Fertility - Private Clinic Advice Post Reply

[redsky]

Another vote for Jane Knight at Zita West. They can run preliminary tests on you and your partner and provide some suggestions on which clinics could be for you and recommend the best consultant within those clinics to see. Bear in mind some clinics employ a degree of selection in the patients they treat. IVF is big business, clinics are judged on success rates and therefore some clinics won't take on patients who they think will be unsuccessful- learning this was one of the biggest shocks for me. I just thought I could pay my money and go wherever I'd like. I've cycled at both the Lister and ARGC. The Lister does not filter patients - they take anyone who wants to try - but if you look at their success rate it could be lower than other clinics. On the other hand the ARGC has one of/or the highest success rate in the UK but it requires patients to have hormone levels under specific levels before they can start a cycle. Just to know that looking at success rates doesn't always tell the full story. But Zita West can help you with selecting the right clinic.
With regards to acupuncture, if you feel it's not working, don't be afraid to try something else (reflexology, hypnotherapy etc). On the 4 IVF cycles I had acupuncture I did not get pregnant and on the 5th cycle I did get pregnant, I didn't have acupuncture.
Very best of luck to you. It's a really hard road to travel but there are lots of ladies out there who can support you. The Fertility Friends website was an absolute lifeline for me - I didn't have any friends going through the same thing so on there I was able to talk to people about what I was going through - but I agree it's hard not to spend hours searching for success stories and reading people's signatures!

[MrsAmanda]

Yet another recommendation for Zita. When we couldn't get pregnant, we saw our GP who referred us to St Georges. I had one scan and at the end of it a hatchet-faced woman told me I'd never conceive naturally and she *could* add me to the NHS list but as I was *so* old, by the time I got to the front of the queue, I'd be past the age cut-off and disqualified.

We had a couple of appointments with Zita, who gave me accupuncture and referred us to the Lister. We had ICSI, were very lucky, and our son was born on our first go.

It's expensive, and as someone else has said, the Lister charge for absolutely everything. It's location is good, though, I'd hop on a bus from Clapham Common, and be dropped outside their door. I had all my appointments first thing in the morning then would get another bus to Sloane Sq and get the tube to work.

Wishing you the very best of luck.

[Lou29]

We went through New Life Clinic in Epsom who were amazing - had been trying for 5 years and got pregnant first time through IVF. They specialise in treatment for Natural Killer Cells which can prevent you falling pregnant. Definitely recommend, and worth getting tested for this just in case.

[supermummy]

To the poster who asked about CREATE, I think from memory at zita west, that was one of the ones which was described more or less as an ' ivf shop' ie if that's what you want, they will probably do a good job and be nice and slick as these private clinics tend to be. If, however, you still haven't got to the bottom of what your particular issue is then somewhere like the lister may be better as they are probably more one minded about investigating you and not just selling you an ivf package. I think it's really important to understand exactly why ivf will help your particular fertilty issue (something i think the nhs is rubbish at) and a review at zita west should help clarify this. It's money well spent before you spend thousands on treatment...that's not to say that create is not right for you but it might be worth a sense check.