating but they were upping my FSH/LH regularly so wanted to keep a close eye on everything - I ended up on about 225 each of menopur and fyremeral by the end, which was higher than my first round and we did have a few more eggs out of it, so was pleased with that. They also gave me steroids and antibiotics to help manage some of the other symptoms of stimulation. I had 10 days of stims before EC and then for progesterone support they gave progesterone oil, intra muscular twice a week, plus a progesterone gel that you administer vaginally, plus a daily inhixia jab which is to stop blood clots. I think that’s their standard progesterone package which I was happier with as with the NHS first time around I only had cyclogest suppositories and the fact they give you the anti clotting jab as well even if you’ve not had a MC before because they believe that’s what helps them get the good success rates. Although the intra muscular jab is not one to do on yourself - I went into the clinic to get that done for me as it’s best to go in your bum cheek which is a bit tricky to do on yourself and the needle is pretty brutal so hubby was not keen on doing it for me either! It’s not painful at all though when the nurses do it.

We’ve been told they’re happy to start me on higher doses of FSH if we have to do another fresh cycle because I wasn’t at risk of OHSS plus a couple of other adaptions to help fertilisation rates, as that’s where we fell down stats wise which isn’t the fault of the clinic I don’t believe.

Our consultant has been brilliant, she’s checked in with us at every stage even when we’ve not been able to see her (she does NHS part of the week but can always get a callback from her). You can tell she really does care. Appointments have been easy to book as the scans/bloods can usually be done first thing so I would schedule them for on my way into work. Weekend appointments are usually a bit slower however as they don’t have a full team

working so a few of those ones did run over time occasionally but we were never delayed during the week.

I do feel they really tailored my medication to what they thought I could handle and the fact it was being checked again after every scan made me feel someone was paying attention. Maybe because we’d only done an NHS round before where it’s all very standardised and you don’t feel as if you get that personal attention was the big difference for us.

For our medication FET, i’ll be on long protocol again so tablets and nasal spray from day 14 to down regulate and then baseline scan to check all looking ok, then estrogen tablets from day 1 until day 14 when they’ll put me on progesterone ready for our FET around 5 days later (we have a blastocyte in the freezer). Looks like you only have around 2/3 scans during the estrogen phase to check womb lining is thickening correctly so it’s less time intensive in terms of appointments which will help juggling things with work too. Really hoping the fact that I won’t be feeling horrendously bloated and crampy from EC might help this one stick around 🤞🏻

[Bistbee in reply to Bistbee]

also not sure how soon you can start if you need any pre screening tests - because all our had been done pretty recently ie last 3 months from our nhs round, they were able to rely on those tests. I did have a uterine check before we started but was able to book it in within 2 days so didn’t actually delay us starting so we were able to complete a cycle within 3 months of getting our first bfn, which was fairly speedy x

[josephnsn in reply to Bistbee]

Thanks! Did the scans and blood tests start from day 1 of the stimulation phase?

[Bistbee in reply to josephnsn]

Baseline scan happened on day 2 and then I started injections the day after, on day 3. Scans & bloods started every other day from day 4, so I had that on days 4, 6, 8 & 10. From memory they upped my meds on days 6 & 8. I think I ended up having extra bloods on day 9 too as they wanted to double check my levels to work out when to trigger me, which they did on the evening of day 10 so had EC on day 12 and transfer on day 15 (3 day embryo) as we only had one embryo by then so they didn’t want to wait for it to get to day 5 blastocyst just in case it didn’t make it. Basically I was at clinic a lot!!

[Bobenhams3]

I was treated at CRGH after 3 failed nhs attempts. I had two cycles there, both was successful. Messaged me if you need to know anything.

[josephnsn in reply to Bobenhams3]

Thanks for the info. Did you do the short protocol? If so how often do they scan you and take blood tests? Do you know how often they monitor you for FET too? Can you start straight away or did they want to see you in your natural cycle?

