Hello, for a long time I’ve wondered how you ladies are able to undergo IVF through clinics abroad and have been wanting to write this post for months!
I’ve already had 3 collections in the UK and have four embryos left to try with, but in the case I need to do further collections I wanted to get some idea on how others have managed clinics abroad? With scans & blood tests every two days prior to collection - are people going and staying abroad for like two weeks at a time? Or are you literally travelling back and forth?
I know it has been said clinics abroad are much cheaper but when you add back and forth flight tickets and accommodation into the mix, does it not start to add up to the same? I am in a fortunate position at the moment where I am not working so that I can concentrate on IVF (I’ve found it all particularly stressful combined with a horrendously stressful job), but know I will go back to work eventually, and also wondered how people were managing this around work or whether it’s something to consider before going back…?
Thanks! X
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DLZ321
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Sure you will get some replies to your post For more info about treatment abroad take a look at our website fertilitynetworkuk.org "Learn about Fertility " and scroll to Webinars to find " Thinking on treatment overseas ? All you need to know " Also in " Access Support "- then Fertility Groups - UK-Wide Groups- there is a closed Facebook support group "Fertility Treatment Abroad " and follow the prompts to register your interest
I had treatment in Scotland and when that failed I found a clinic in Thessaloniki in Greece. Not rhe easiest place to get to from Scotland. Anyway...Most clinics are organised like this: You go once for tests and planning and then you once go for treatment for a fresh transfer. If you are aiming for elective frozen then it would be another trip. This is a very rough description of a short protocol:
For egg collection you have to get scans a d bloods in UK usually 2-3 scans depending on how long you want to spend abroad. The 1st scan is the baseline which you have day 1-3 of your period. Based on this you start injections and then you have a second scan and bloods around day 5 of injections. Most clinics would want you there after that but you can stay in uk until the trigger and travel only for retrieval and stay there until transfer. This way you minimise accommodation costs but increase costs of scans. However if you are at risk of OHSS they might want you abroad sooner to monitor closely and decide on different trigger.
I used two big chains of scan places and prices were about £ 90-120 per scan. Blood tests can be a bit more tricky as you don't get same day results.
Hi lovely I did mine in north Cyprus I didn’t have to go there till couple of days before egg collection did all the test at ultrasound direct for scans and bloods then sent them the results they put you in touch with a pharmacist so you can get your meds sent to you . Make sure you do your research on the clinics before you make your mind up the first clinic I went to wasn’t great then the second one was fantastic it was successful good luck lovely xxxx
Thanks for your reply and so happy to hear you’ve had success 😊 It really didnt occur to me that scans and tests could be sent across. I thought that the trade off for inconvenience would be overall saving on the price!
I will definitely look into it if I’ve had no success with my remaining 4 embryos. Just started taking Estrogen this morning for my upcoming third transfer 😵💫
Hi lovely hopefully you won’t need to go and your next transfer is the one fingers crossed but if you ever need anymore information just let me know . Sending loads of baby dust your way good luck with the transfer lovely xxx
A little different, as we used DE. My clinic in UK was partnered with a clinic in Spain, so all scans, bloods and prescriptions etc were done through the clinic here and then we went to Spain for a week, to give my husbands sample on day 0 and then a transfer on day 5. Good luck on your journey xx
thank you - So basically all the monitoring happens here in the UK, it’s just the main procedures that you go across for; whether it’s egg collection, sperm sample or embryo transfer.
Definitely starting to appeal to me more! Good luck to you too xxx
Yes, I believe that to be the case. Once you figure out where the scans/bloods etc can be done over here (depending on your clinics needs) should be pretty easy to navigate. Our clinic in Spain had an international team, communication was fantastic and they manage this sort of thing every day across many different countries.
Thank you, we got our little miracle. After a long road and a lot of heartbreak with our treatment here with my own eggs, we now have a 7 month old son from our first DE transfer 🥰🥰 I’m now trying to convince my husband we want a sibling!
Hi DLZ321, we are about to start our stimulation with our IVF clinic in Alicante within the next few days. We went over in August for tests and I took the pill. I was due to start the stimulation drugs 2 weeks later but unfortunately I got really sick and was in hospital. So we have postponed to this month. I am signed off work and I also have a very stressful job. I feel more ready now to get started.
