IVF South Wales, UK

[Nicccc]

Hi all,

We are commencing IVF privately….and what a minefield. Does anyone have any experience (good or bad) with any clinics in the south wales area? I don’t know where to start!

Many thanks

[Jam1111111]

Sorry I don't have any recommendations for clincs for S.w Wales but from my own experience for clincs in Glasgow, Manchester then abroad I would 100% recommend researching abroad. It seems very scary when your starting out and that's why I didn't do it sooner. If I could do my time over I would have went abroad day 1. The level of treatment is far superior (in my experience) feel like they really want it to work abroad and your less of a cash cow! Although I'm still on my journey Prague has been more successful for us so far, not we don't have that baby yet but the tests, changes in meds have all been postive, where in the UK after 3 rounds at 2 separate climcs they want to do the same protocol.

You can have all your pre testing done here in UK at local clincs you just pay as you.

We chose prague as its a 2hr flight.

Best of luck xx

[Nicccc in reply to Jam1111111]

Oh wow I would never even think to look abroad (even though my social media is full so such adverts 🤣) thank you for letting me know and taking the time to reply. Good luck to you too x

[ASB20]

Hi,

We’ve had treatment for myself and partner with Care Fertility (used to be CRGW), Wales Fertility Institute (NHS) and London Women’s clinic (Cardiff). I would highly recommend LWC in Cardiff over the others. They are much more personable, organised and you also get to have 1 to 1 meetings in face with the consultants which you don’t get with the others and I feel if really important. We also had the same consultant from our initial consultation right through to transfer which I thought was really nice and he was calming, informative and brilliant.

At the other clinics, we’ve had trainees and nurses doing transfers which I think when you’re paying so much for treatment it’s not acceptable. The communication has also been really poor with the other clinics and also empathy for failed cycles has not been very good.

I hope this helps you with your choice and good luck with the process!

[Nicccc in reply to ASB20]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. It is really helpful!!xx x

[Sushiluu]

Hi, the Fertility Home in Bridgend is a lovely clinic, much smaller and more personable than others. Think they are still offering free consultations where you’ll meet the consultant. Good luck x

[Nicccc in reply to Sushiluu]

Thank you so much for this and taking the time to reply! So helpful x

[ch2024]

second Cardiff LWC, we’ve been going there for 1.5 years now and they’ve become like family. Really personal treatment and nothing is ever too much!

[Nicccc]

thank you so much for replying. This is really helpful x

[Worrypineapple]

Hi Nicccc,

Sorry you’re having to embark on this journey, but I hope you have your baby/babies at the end of it.

We are from Swansea and have some experience with some of the clinics in the South Wales area.

Our first experience was with London Women’s Clinic in Swansea (consultations) and IVF treatment in the Cardiff clinic. This was going back to 2019. Overall we had a good experience, we were lucky enough to have our daughter. But we felt like we could have done with some more information along the way to better manage our expectations (e.g what to expect with embryo quality, egg number, what was considered a good/poor response for my results). This was our first experience of IVF treatment so maybe it was not asking the right questions. The staff were great, they were easy to get in touch with and I felt like the prices were made clear from the get go.

In 2024 we had four rounds of Ovulation Induction with CRGW in Llantrisant. LWC did not offer this service, but at the time we thought we would maybe give this a go instead of going straight in to IVF. I found them a nightmare to get hold of. It was difficult to order the medication, and I found the reception staff quite rude at the clinic. We did not conceive with this treatment so we wanted to move on to IVF. We had a consultation with Dr Tejura and he’d said ‘ I suppose you would like to use the same protocol as last time because it was successful’. I felt like he did not look at our results/clinicals to make the best decision for us. (With our IVF protocol in LWC, we had 8 eggs collected, and one 5day blastocyst). So with all the trouble trying to order meds and get hold of the clinic we decided to look further afield.

We checked out the HFEA website and found the BCRM, a clinic in Bristol. They came highly recommended from a friend and their success rates were really good.

