# BBC IVF Documentary -want to show how hard it can be to have to go abroad for tx



## joshbbc

Hi

You may have seen our poster on the front page of Fertility Friends. We're so grateful to Tony and all at Fertility Friends for their marvellous help and to the members of Fertility Friends for the response so far.

We are making a series on IVF for BBC1 with Professor Robert Winston, and we want to show all aspects of assisted reproduction. We are making a posting directly here as we would very much like to be able to show that it is possible to go for tx with donor eggs abroad.

We're particularly interested in far flung clinics because we feel there are so many people who don't know what options there are out there. The members of Fertilty Friends are so well informed and supportive of one another that you are probably more aware of the possibilities than many other women.

We would love to be able to use the programme to show women who don't have access to the same amount of information just what else they could do.

If you would like to have a chat and find out more about the series, please do give us a call.

Many thanks

Kim and the team at the BBC

Kim Shillinglaw Josh Good
[email protected] [email protected]
020 8752 4688 020 8752 7914
07958 512 514 07930 406544

Approved by Tony


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## roze

This is a very good idea, but unfortunately because I do find this all so stressful, there is no way I'd go on the telly and talk about it, not least of because DH and I are clear that if we do conceive by donor, our child will be the very first person 
(apart from medics) to be told about it, when they are at the right age. I would be happy to talk to someone if anonymity was guaranteed.

There was a programme on either ITV or Channel 4 last year which did a feature on women going abroad for tx by DE. It wasn't very representative and not very positive on the issue. More in the vein of 'look what they have to resort to', making it sound more  like 'back street conceptions'.

There was another programme featuring a woman who was desperate because of the donor situation here. I tried to contact the producer to get through some information about Spain, but this was stonewalled. The programme did not address donations from abroad at all.

The fact is however that my own  experience of ' private' abroad is so much more positive than ' private' here.
There is still so much ignorance about going abroad within the clinics here. Even my GP and local hospital think I am crazy and they really are unfortunately not that interested in finding out the facts. Only one GP at my practice has shown the slightest interest in educating himself and making information available for others. This therefore reduces  the information channels for other women who may be in the same position.

Were it not for an accidental discussion at UCH, I would never have known about this website, nor the possibility of Spain for donor eggs. It was never brought up during my two years at the Lister, even when we went on the donor recipient list.

I do hope that some couples are brave enough to come forward, but the donor bit makes it unlike straight iVF, and hence I can see that the pool would be limited.

Its hard in one way to have to go abroad for donor eggs, but frankly its  even harder to have to stay here.  More flexible legislation abroad means that countries like Spain will build up expertise and experience, whilst the lack of supply in the UK means inevitably that such experience will dwindle.

roze xxx


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## chrissier

The BBC could better spend its time showing how hard it is to get donor egg treatment in this country!!!

Going abroad for treatment is easy (if you can afford it).

Clinics abroad appear to be far less money grabbing than clinics in this country.  It is a scandal that you have to pay a non-returnable deposit of £400 to go on a waiting list for donated eggs at CARE (a chain of fertility clinics in UK) and if you pull out and decide to go abroad or are pro-active and find your own donor, you lose the money.  Clinics in Spain do not charge a deposit and waiting lists are extremely short.  Having IVF with donor eggs is an expensive business and clinics in this country seem determined to make it more expensive and more difficult for people to fulfil their dreams of a family.  The recent loss of anonymity and refusal to allow donors to be paid adds to the difficulties of obtaining treatment in this country.

Given that fertility is on the decline and the younger generation is shrinking you would think the government would be pouring money into more research into infertility treatments and trying to help the infertile to start a family.  Unfortunately you can only get help in this country if you can pay for treatment yourself.  Many people are bankrupting themselves in their quest to have a family.

Chrissie


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## Sasha B

Absolutely, I agree with Chrissie. I think the real story does not lie in couples going aboard but the factors that drive them to do so such as the shortage of donor sprem or donor eggs in this country. An already limited supply has been dramitically reduced due to the recent law that strips donors of their anonymity. Money is another factor as well. By going abroad people can afford to have more cycles which means they have more chances to become pregnant and have a family. The irony of it is that the success rates in places such as Spain are almost double what they are in most UK clinics and yet the cost even including flights, accommodation etc. is still cheaper than here. Were these factors not such crutial ones (the first one in particular), much fewer people would seek treatment abroad. Undergoing any type of assisted conception treament is highly emotional and stressful and most women would prefer not to have the hassle of booking flights, hotels and going to a completely different country to do it.

Sasha


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## RozLu

Couldn't agree more with Chrissie and Sasha.

One of the key issues that makes treatment abroad LESS hard than treatment in this country is certainly anonimity for any donor tx. Add to that for many txs wait time, cost, service standards, results... and it's not hard to see why people go abroad.

If the BBC's mission is in any way to the serve public with regard to infertiltity awareness it could:

(a) focus on how much easier and how successful it can be to go abroad - and therefore make the UK clinics / gvt / NHS / HFEA sit up and rethink policies / service etc

(b) focus on re-education and a more balanced view. Infertility treatment is NOT the solution to declining fertility. It is merely a band aid. The media and society has created a generation that thinks that there is a soln to ANY infertility problem. I have experienced first hand one of the country's leading fertility experts tell me that there isn't a solution - it was a cruel and transforming moment, out of the blue... and totally at odds with my 'experience' of infertlility based on media portrayal - which after all is the average couple's experience... until of course they are luncky enough to find FF...

Real life is a far cry from every IVF documentary I ever saw where the least I would expect is 6-8 eggs every IVF cycle and half of them fertilised. Why don't we hear experts tell the real stories on the BBC? Is it because only the infertlity story that ends in bouncing babies (prefably twins) makes good TV? Though of course we keep on hoping and trying... and most of get plenty of sleepless nights practice....

RozLu


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## lil stephy

hi i would be willing to take part in a documentary if its means that other people will get hope from it, im not donating eggs i will be starting icsi by xmas and maybe in the future i will donate to help someone else if all works for me. im a patient at barts hospital for ivf.
[email protected]


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## Penelope Positive

I contributed to a Radio programme last year on this same subject after an appeal here and we ended up being portraid as a bunch of IVF 'tourists' getting a holiday in addition to a baby by going abroad! Nothing could be further from the truth.  

I hope some people will come forward as this is something that desperately needs to be discussed and information brought into the open on, the people here on FF are amazingly knowledgeable and supportive of each other and I am sure, if there trust can be secured could help you to make a wonderful and much needed programme.

There are so many people who would benefit from treatment abroad if only the knew more about it and were not judged for trying to find a solution.


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## brownowl23

I dont know if you realised but the orginal post was posted in 2005.

I odo wish howevere that DEIVF abroad was better advertised as the prices here are so extortionate. Better still it would be nice if the whoe rpices of IVF here were more in keeping with abroad it is sooooo expensive here.


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## RichmondLass

did this ever get made does anyone know? Would be interesting to see.
RL


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