Recommendation needed: Fertility Clinic in London AND specialist Post Reply

[Mrs.AAA]

NVNers,

I would really like to hear from local mums who have gone down the IVF route (with success) and have a clinic and specialist who they would gladly recommend.  DH and I are seriously considering this option now and would prefer to begin our research with some names.  We are also open to clinics in Spain as well, based on personal recommendation. 

I'm open to PMs if you'd prefer not to make a public recommendation. 

Thank you in advance.

Mrs.AAA

[Red1981]

I would recommend the Lister clinic in particular Raef Faris. I've also heard good things about the ARGC, if you want bed side manner you won't get it here, but they have the highest success rates of all the clinics as they are very specific with your protocol to get it exactly right for highest chance of conception.

If you haven't had one already, I would also highly recommend getting a laprascopy done before you embark on IVF. Robert Winston fertility expert recommends these as gold standard of fertility testing and not enough is done before people are rushed onto IVF. We had been TTC for 2.5 years, had literally had every test under the sun, tried everything naturally. if someone had said drink this magic stinking potion and cycle 40 times round a tree to fall pregnant...I would have done it! We were lucky at the time and got IVF funding via the NHS. Just before we were due to have our first round my gp suggested I had a laprascopy done as a last resort before the IVF, "to thoroughly check the oven before putting something in to bake" was how it was phrased...! Well, lo and behold, they found endometriosis, they removed, flushed my tubes whilst they were at it, and I fell pregnant naturally two cycles later. That was with supposedly terrible AMH 4 pmol and FSH of 9.

Please feel free to msg me if you have any more questions, good luck in your journey!

[MrBalham99]

We had 9 rounds of IVF and went to 3 clinics:

1. Create Fertility: caring but scatty and pretend to be "natural" but nothing any more natural than anywhere else
2. ARGC: DO NOT GO THERE! They are purely after your money (he's the UK's highest paid doctor at about £25million!). You never see the main man and they are obsessed with pushing unproven add-ons like endometrial scratching, and flying your blood to Chicago at £1500 a pop to prove that you have over-active killer cells in your uterus. 
3. Boston Place: they produced results in the end, but as soon as complications set in, they couldn't wait to get us out of the door fast enough and back to the NHS.

Summary? Go with the people and surroundings you feel most comfortable with. Ask about their results, especially their live births, and failures/ectopics, per implanted egg. Don't be put off by answers such as "consult the HFEA website". If they don't give you the stats, and the failures, straight up, walk away. 

DM me if you want more.

[sld]

I recommend Lister as well, I did two rounds of IVF there which resulted in two babies Feel free to DM me as well.  Good luck!

[Vhopeful]

Would also recommend Lister. Feel free to Pm me.

[this_is_cat]

We tried several clinics
Create: their approach is more natural, lower dose of drugs, will treat women with low egg reserves. The doctors are amazing, the admin side is disorganised
Would recommend it especially if you work in the city where the clinic is as it makes it easy to fit in around your working week

Lister: really disorganised system. Didn’t see a doctor for the most of the cycle, and didn’t see the same nurse twice. Appointments always ran late, sometimes over 2 hours.

Chelsea and Westminster: cookie cutter approach with no personalised care and brutal egg collection without proper sedation.

ARGC: expensive but amazing. The most personal and caring approach of all the clinics, and totally individualised treatment.
It’s expensive and time consuming but that’s why they have such incredible success rates. It was the stand-out clinic for us and I would recommend it to everyone looking for IVF.
The downside is needing to be there at least once a day for the fortnight of the treatment so if you don’t work near the clinic or have flexibility to go to the clinic before work and at lunchtime, you would need to take some time off.
But it’s worth it when they get and keep you pregnant.

[CharlotteWStar]

Another vote for the Lister. We had a great experience. We were primarily based at their city branch (at the Shard, as it was closer to my office), the team there and at the Chelsea site were fantastic.

[thirteenovertwo]

I would really recommended Guys Hospital Assisted Conception Unit. We are there as NHS but they also take private patients. If you are private you can choose your consultant and Dr El-Toukhay came highly recommended to us by a friend who had been there as a private patient.
I am a big champion of the NHS and the ACU at Guys has great success rates and incredibly caring and committed staff. There have been drawbacks, as NHS patients we do not see a consultant every time or even the same nurse but that hasn’t bothered me as all the staff we have seen have been fantastic.
Good luck, IVF has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done but it has made me incredibly strong and I’ve met some amazing people because of it.

[Jopoppy68]

We had our daughter through Guys and they were great. Alongside that (on the third attempt using frozen embryos) I also had immune treatment with Dr Gorgy which cost a bomb (20k+) and have no idea if this made the difference. At the time I thought it had, but now not so sure.