The plan is for me to have a scan between days 1-3 of my period and then have some bloods done too. I email them to the clinic and then hopefully I get the green light to start stims. Then I have another scan a few days later. We will have another scan i think 2 days after that and then hopefully all is good for us to go to Spain. We are having PRP at our clinic due to my very low AMH. When we go to Alicante, I'll be put to sleep and have my eggs collected and have PRP. Hopefully I will have some embryos to freeze. We will do the same procedure 2 cycles later when Hopefully the PRP will have worked. Hopefully embryos will be frozen. I will then undergo surgery here in Northern Ireland to have my fallopian tubes removed as I have hydrosalpinx. The clinic in Spain also told me that before embryo transfer I will need to go on steroids due to my very high TPO levels.
It is very overwhelming but I found when we did our first cycle, work was just so stressful. Noone in my place of work knew as I just didn't want to tell them and I found it so difficult balancing my "secret life". It is a lot to consider when going abroad but I hope it all works out for you. Sending positive vibes xxx
Thanks for your reply, it’s super helpful and I really hope everything goes well for you this month 💪🏼 I’m not surprised you’ve taken the time off! You’ve got a very full month ahead of you but it’ll so be worth it.
Yeah I was exactly the same, it became far too overwhelming trying to wrap my head around the world of IVF while trying to balance a hideous manager and huge workload. I do feel a bit silly sometimes because I know people go through IVF and work but I just couldn’t. My anxiety became so bad I ended up having horrible panic attacks for the first time.
Anyway I wish you all the best with this cycle! I wonder if our next transfers will be around the same time! Mine should be in about a week and a half/2 weeks Xx
Thank you so much for your lovely wishes. I'm waiting on my period to arrive before I can contact the clinic at home to get my basal scan and bloods done.
You aren't silly at all. I really regret not taking time off sooner. Last year I was trying to get my head around everything and balance work and I really think that is what broke me and made me sick and put me into hospital a few weeks ago. I can totally relate to the panic attacks. I was having nightmares too - the toll all of this stress takes on our bodies really is too much to deal with. Are you doing anything to help with your anxiety? I bought a little ivf journal last year when we went through our first cycle and I've bought the same one for this next cycle. Sometimes getting our fears and thoughts down on paper can be really therapeutic. Like one of my fears at the beginning last year was the needles nit then at the end of week 1, I wrote down what I had accomplished and it was nice to feel proud of what I had overcome. Please don't feel silly for being off work though. Anything to make this crazy journey a bit more bearable is surely worth it and if that is being off work then do that. Work will always be there or there will always be other work opportunities.
If all goes well for us, we won't have embryo transfer until next year. I'm hoping to freeze as I'm doing 2 stims and then getting my fallopian tubes removed. Have you started your stims yet? Have you settled on a clinic abroad? Sending positive vibes to you xx
I hope your period arrives soon and you can get the next round under your belt! Literally the only time I was ever pleased about my period was when it meant I could get going with my next cycle 😂 So you’re doing two cycles and then a transfer next year?
I did three cycles ‘back to back’ (there was some delay or another in between so didn’t end up being too back to back!) because I have a low egg count so they figured it would be better to freeze as many as we could first. We managed to freeze six embryos - of those I had one fresh and one frozen transfer, but one was a chemical and the other unfortunately ended in early miscarriage. We have four embryos left (of which we will be transferring one soon). If we use the following three embryos and don’t have any success I’m thinking I will try a clinic abroad. Obviously pessimistic me is already assuming that’ll be the case 😂
I’m so sorry to hear you’ve had such a hard time. Did you end up in hospital because of your mental health? I had no idea what panic attacks were before! But it got so bad last year I took myself to A&E because I spent an entire weekend feeling like I couldn’t breathe properly, throwing up, anxious as hell. When the guy told me it was a panic attack I was literally like 😑
Thankfully it’s not been as bad recently but I was given anti depressants last year for a few months, and also ended up quitting my job as mentioned (which was an incredibly toxic part of my life). I think both of those things sort of reset me. Whenever I get slight waves of it now I make sure I do my breathing exercises as they help! But generally I have quite a calm routine now, like I’ve started going to the gym regularly and just trying to be as zen as possible! Having a diary is actually such a cosy idea I might do the same. And I was exactly the same dreading the needles for my first cycle!
