Starting our IVF journey

Hello lovely. I felt exactly the same, scared overwhelmed and angry. But the more I learnt about the process the more I came to terms with how amazing the whole thing was. Our clinic talked things with us more than once and made sure we felt comfortable before going ahead with anything. Try and find out more information and more about how the process would work for you (whether you’re funded or have to go private) and go from there. Try not to worry about the future and try to stay positive! Wishing you all the luck xxx

@Jade thank you. We have contacted the hospital and spoken to my consultants secretary about moving forward with a referral to the fertility team. My consultant explained yesterday that with the hydrosalpinx the fertility team will want to remove the tube and proceed with IVF. I don’t know if this route would give us more likelihood of it being funded. Given my age I’m hoping we can be funded. We haven’t had protected sex for years and since my ectopic pregnancy in 2021 I haven’t fallen pregnant. So I do believe it’s not possible for me to conceive naturally. One of my close friends had IVF and she’s been a big support since talking to her about it. 2 of my sisters friends have also offered their support as they also went through IVF, one however stopped IVF and conceived naturally. Xx

So with regard to the funding, you can check on your local area their criteria, but the most do say if either of you have any biological or adopted children then you aren’t eligible for funding. There are different funded type packages you can do with private IVF eg access fertility, Gaia. So you can explore those. You can also explore different fertility clinics. I would say anticipate to be paying around £10k for private IVF. This would be including medications and consultations and tests which aren’t included in any funded packages. You can find per cycle which would be cheaper if it worked first transfer, but you have to pay for every frozen transfer and at my clinic they were £2700 per transfer. That didn’t include meds. So the funded packages can work out cheaper overall. The nhs waiting list can be long so I would check the criteria online before waiting months to find out you may not be eligible.

@Danielle thank you for your information. It’s very helpful. I’ve googled my local NHS trust guidelines and they state on their website that funding is for those under the age of 40 that do not have any children. So it looks like we wouldn’t be eligible. We have a lot to discuss and a lot to consider. It’s a massive amount of money to go private, my friend ended up paying out £18k and completely wiped out their savings. Xx

@Charlotte it depends what option you go for, and I think now they do payment plans, we had to pay upfront for our treatment so was a big investment. We paid around £12.5k for our private cycle. That included 3 egg retrievals and unlimited frozen transfers until we had a baby. We paid for meds and consultations on top so was closer to £15k overall. We had a baby on our second transfer, so over paid, but our nhs cycle we only got 2 poor embryos so we thought it might take us a few goes. There are cheaper packages where you get 2 egg retrievals and no refund. So you need to look at all options and see what works best for you.

Just to say that we did an access fertility package as we already had 1 child, it cost us £12.5k for 2 ICSI rounds (that didn't include medication costs) though ironically we've become pregnant after the 1st round so we've ended up paying more for it overall. But it's a gamble whichever way you do it and at the end of the day the peace of mind was worth much more for us. Wishing you lots of luck, although IVF seems scary at first it's been an absolute blessing for us and it actually wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. Plus, the science behind it is mind-blowing. Anyway, sending positive vibes your way ❤️

Hey! So scary I know. I had two ectopics and then my left was a hydrosalpinx and the right was scarred. They made me removed both before starting ivf. So just expect for them to probably want you to remove the hydrosalpinx, the fluid is toxic to any embryo. But it was an easy surgery, I had it in December 2019 and then in march 2020 I was doing my egg retrieval so the process is quick! I hope your journey goes well! Baby dust!