We had a consultation with Dr Alex Price and found her really helpful. She was kind and caring, we really felt listened to. She managed our expectations and she suggested a change in protocol, to the long protocol. We are so glad we did, we got 15 eggs collected and we had 3 blastocysts. All cycles differ but I do feel like the long protocol was the one that was right for us. They also offer monthly repayments via Access Fertility. The staff at BCRM are all lovely and really helpful. The facilities are great, and it’s just off the M4. It was around 1:30-2hrs from Swansea but I didn’t mind it because I feel like this is the clinic that gives us our best chance to grow our family.

I really hope you find a clinic that you are happy with. Xx

[Nicccc in reply to Worrypineapple]

This is so so helpful! I am also from Swansea! Thank you for taking the time to write all this. I really appreciate it x x x

[Sweet_Chilli10]

Hello Nic 😊

I am also from South Wales. We did our first cycle with CRGW in Llantrisant and definitely would not go there again. I cant complain about the nurses as those we met were all lovely, but its very poor organisation and during our follow up call with the consultant after our failed round he yawned! Not what you'd expect when you are paying for very expensive treatment.

I did so much research following this regarding clinics for our second round, and we found BCRM. I can not recommend them enough. Dr Akande who we met in a face to face consultation was absolutely lovely. It really feels like they care. Everyone is friendly and as others have said its easily accessible. There are also some hotels right near to where the clinic is too, which can also take out the stress of travelling back and forth if needs be. xxx

[Nicccc in reply to Sweet_Chilli10]

Thank you so much. All makes sense why they haven’t returned husband’s telephone call now! So glad I asked you lot. Thank you see taking the time to respond!xx

[Elly5287]

I'm also from the Swansea area and i used CRGW in Llantrisant and the only problem i had was they could be difficult to get hold of by phone. They've since changed to Care fertility and have an app you can use to communicate with staff which seems to work better. I had IVF with them last year and was luckily successful on the first try and currently have a 4 month old baby girl. Wishing you the best. X

[Nicccc]

oh thank you so much for letting me know. This is helpful x

[Nicknackpaddywack]

BCRM in Bristol for me, we had 3 FETs with one round of IVF, first sadly was a MC & currently 33 weeks with third round. They are very helpful and transparent. Dr Price is very lovely also Dr Chebsey was great, very empathetic and straight to the point. I believe they have a clinic in Cardiff too that some of the consultations, but probably need to go to Aztec west office for clinical side.

BCRM Cardiff, at our location at Infiniti Healthcare, Ash Tree Clinic, Cardiff Gate, CF23 8RW, please contact a Patient Advisor.

I wish you all the best on your journey. Stay positive and know your time will come and it will be magical. X

[Nicccc in reply to Nicknackpaddywack]

Thank you so much for replying! And congratulations on your lovely news! Thank you so much for taking the time to reply x x x

[BM000]

I had treatment (unsuccessfully) with LWC and WFI before moving on to try clinics in london (Argc, create then Aria). My situation is complicated though with very poor blast conversion, endometriosis and recurrent miscarriage so we needed more specialist treatment that you just can’t get locally. Our experience with LWC was awful. So bad I considered making a formal complaint. We had treatment in 2020 so it was during Covid times and we only ever saw our consultant once at the start and once at the end (via zoom). Our first cycle was cancelled due to non response so they upped the meds for cycle 2 which was our worst round ever. Only 3 collected, 1 fertilised but very poor quality at day 3. By this point I had a huge 9cm endometrioma which had grown a lot during the ivf. My surgeon said under no circumstances should I have more ivf before surgery but LWC tried to get us to go again, suggesting we upped the meds even higher. It was then I realised that they are only interested in the money, and not my welfare as a patient. There were other issues too (on transfer day they shouted at me because they couldn’t get hold of my husband on the phone to get consent to the point where I was in tears). A friend of mine had 2 babies with them though pre covid and so perhaps we were just unlucky with the doctors we had. Our experience at WFI was much more positive - we had 2 cycles there (with a much better response) and felt well cared for but after yet another miscarriage we wanted to try some additional treatments so had to move to London. If you are willing to travel I would 100% reccomend Aria. They are head and shoulders above the other clinics I’ve been to

[Nicccc]

thank you so much for replying! Sounds like you had an outing. I have endo but adhesions are my issues. I will look into this. I hope you have some success x x x