Wishing you all the best with your freezing cycles 🩷 and with getting your tubes removed 😖 how did you find out you had hydrosalpinx? And do you have to have the procedure done prior to transfer or was that just a personal choice? Xx
You are so welce - thank you for your lovely reply too 💓 I know! The only time I'm happy to see my period is to start my ivf cycle!
6 frozen embryos is amazing. That is so so good. My amh is 2.3pmol so that is why my clinic in Alicante are doing the egg retrieval and Ovarian PRP together. There is no scientific evidence for the PRP but my clinic said it is worth a go due to my low amh. It takes around 40 days to kick in so I'd hopefully see the changes when I go again with egg retrieval. I am so sorry to hear about your chemical pregnancy and miscarriage. This road can be so cruel. I really hope better days are ahead with those 4 little embryos.
No I ended up in hospital because I was physically sick - v&d and I wasn't getting any better. My inflammation levels were 210 when they should be 5. I was treated for a bowel infection by antibiotics and thankfully I am feeling a lot better now but I an still really tired. I am fully convinced this was triggered by stress. I was really worried about my road ahead - 2 egg collections, fallopian tube removal and then hopefully embryo transfer. I was so scared about what to tell people in work and knew people would be talking about me being off. I have never felt stress like this in my life and I think my body just physically reacted to the emotional stress I feel. I believe it was a warning sign and got me to reevaluate what is important. That's when it clicked that work can take a back seat at the moment. I am taking lots of supplements and trying to eat a healthy diet but my work is quite toxic and rinses every ounce of energy I have so it does make sense to take a step back from it.
I am really glad to hear you have a calm routine now. Be kind to yourself. You are doing amazing. You have been through an awful lot too and I think you need to give yourself credit for that.
I found out I have endometriosis a year and a half ago. It was a complete shock to me. I had a transvaginal ultrasound scan initially and then was referred for an mri. When we had our consultation for ivf the consultant read my report and drew attention to the word hydrosalpinx. Noone had previously ever gone over my report with me but that's a story for another day lol fast forward to a few months ago and my husband and I were looking at clinics in Spain and Prague. All clinics said they will not do ivf if hydrosalpinx is present as it is so toxic to an embryo. All of them recommended stims, egg collection, surgery to remove tubes and then embryo transfer. Spain offered PRP so in the end we have decided to go with them.
Our amh is pretty similar! Mine was 2.7 about a year ago so I’ll be intrigued to hear about how it goes with PRP (I had to google what this was 🙈). What was the situation with your last collection - Were you able to retrieve anything?They told me they were hoping for one embryo from each cycle based on my amh.
I don’t doubt at all that stress could have instigated all of that!! It’s such a daunting road ahead and combining a toxic work environment is the perfect recipe for disaster. I really really understand and I’m sooo pleased you’re not working at the moment. You have a plan in place and you’ll be great! Just chill until it’s showtime 💪🏼 before I quit my job, I took a 4 month sabbatical - granted I got to the end of the 4 months and thought I’m absolutely not going back 😂 but is that something you’d consider? Just to give yourself a bit more time if needed..
I can imagine the shock of discovering endometriosis. But if it makes you feel better I actually know several people with it who have gone on to have babies relatively quickly!
And please don’t apologise about essays, I love them! 😄 feel free to message me whenever xxx
I'm pretty nervous about the PRP because some things I've read said it doesn't work for some people and for others it does. There is very little evidence out there for it. I had 5 eggs collected in my last collection. 4 fertilised and in the end I only had one embryo. It was through the NHS here I'm NI and they did a day 3 transfer. How many cycles have you had? Did you have many eggs collected at each one? Are you taking any supplements or doing anything for egg quality?
Sabbatical is a really good suggestion, thank you. It is worth thinking about. I just know that being in work right now would not be doing me any favours. I am so glad that you have stepped away from it for the moment too.
One of the biggest issues with my endo is the hydrosalpinx which is fluid filled fallopian tubes. That's why they need removed. It's mad - I'm 36 and I never knew I had endo or any of this was going on inside my body until I went to get tested.
I love an essay too lol thank you for your lovely words and if I can be of any help with anything please let me know xxx
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