# Travelling to London for treatment



## whigers (Jan 6, 2011)

Hello,

We have had 3 failed ICSI cycles at the ERI.  We are looking at moving to GCRM for another shot.  However, I have read about a clinic in London that has a 43% success rate for my age (almost 37) so was considering looking into moving there.  Its called the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre (ARGC).

Has anyone else travelled to London for fertility treatment?  How do you manage it particularly around stimulation time?  Do you just base yourself down there for a couple of weeks?  Also, looking at ARGC's treatment costs, it appears to be cheaper than GCRM which I was surprised at.  Has anyone had treatment there & if so, realistically what sort of costs are we looking at?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Whigers x


----------



## Garfield123 (Oct 6, 2012)

You could pay 10000 per cycle and more as I initially looked into it but they monitor your cycle first of all and there's a lot of extras google it.if money wasn't an option it's the place to go


----------



## Waitingforsande (Jul 4, 2011)

Hi,

We are about to start travelling to London but at this stage it is just to seek a 2nd opinion from a urologist however, if we can progress to treatment would likely be ARGC. Look on the thread for ARGC as there is accommodation info and suggestions for long distance patients.

Good luck!

Xx


----------



## whigers (Jan 6, 2011)

Thanks ladies for your replies.

I have done a lot of research on ARGC now & they certainly seem to be the best.  We just have to work out if we can afford it and can get all the time of work.

Good luck with your journeys.

Whigers x


----------



## wehavethreecats (Feb 12, 2012)

Hi Whigers,
Hope you are keeping well... though disappointed to see you on here still after we met on another board in Feb.. was hoping you'd be preg by now 

DH and i have been having treatment in Northampton, so flying to Luton and then hiring a car.  The travel isn't so different to getting to any of the London clinics, apart from when we timed it out, getting from Kings X to central london clinics was the bit which made it more timely than faffing about on the M1 to get to Northampton. 

Regarding scans etc, we had a couple of ours (and bloods) done up here  with results faxed same-day, so there's less travel up and down. We had the scans done with the Edinburgh arm of GCRM.  I would guess any of the main London clinics would allow you to do likewise.  The cost for a down-reg scan was about £100 which seemed to be the going market-rate (i am so depressed i know that kind of thing). 

bye for now
x


----------



## whigers (Jan 6, 2011)

Hi wehavethreecats,

Nice to hear from you & sad to see you still on FF too.

We had our 3rd ICSI in August this year but again sadly it didn't work.  We are now going to use up our 1 frozen embryo & if that doesn't work, we will look at moving clinics. 

I'm still unsure about London but I think we would need to give our next shot our best shot, so we'll see.  Its good to hear you can have some of the scans up here though.

I hope things are going ok for you & this cycle you are doing is the one!

Take care

Whigers x


----------



## purplepeak (Jan 31, 2012)

Hi Whigers,

We are in a similar position to you. The andrologist we saw in London said that AGRC would only be better than the Lister if I was somebody for whom the precise moment of egg collection was crucial (AGRC do 7 days a week, whereas the Lister only do 6, cf NHS clinics generally do one or two ...). He said that otherwise the Lister would be as good, and quite a lot cheaper, so there would be no point paying the extra for AGRC. His suggestion was that we try to find out from our NHS clinic (where we're currently doing our 3rd cycle) whether they think timing of EC crucial for me (I am not confident we'll get a sensible answer from them though, I have to say). 

We have been to the Lister for an open evening and they said we'd be able to get scans done locally to us and faxed to them, assuming one of our local clinics was prepared to do it. As somebody else on here said, I imagine most of the London clinics would allow you to do that. 

I think we will probably plump for the Lister. We liked the feel of the place and generally get the impression from ladies on here that they are pleased there. The AGRC seems to be a pretty hectic place by comparison, and to charge vast sums for extras like scans and bloods. Obviously I wouldn't let that hold me back if it was definitely the best place for success rates, but I got the impression the two places were pretty comparable. The AGRC success rates look a bit better but then they turn people away if their FSH too poor, so that must alter the stats. If anyone thinks I'm wrong, though - especially for sperm morphol problems, which are our issue - please let me know!

PP.


----------



## whigers (Jan 6, 2011)

Hello Purplepeak,

Thanks so much for your message.

Like you I'm not sure if egg collection timing is important for us & I know if I asked my current clinic, they would look at me like I was slightly crazy!  I had not looked into the Lister so I'll give it a go now.  We plan to use our 1 frozen embryo next at out current clinic and if that doesn't work, then we'll move clinics.
I really feel that as it would be our 4th cycle, we need to give it our all.  I don't think I can carry on with more cycles after the 4th.  

I had heard that AGRC do tamper with their statistics too.  Our issue is male factor too but we have very poor morphology & poor count.  We referred ourselves to a urologist for my DP but came away with no answers.  Is an andrologist the same as a urologist?

Good luck with your next cycle.  I so hope this one works for you.

Take care.

Whigers x


----------



## purplepeak (Jan 31, 2012)

Hi Whigers,

I think the expertise of an andrologist and a urologist overlap. We saw Jonathan Ramsay, who has a very good reputation and whom I would recommend. We got no answers in the sense that he couldn't tell us why dh morphology is so bad (like yours, its very poor indeed) but he did rule out things it could be, and he did a lot of tests (dna fragmentation etc) to check other stuff. 

At the Lister open evening they said to us in our case they would probably do IMSI (looking at the sperm with greater magnification than is possible for ICSI). They said that might help the outcome but also that it might give us a sense of how realistic our chances of ever succeeding are. I think the 4th cycle for us might be our last with dh sperm but, depending on what the Lister advise, we might move on to donor sperm for a 5th cycle. 

Have you looked into immunes and/or having hysteroscopy and scratch just before the cycle to help implantation? Since you have a frozen embryo (we've never had one), your embryo quality can't be that bad and perhaps implantation isn't working for you? In any case, a clinic like the Lister or AGRC would talk through those things with you. 

Very best of luck to you for your FET. I so hope it will work for you. And, if it does, let me know, cos I am always searching on here for successful cases with morphol problems! 

Take care
PPXX


----------



## Clara29 (Aug 12, 2010)

Hi girls, just came across your thread and thought i would share my experience of ARGC....

They are the best clinic with the best statistics because they offer tx 7 days a week, i mean who doesnt need ec at precicley the right time?

If your fsh is high they will delay tx till the next month and test to see if it has lowered as you have a better chance of sucess.

It is more expensive than most clinics but that is because of the individual monitoring and they employ the most experienced medical staff from all over the world form nurses to embryologists who i believe make the difference, even with male factor problems.

Of course i would say all this as we have our beautiful twins because of them  

Just wanted to stand up for them!

Good luck, i know its not easy xx


----------

