has anyone had the (d)EFT endometrium function test at Warwick hospital?
it costs £350 for consultation & £700 for test- why is this if they work with Tommys charity??
my first sheet I had says £160 now it’s increased to £350!!
So much money spent on fertility / infertility.
I've had the biopsy done, managed to get it done just before they increased the costs. I was told the cost is non-profit, they work as part of the research team for Tommy's charity but we still need to pay for the practicalities of the test (equipment, staff time etc). Hope that makes sense x
I had it done, but booked when the consultation was still £160. I think the test has always been £700. To me the consultation is overpriced, as between the two we had we probably didn't talk for more than an hour. I can't tell you if it helped or not, I need to repeat the biopsy
Why do u need to repeat?
So sorry xx
They told me there might be some markets that may indicate an imbalance and that embryos might find it difficult to implant. However, my two failed cyles could also be due to my age (I was 39 during my cycles and turning 41 at the end of the month). So before they prescribe me steroids, they want to repeat the biopsy.
I have the feeling, also the hope, that the results are not going to change. I have never in 4 years had a positive pregnancy test, so my age wasn't that much of an issue when we started, but we will have to wait and see
I've had it done. Prof Brosens was awful (aggressively swore at me), basically his diagnosis is women shouldn't test too early and need to be a bit more resilient in the Ol' fertility game. Effectively, you're paying to be in hus ego boisting research.
I'd had 9 losses by that point (now 10), some had been seen on scans. All other consultants have agreed something is up and this loss rate means something, we just have run out of science.
I'd recommend seeing Prof Quenby first. She works in same hospital, also with Tommy's and through the NHS, so it is free. Her wait time, about this time last year, was 3 months.
Her consultations are over the phone. She leaves your appts open, so you can book a follow-up with her at any time (usually within a week, way quicker than our private consultant or fertility clinic).
She was involved in the Brosens work, so she can tell you whether, in her clinical opinion, you'd benefit from having it. But she also has lots of other ideas and seems to have almost carte blanche to prescribe things (for example, I'm on progesterone for luteal phase defects and that's not usually available via NHS, she also recommended IVF for us, as sometimesworks for unexplained recurrent loss).
She's also really, really lovely. Direct manner but really cares about her patients, really wants you to have a baby, and keeps her ego out of it. She also, crucially, reads your notes and remembers who you are/what's going on at follow-up appts.
So, if you can wait to see Prof Quenby, I would recommend (Prof Brosens wait time is about the same). She can advise on whether you'd benefit from the biopsy testing.
Hello hun, I'm so sorry you had a really bad experience with Prof Brosens. I hope it's ok I wanted to share an alternative experience, in case others are reading this and weighing up whether to see him. For me I had a really excellent experience with Prof Brosens, and I feel the treatment he recommended after testing is basically the reason I now have my son (after 5 failed transfers, 7 embryos, the first transfer with the steroids recommended by Prof Brosens, and the scratch recommended, gave me my son). I also found him kind and helpful. I don't mean in anyway to dismiss your experience, just wouldn't want people to be put off seeing him as for me it was life changing. Lovely you had a great experience of Prof Quenby, I've seen others say the same.
I think Brosens is good as long as you fit his hypothesis.
If you don't, he doesn't know what to do with you. If you dare to insist something is still wrong, he becomes defensive and aggressive.
I'd always recommend seeing Quenby first, you can get the same tests and treatments, if you need them, but you're also offered more.
thanks GranolaHippo
I wondered if it was more about the research.
We’ve seen Prof Quenby & she we tried progesterone from day 21-28 but it hasn’t worked ( one early miscarriage with this). She advised this biopsy with Prof Brosens.
She didn’t seem to remember us & I wouldn’t say very thorough. She seemed puzzled by us. We’ve always had negative results to investigations but implantation failure with ivf. prof Quenby advised us against more IVF. I feel very lost & unimportant.
So, by the time we saw her, we'd been tested for everything l, and I mean everything. Clotting, immunity, karyotyping, foetal tissue...
We'd also had 9 losses, all naturally conceived. I don't know if that makes a difference, in so much as she specialises in miscarriage and not repeat ivf failure. I mention this only as the reasons why things go wrong and the processes involved are different at implantation vs development after. So her expertise might be less relevant to your situation. She's also not a big advocate/believer in issues with immunological responses, that is more Dr Shehata's territory.
I was speaking to her monthly, and perhaps that is why she remembered us.she also changed my progesterone protocol about 4 times, when I had breakthrough bleeding and an early loss on it. Now on 400mg from 3 days post-ovulation 'till day 14 post-ovulation. I started at the protocol you mention, at 200mg, and bled through, miscarried at 400mg from day 7 post-ovulation to day 14, and have not had bleed once we nudged starting earlier.
She does work quie collaboratively, with patients and clinics, but I guess this is harder to do if there are long gaps.
Brosens work was developed for repeated ivf failure, so maybe he is your man. If you're already seeing Quenby, I can't see there'd be any harm in asking her for advice, you'd likely have an appt this Friday or next, and hers would be more medically informed than any on here.
Wishing you all the best, it's horrid to feel hopeless. Sadly, as there's not been loads of research in this area, it does sometimes feel like you run out of science.
The most helpful thing I've found was a break of 4 months, complete break, no trying, no cutting anything out, no worrying about supplements, to just connect with my partner and talk/dream about what we want from life, aside from children, even if these things might be considered 'shallow'.
Since this, the baby stuff feels easier, as we've been reminded how great life is, even if it is just the 2 of us. We're 39, so right at the crunch point (but with 2 tested embryos on ice), but I don't feel we 'wasted' that time. It's what's helped us feel that life is genuinely worth living, with either outcome. Broke the cycle of desperation for us, but every person and every couple are different.
we have a consultation with Prof Bosens this coming Monday. We managed to book the consultation just as the prices but because we enquired before we paid £160. For charity or not, I think it’s shocking they can suddenly double the price just because they can. People going through fertility issues ending up pouring so much money into this process and to take advantage of it…is just unfair to me.
How was your appointment?
Have you had IVF before?
The appointment was good - 30 mins where Professor Brosens explained what is tested (and what is not), he asked about our history and we talked next steps. He was approachable but direct and to the point. We are going to go for the procedure and will know about our situation and in the follow up call which will be 3-4 weeks post biopsy.
We have had 3 founds of IVF/ICSI with fresh transfer each time and with varying embryo grades including top quality - but no success, meaning repeated implantation failure, so we wanted to explore other avenues of why implantation May not be happening.
Hope that helps, if you want any more information, drop me a message x
that’s similar to us- 3 IVF rounds with pgta & negative tests. We’ve been pregnant naturally 3 times but miscarriages.
I’m glad you found the appointment useful. Sending you luck.
I also recommend Emma the Embryologist as an account to follow on Instagram.
She's based at the Evewell clinic (which is not ours) and talks about things from embryologist side.
I've found it really insightful, combined with info about how our embryos developed.
Obviously, I'm no expert but the info from her combined with our own data, suggests to me that our issue is influenced a lot by male factor, which would explain our test results-mine clearly, his borderline to low.
I'd recommend a discussion with your embryology team, to ask if there's anything they've noted in development, and maybe Genetic Counsellor too, if there's anything of note with PGT-A results.
I would also say that, so unfortunately for us, there is only so much research in this area, so we often run out of science, which, to put it mildly, sucks so hard.
Jennie Agg's newsletter and book are really good for diving into this.
Really sorry again to hear about your situation and I hope that through this all you find a place of peace, if not actual answers.xx
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