Choosing a clinic for IVF (NHS FUNDED)

[SunshineElephant]

we have had a consultation today and been given the choice of three clinics to be referred to for our IVF. Has anyone any advice on how to choose or questions we should ask each clinic? We have had a look at HFEA website and their own websites.

[Hidden]

Have you looked at success rates for your age etc?

The most important things for me were a) the travel to the clinic and b) the feel of the place. Remember you will need to go in fairly regularly during a cycle and also have to get home after egg collection when you can be a bit sore - so ease or getting there and length of travel time (especially if nipping to appointments during work hours) were factors we took into account.

We had a choice of two clinics initially - one 20 mins away with all the bells and whistles available but it was a very ‘clinical’ clinic. The other was a 35 min drive but warm, supportive and caring. For us the second was more appropriate but everyone is different

Good luck! Exciting times! x

[SunshineElephant in reply to Hidden]

thanks for replying. I think these are helpful points. For us they are all between 1 hour 20 and 1 hour 35 minutes. I think the feels is a bit thing. Did you go and visit both of yours? My husband would like to do this.

[Hidden in reply to SunshineElephant]

Yeah we went to visit both. I didn't feel like I needed all the white walls and slick reception stuff, and the clinic we went with looked like a 1970s library! 😆 but it was more caring and felt like a really lovely warm friendly place x

[Weareback2]

Distance is honestly a huge factor. Some times i needed to be there for 8.00am so you need to factor in peak traffic times!

[DianeArnold Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

Hi. Please remember to send DM/PM to this post if mentioning clinics by name, so as not to advertise. Thank You. Diane

[Purple276]

We had a choice of 2 and agree with the above that distance is definitely a factor then consider reviews and how quick they respond to calls as that makes a big difference. The other factor for us was if they then took private clients as sadly we were told might take a few rounds so didn't want to have to move clinics to go from NHS to private and then our original tests counted too. Hope that helps and good luck xx