In our attempt to have another and off the back of amazing reviews on Fertility Friends (as well as being significantly cheaper), we went to Serum in Athens and while we weren't successful, the care and treatment there was second to none. Penny, who runs the clinic is wonderful and she and her staff made us feel like family. If I had my time again, I wouldn't go anywhere else. She tells you exactly how it is and if anything tries to steer you away from extra treatments as they don't offer any benefits and if anything can be detrimental to success. It turns out our daughter was a lottery win as we had issues on both sides. Ok, we didn't have success at Serum but I still feel teary at how wonderful they were to us. On top of that, three other couples, who I'd recommended Serum to had success and went on to have healthy kids. 

I recommend filling out their form, after which you can have a free consultation over the phone. If you decide to go there, it's more like a holiday where you pop into the clinic now and again over a two week period. While slightly rough around the edges, Athens is fantastic and the people so lovely. You can also escape for a few days to various islands not too far away. This is their website: https://www.ivfserum.com/profile/

Good luck with your treatment. It's horrible to have to be in this situation, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and generally more grateful. My daughter was worth the stress and worry and I genuinely feel like I had a lottery win.

x

[balhamas]

Another vote for the Lister. Everyone is so friendly, I’ve never been kept waiting for an appointment and the doctors and nurses will take as much time as you need talking to you, we’ve never felt rushed. We’re under Mr Tolba who is a lovely man and been doing the job for a long, long time (over 40 years!) so he really knows his stuff, but we have also seen Dr Parikh and she is wonderful too.
We’ve never been “sold” any extras or felt that it was about money at any point.
IVF can be a horrible and emotional experience and some people can find it hard talking about it openly - if you’d ever like to talk or hear some first hand experience please PM me (I tried to send you a message but couldn’t figure out how to...!) I don’t know anyone else who is going through it and it can feel lonely, especially when all your friends are pregnant, but remember that so many people share the same struggles behind closed doors.
Good luck with it all, whichever Road you go down! xx

[BVK]

Hi, I’m sorry we haven’t. But we have close friends who are currently in the process.

They were at a different clinic in Harley Street, but have now started the egg sharing trial at the Lister and hoping they are successful.

They said that she is willing to share / donate some of her eggs, and so the entire IVF cycle is done free of charge - which is incredible for her financially as she has already completed 2 other cycles elsewhere. It is called the Lister egg sharing scheme I think.

All the best with it all and hope it all works out for you.

[Macky]

I went only to ARGC and am now a mum of a 3 yr old and 4 month old twins. We had 2 successes out of 3 rounds.

I agree with most of the ARGC comments - it is super hectic clinic! Admittedly, I never met the main man but he has a couple of very experienced doctors that I saw regularly when it really mattered. I would recommend ARGC wholeheartedly but be prepared for a crazy time of it. The monitoring is off the scale but in my mind this is a good thing as they are giving you every chance of success. They are serious about getting you pregnant.

For what it is worth, if this is really what you want put everything else on hold (holidays, moving house, whatever) and focus on this. It is tough going but it is for a short time in the grand scheme of things.

The money side of it is a bit eye watering but I hope that doesn’t put you off too much.

you get to know the nurses really well and without exception they are absolutely lovely.

If you want to discuss ARGC in more detail I would be happy to have a private discussion with you. I wish you the best of luck.

[Mrsmac35]

Another vote for the Lister and Mr Tolba. Raef Faris is also very good there.
We have a lovely little daughter thanks to the team at the Lister and we were very well looked after. Please do PM me if you have any specific questions, very happy to chat about the whole process.

[ClaphamPkorNot?!]

We went to CRGH at UCLH.  5 rounds 2 kids at 38 and 40y/o. I'd pick the place people are recommending for how they treat you as a patient and I'd look at the success rates for live deliveries for your age, available on the https://www.hfea.gov.uk/ there are differences so worth fully researching.  We got the results we wanted but I wouldn't say it was the friendliest service, but talking to friends that have been through it, this doesn't seem unusual I'm afraid.  The consultant consultations were always great.  It's the rest of the visits; staff are far too busy and impersonal service, sometimes waiting for an hour for an appointment, even if early. Some trial procedures offered, none were particularly expensive, and who knows what worked.  It did for us.
  
Above person who mentioned laparoscopy - this should be evident from a scan on your initial visit and is an expensive and potentially unnecessary procedure, so worth asking for the scan before spending a few thousand pounds you don't need to (again if going private).  That said, am pleased it was the right treatment in that case.  

I'd recommend IVF acupuncture, Helix clinic specialises as I'm sure other places do too.  Not sure either of us believe in it, but it worked! Perhaps it's creating the time to be relaxed.  Also, you've got to be very flexible when going through a cycle. You're going to have to go a lot, so I might look at what's going to be a relatively easy journey for you.  

Lastly, would recommend getting your drugs at ASDA (Roehampton) at cost and not paying full price if going privately. 

[Monaliza]

Would you please recommend Lister Fertility Clinic over Chelsea and Westminster fertility unit?

I've done my initial consultation with Chelsea and Westminster which was £350. They didn't even provide me with treatment costs and required HyCoSy test. I am thinking about scheduling a consultation with Lister too.

Any recommendation/insight would be greatly appreciated. I am struggling...