IVF meds bought from Cyprus or best to get over here in the UK?

[DisneyHopeMagic]

Has anyone bought IVF meds from Cyprus and had them sent to the UK?Did they have to be refrigerated?

Did it cost extra to go through Customs and was there any delay in Customs?

Our IVF clinic has advised it can be done but this is our first time doing IVF at all let alone in a different country so just trying to navigate our way through!

Thanks in advance 😊

[DianeArnold Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

Hi DisneyHopeMagic. I think by the time you have paid to transport medication back, plus you may need a cooling product to transport them in, you could be paying more than in the UK. You need to do some homework first. Good luck with what you decide and for success when you start treatment. Diane

[DisneyHopeMagic in reply to DianeArnold]

Thank you for your reply DianeArnold. I've managed to find out that I'm being prescribed Gonal f and Fyremadel. I've read that the Gonal f can keep for up to 3mths once it is taken out of a refrigerator but needs to stay below 25c temperature-wise. I'm in contact with a pharmacy in Cyprus which was given to me by the IVF clinic over there.

I am also contacting some pharmacies in the UK to quote as well. Once we've accounted for Customs charges etc it's coming in about £200 cheaper to do from Cyprus but I am a bit nervous about any delays with Customs over here too.

[Jen85]

Hi,You must do what you feel is right for you. I can only share my experience. We get stuff from abroad often (not always medicine for clarity) and we are always smacked with some unexpected fee. What's worse, is they don't release it until you've paid the fee. In the meantime it's stored in a warehouse, and who knows what temp that is. If its a hot day they must get hot in there. Sometimes it's taken a week before we've had the email from customs asking for the money. Sometimes its a letter in the post amd they were slow before the strikes. Some items have been lost, and insurance accross country lines is complicated as its very hard to point to where it went wrong, even with barcode tracking.

£200 is alot of money, but given the stress, and potential to have to pay twice, I would have a good think.

[DisneyHopeMagic]

Ahh ok thank you Jen85, I really appreciate your experience. That does sound like more stress and I think that has helped me make my mind up, we'll get it over here in the UK instead. I won't be worrying so much then which is always a good thing to avoid. Thanks again😊

[kipsmyth]

Hi - I had treatment in Prague last year and bought the medication in Prague as it was considerably cheaper than the UK. Not sure how it compares with Cyprus, but we saved around £1k by buying out there. Didn't have to pay custom fees, but had to provide a letter from the clinic stating what medicines I had and carried in hand luggage. All the best!

[DisneyHopeMagic in reply to kipsmyth]

Thanks kipsmyth, we've decided on getting the medications over here in the UK and have managed to get a reasonable price I think.

We'll only be travelling to Cyprus to have the egg collection and then again to have frozen embryo transfer as we're having NGS testing done. So we won't be going before we need the meds however our clinic has already advised and prescribed us meds for what we'll need over here and the rest we can get while we're out there so that saves us money that way.

Just in case anyone reads this later and wants to know who we used it was Cherish-UK to convert the prescription and The Fertility Medication Centre who uses Stork Fertility for the medication.