stress/upset at waiting times

[Summeringreece]

Hi All,

We are still waiting to start our treatment after being referred for ICSI in August this year. We had a further consult today and have decided to go down the donor route due to male factor infertility ( severely low count ). We have been told that we could be looking up to a 12 month wait and we are both extremely upset and overwhelmed at the thought of this, especially when there is little to no chance of us conceiving naturally in the meantime.

We are considering paying privately to do a round of IVF or IUI whilst we are awaiting for our NHS treatment, but suddenly thought would we then not be eligible for our NHS treatment if the private treatment failed? Has anyone had any experience with this?

Also any recommendations for any good midlands based fertility clinics would be helpful.

Wishing you all luck in your journeys.

Thanks in advance.

[Allotmenteer16]

It's so hard when you know what you need to be doing and then having to wait and wait. I don't have specific experience of this, but when I was looking into NHS funding criteria, I managed to find the policy for my local CCG online (now you'd look at your local ICS - Integrated care system), might be worth a look.

Generally the criteria is that you don't have a child between you and have tried for a certain amount of time etc. I don't see that previous unsuccessful attempts at treatment privately should affect that.

Hopefully someone may have a better answer for you, but just remember that the criteria vary from area to area. Wishing you all the very best of luck.

[Allotmenteer16 in reply to Allotmenteer16]

Just found this link from another post, you can check your area. It does seem that some will count private cycles towards, but not all gov.uk/government/publicati...

[Summeringreece in reply to Allotmenteer16]

Thank you that’s really helpful! From what I can see it looks like private treatment does prevent us from having the NHS funded treatment in our area.

[Twiglet2]

the waiting is crap! If you are going to pay for a round in between when I asked my clinic about this when I was on nhs they said we could go private whilst waiting but that you couldn’t have any embryos left at the private clinic frozen and have finished your treatment there before you could start with nhs. I would ask your clinic as each area and each clinic is different, oh and if time is of the essence for you I personally wouldn’t waste your time or money on IUI even with donor sperm the odds are much much lower than IVF so just go straight to that if you can xx

[Summeringreece in reply to Twiglet2]

the waiting really is rubbish. And from what I can see our NHS funding would cease if we were to have private treatment. Our clinic removed us from the waiting list whilst we were waiting to discuss donor option which I don’t think is fair, we only wanted a 10 minute conversation with a doctor and waited three months for that. Thanks for your reply and all best for your treatment xx

[Countryliving86]

I’m so sorry to hear this. After 15 months of trying and having just had results of a semen analysis (also very low count and morph) we are now somewhere stuck in the “system” and not sure where to turn ourselves…however I have been seeing a fertility specialising acupuncturist who has been giving us so much help and insight. She directed us to “Test Him” and subsequently we are going to look at other tests such as ultrasound (we suspect a varicocele based on his symptoms and what he can feel) and possibly a DNA fragmentation test to see if we can improve parameters naturally before going down ICSI route which is what the fertility clinic recommended….is this an option for you whilst you wait if you’ve not already been down this route? I’ve done so much reading and listening to the test him podcast…I’m adamant we improve parameters before any sort of IVF to improve the chances of success there…..?

[Summeringreece in reply to Countryliving86]

Thanks for your reply. It’s such a fustrating time isn’t it. We have done all the genetic blood tests that have come back normal and also my partner has had a testicular ultrasound which only showed slight varicocele which they didn’t think would have an impact on fertility.

Due to unknown quality of the sperm we are looking to do donor as our consultant agreed there would be a higher success rate and potentially a smaller risk of MC.

Wishing you all the luck x