[Bobenhams3 in reply to josephnsn]

We had a fet both times and I believe I was scanned every couple of days. For me they did want to see my natural cycle as we was going to do the natural drug free package but unfortunately that had to be cancelled. Blood tests aren’t as frequent x

[Rubyredwren in reply to Bobenhams3]

Hi Bobenhams3 please can you let me know more about your treatment at CRGH?

[Bobenhams3 in reply to Rubyredwren]

What do you want to know? X

[Rubyredwren in reply to Bobenhams3]

I’m leaning towards CRGH but also considering ARGC. After failed attempts elsewhere did you feel that CRGH did anything different? I’ve had one egg collection elsewhere which resulted in two fresh embryos implanted (both failed) and a FET on natural cycle that failed. I’m looking for a new clinic but want to be sure they are going to really look at what’s going on to try and get this right for me. My case is unexplained fertility. Started my first around of IVF last year when I was 39

[Bobenhams3 in reply to Rubyredwren]

They made me feel as though they set up my protocol for me and talked me through it as opposed to a one fits all, they even changed direction when it wasn’t going to plan. They didn’t just jump into treatment, they arranged things to happen to make sure my body was in the best position. X

[Rubyredwren in reply to Bobenhams3]

Thank you! That’s really useful info

[Goldie01]

ARGC were amazing for us - message me for more info in needed xx

[josephnsn in reply to Goldie01]

Thanks. Did you do a FET? If so do they monitor you frequently like they do for stimulation phase. I have heard there is an emphasis on drugs for immune system? Did you find that?

[Rubyredwren in reply to Goldie01]

Hi Goldie01 , please can you let me know more about your treatment at ARGH?

[Mamaofstevie]

I had cycles at Lister, Argc and ABCIVF! ABCIVF was by far the best as they completely treated me with a tailored plan resulting in more excellent quality eggs that all fertilised and I got some Frosties too! Currently 32 weeks! I’m 40!

[Jessy1280]

I'm with crgw Llantrisant and I have found them fantastic. The nurses and receptionists are lovely. Although I've had my first failed FET, I have confidence in their decisions. If you look on their fb page there's loads of success stories. They always get back to you by telephone or email. No complaints from me.

I started stims I march and egg collection may. Had to stop treatment due to ohss. I have since discovered this week it's because somebody at treatment planning stage changed the meds I was supposed to be on (and what the Dr had advised). I wasn't supposed to be on suprecur which put me at risk of ohss. Despite this I got 18 eggs.

Even though I've 2 good quality embies in the freezer, I'm starting a new cycle as I didn't realise that the 3 cycle package has to be used within 12 months of purchase. I'm trying to bank as many embryos as possible now. I was on long protocol which took forever. The plan on my second cycle is to go back to the original plan. This means I'll only have stims injections and maybe oral down reg instead of suprecur. I'm apprehensive about this incase I don't get as many eggs. Of my 18 only 3 became viable at day 5 x

[Fingerscrossed38]

I think I've found the best clinic. They're based in Harley street. Message me if you want more info.

[nkw123 in reply to Fingerscrossed38]

Do you mind sending me the clinic you found pls?

[Aiday in reply to Fingerscrossed38]

Do you mind letting me know which clinic you found. I’m on the search for a new clinic x

[Mara84]

Hi Josephnsn, I just wanted to share my experience, I’m with RMU at UCLH and they send all our result and blood test to CRGH, also egg collection and all embryos care and transfer happening in CRGH.

I am very happy with them although our first cycle failed.. we are going through our second cycle and I had my first scan and blood test after staring the injections there this morning.

Best of luck xx

[Haf05]

I am there at the moment, doing my second cycle (did my first at another clinic also during the pandemic). Their approach is more 'kitchen sink' but on the whole I haven't been overly impressed with their service. The clinic is small/cramped, and it feels very impersonal compared to the clinic I used for my first cycle. Some of the staff are lovely but its hit and miss. If this cycle fails, I am not sure I would use them again.