I hate fertility clinics

[Daffodils1]

Does anyone else just feel like your on a rollercoaster to cost. I’m so fed up of having to redo tests.

Using donor eggs and on frozen embryos. The need to repeats tests to show I don’t have chlamydia or HIV despite having done them yearly since 2017 with my husband. They did eventually accept he doesn’t have to do them again this time when I pushed that it is a FE. The need to prove I have no immunity to Rubella despite having had the vaccination 4 times. So so pointless and just a way to charge.

[Hidden]

Yes!!! 100% agree! We used to get them done free at our doctors and they’ve stopped doing them so we have to pay for them all. Started at a new clinic for donor round and they won’t accept our previous clinics results! So we have to start all over again! Driving me NUTS!!

[sazzle2680 in reply to Hidden]

Me too! Started at new clinic and they made me repeat £500 worth of blood tests that I had done between Nov’20 and Feb’21, because they were over 6 months old!! One was a test for latent TB…I mean I’ve been and continue to work from home, we’ve been in lockdown and mask wearing has been compulsory…where the hell would I have picked up TB?? Drives me insane!!

[Daffodils1 in reply to sazzle2680]

It is just insane, I don’t think I’ve even heard of them testing for TB.

[sazzle2680 in reply to Daffodils1]

It’s needed before they give you biological agents (medication) to treat overactive immune system. Most people won’t need that…but doing it twice seems a bit nuts.

Like you, I get charged each time I have a transfer for serology. It all adds up and I don’t think it’s every really considered.x

[Fruitandflowers]

Our GP has been doing them but I feel like their patience is wearing a bit thin (especially with the various other tests for things that *might* be causing our fertility problems, plus now HCG and progesterone). Then the clinic wouldn't accept the way one test had been done so I had to have it at the clinic anyway - it's a four hour round trip! I think some of it is the HFEA requirements as even on the NHS I had to have them redone after covid delayed us by a year. But it's also things like the price of meds is scary (plus £60 delivery charge!) - I got a quote from a supermarket and the difference was huge. But then my clinic charged me £60 for a private prescription...

[Daffodils1 in reply to Fruitandflowers]

I know, I’m on a package but despite that it is not very clear at the start how much medication costs. They mount up quickly with the repeated attempts. I will speak to my GP as they have done them previously.

[saraht23]

We had this too and I actually couldn’t help but laugh when the nurse told me that we needed up to date chlamydia tests for my husband before proceeding with our last cycle. We were using donor sperm, they’d had swabs from me the week before which were clear (surprise surprise, they have been every time they’ve taken them over the last 3 years they’ve been treating us), and they still insisted they needed him to drive an hour and a half to the clinic to drop off a urine sample. Thankfully they backed down and let me take his sample with me to my first follicle monitoring scan but it really is ridiculous sometimes. You would think common sense would maybe factor in somewhere??

[Daffodils1 in reply to saraht23]

Common sense doesn’t seem to exist.

[minnesota_girl]

Completely agree! The number of tests and retests my sister had to have, especially an expensive test to prove she's female, and everything had to be repeated on this side of the pond once she arrived in terms of virology. It's absolutely ridiculous it's a never-ending stream of incoming bills!!! A combination of being liability scared and cost-driven makes this whole process so hard.

[Lacryacky]

So so money driven!! We had to pay twice for a saline scan, 300 £ one, I was end of my period, I used to have long periods due to fibroids, been there “ up on the table” to be said, sorry we can t carry on, which I understood, but when went back we had to pay again.

[Daffodils1 in reply to Lacryacky]

So frustrating, there are so many additional tests and add on. You don’t quite know if they are worth it. Makes it worse if the timing is out and you have to pay again. Surely they have figure out that for many of us our cycles are all over the place.