# IVF Newbie - Need Advice



## monkeygirl (Mar 27, 2010)

Hi all,

I am new to this board, and new to considering IVF, I am age 40.4, and a few weeks back suffered a ectopic pregnancy, this resulted in tube removal, and unfortunatley the other tube is extremely damaged, I am told the only option I have is IVF. 

I don't know too much about this subject, just that it is very involved, emotional and costly. I don't know where to start, on how to pick where is the best place for me to have my treatment, is there anywhere which gives you a detailed process and timescale which can identify how the costs will be made up from? What I should be doing now?

Thanks.


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## teresal (May 2, 2009)

Hi Monkeygirl

I am so sorry that you had an ectopic, I am sure you are still very raw from that and it will take time to get over it   .

welcome to FF it is a wonderfull site and has been my lifeline since i found it last year, the people on here are very helpful and knowledgeable and am sure there will be more people along soon to help you with your questions 

the best place to look at clinics is the HFEA website, they have a full range of clinics in the UK and you can see statistics on each clinic, personally that is where i would start if you are paying yourself. if you can get NHS funding then you will need to go and see your GP and have tests done before they will refer you to your local NHS fertility hospital/clinic.

yes IVF is VERY emotional and expensive and can become the total focus in your life, all private clinics have variable prices and timescales depending on what treatment/drugs you will need.

I hope that has helped a little 

take care
teresa xx


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## monkeygirl (Mar 27, 2010)

Thank you for your advice, there is so much information out there, it's hard to take it all in! Are there any clinics in the UK or abroad that offer Comparative genomic hybridisation (CGH) testing yet, I remember reading that it was being researched in Oxford, with I think good results, but that was a couple of years back? I'm strating to think about having tratment abroad purely for cost reasons, but I'm thinking this test if it is availiable would help very much?


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## teresal (May 2, 2009)

I am sorry I don't know about CGH so can't say whether there are places in the UK that do that, if you are looking at going abroad there are threads on here that may help you choose, so I would look through them and maybe ask about CGH on there
good luck


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## avjmh (Apr 19, 2009)

Hi,
I'm so sorry to hear about your ectopic. I've had two which is why I've just had IVF and am in the two week wait!  
I'm 40+3 and looked into GCH at the Oxford clinic to see if I could become part of the clinical trials. I had a meeting with one of the clinicians. She asked me wether I was interested in having it to a) improve my chances of success of b) because I was worried about birth defects such as downs. I told her that obviously I was worried about problems but I was mostly interested in improving my chances. The first thing to note is that GCH is an extra £3,500 ON TOP of a normal IVF cycle which is already around the 4K mark depending on where you go, so you are talking about £8,000 for one cyle. Even though it is a clinical trial you still have to pay. The second thing she said is that they have to wait until the fertilised embryos are 5 days old (called something like a blastocyst) in order to do all the checks and then transfer them into you and if you have embryos that have reached this stage you would have had a pretty good chance of a successful cycle anyway with normal IVF. I don't know if there are any clinics abroad which are doing it, you would have to do some research. I know that Bath isn't because I asked my consultant about it and he said they don't do it yet as it's still under trial.

Sorry to waffle on but I thought I would pass on the little info I have. I would highly recommend getting a book called " The complete guide to IVF" by Kate Brian which has helped me enormously and has some great advice and has a common sense approach to the whole thing. (She knows what she is talking about as she has been through it herself).
Good luck with the whole thing.


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## monkeygirl (Mar 27, 2010)

Thanks so much for the info, gosh that is expensive to add onto the IVF cost as it stands at the moment, I have been humming with whether to go abroad and have treatment, I think by the time you pay out accommodation and flights etc, there isn't too much difference in cost, although the treating it as a possible unstressful holiday is swaying me.

I wish you so much luck in the waiting period


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