How important is location when choosing IVF clinic?

[lingster]

I have an IVF clinic that’s a 15 min drive away and a clinic with better reviews that’s 45 min drive away (without traffic). How important is location? Is there a lot of travelling to appointments frequently during treatment? Can you drive after treatment? And if not, then maybe I also need to consider travelling via public transport? Are there other important deciding factors to think about too? Thanks in advance for your help!

[Chiefy]

Go with the clinic with better results unless it is really tricky for you to travel. The odds of success at ivf aren't in our favour as it is so take every chance you can!

The only treatment I had that I couldn't drive after was the egg collection because of the sedation - they also seem to do egg collections of a morning so be prepared to be up early if on public transport.

You are fine to drive after scans and blood tests, and I think a lot of clinics are limiting the amount of physical time in the clinic anyway, so if you have any consultations they may be via zoom/telephone instead.

The amount of appointments you have depends on the clinic, I had hardly any compared to others I've read about so you should ask the clinic before signing up. I had 1 ovarian scan on first consultation to check nothing obviously wrong and AMH blood test. Before treatment we both had the standard blood tests for HIV/hepatitis (they don't have to be done at your clinic and could be done closer to home) and then once I started stims I had one scan to check follicles before collection. Then the collection and transfer. My clinic didn't do hcg blood tests so after bfp we had a scan to confirm pregnancy and that was it, 6 physical appointments in total and a couple of telephone calls.

Bear in mind if paying privately, the clinic with better results may be more expensive.

[JoyfulStar]

I completely agree with Chiefy. Success rates should be considered along with location. I live in London so most IVF clinic were 40 mins to 1 hour away.

The journeys are manageable and you could always get your other half to drive you home after egg collection. I also tried exploring alternative times if an appointment fell around rush hour. The main thing is being just more organised for clinics that are not on your doorstep!

That being said, I would also look more closely at the success rate of the clinic 45 minutes away eg some clinics routinely push PGS testing which is not for everyone. Also, some clinics are absolute on day 5 transfers only. This will reduce the number of transfers and bolster their success rate figures.

All the best with your journey 🙏🏾

[Ac22]

Hi,

I live in London too and each journey is about 40 min for me. I would definitely go with the higher success rates if possible. However, I am now up to my 3rd FET and there have been a lot of regular monitoring appointments. When adding on 40 min both ways plus appointment takes a lot of time out of your day, especially if it means you missing work. So find out how many appointments you will be expected to attend before making a final decision.

Good Luck!

[Hidden]

We’re an hour and a half away from our london clinic, we get scans on days 1,6,8,10 & 12. The EC you’ll need someone with you. Transfer is much like a smear test. I allow 3hrs per scan there and back even though it’s only 10mins, we take 3 motorways so you just never know! I think the main thing is to feel comfortable with your clinic team first and foremost. Our team are fantastic and we trust them fully. We went to two very well known clinics and as silly as it sounds, we just didn’t feel comfortable as it felt to clinical! Good luck with your cycle xx

[XOXO13]

My first clinic where I went through three IVF transfers was just a ten minute drive from my home, and they had a car park too so everything was really convenient. I didn’t have too many appointments either during stim phase.

My new clinic is a 45-1hr drive through central London (I’m London based) and I was there every day during stims sometimes twice a day from week 2 right up until egg collection. It’s been way more taxing on my time but I wouldn’t change it, I’m so pleased I made the move because I really trust this clinic and I feel I’m in save hands. That’s what’s most important.

When I was searching for a new clinic, I wrote down what was important to us and that included finding a clinic who had experience and specialises in cases of recurrent loss and implantation failure and whether I felt comfortable with them and trusted them based on their initial consultation (we narrowed to two and did two consultations). Distance from home was considered but I’m fortunate that I live in London and so have access to many clinics - that being said, an hour is still a good chunk of time and I’ve had to be prepared to miss large chunks of my day. I managed one week of work during stims before I had to step back and take the rest of the time off.

Go with your gut and where you feel you’ll receive the best treatment. Best of luck 🍀🤞🏻 Xx

[hifer]

Hey lovely. This is a tricky one. There’s a couple of things here…I’m a little sceptical on success rates. I think every clinic measures them differently so I wouldn’t take them as gospel. Clinics often can’t be compared like for like as most of them work slightly differently. However, I would take reviews into consideration. They will include patient care, admin, speed of contact etc etc. All critical with IVF and definitely worth taking note of. With regards to travelling to your clinic that will also depend on the clinic itself. I was in my clinic ALL the time, especially during stims. Most days or every other day but part of that was personal to my treatment, part of it was to do with the consultant and part due to the clinic. All worth it though but you do need to factor that in in case it affects job etc etc. Good luck with the decision x

[Purpledoggy]

I agree with others re success rates. Some clinics will have specific criteria eg your AMH must be above a certain level, PGS testing, 5d transfers, and these all skew data. So when comparing success rates do a little digging to find out what policies they have and whether that means you might actually be disadvantaged. Reviews are also important. You can’t discuss clinics on here but you can through PM so you could ask for experiences via PM.

45 mins isn’t too bad but it depends how flexible you can be with time, whether you work, and how easy it is to get time off, as you may need to go in frequently during stims. I did long protocol and so after all the initial scans and blood tests (3 appointments) I had a downreg scan, then 2-3 stims scans at 2d intervals, followed by EC and ET. I also had to drive in one day during stims to pick up more medication. If you can take 1-2 weeks holiday during stims and EC that will help a lot, and you’ll need 1.5-2 days off for EC anyway for the procedure day and a day to recover. Xx

[McQueeny]

Agree that you should go with success rates. During stimulation hormones your appointments are quite close together, yes - you might be going every day or two - but that phase only lasts a couple of weeks, so I think it’s worth the inconvenience of the commute if you’re getting better quality care. The only appointment after which you can’t drive is egg collection (because of the sedation drugs), so you can always arrange alternative transport for that one x

[fay2399]

You probably need to do 2-3 ultrasound and some blood tests! For me it was on my way to work.