# Which clinic?



## Happy Couple (Dec 26, 2011)

Hi,

We've now pretty much decided that we're going to apply for egg share, but we would appreciate some advice from those who have experienced treatment to help us decide which clinic we should go with. We have looked at Manchester Fertility Services and Nottingham CARE. Having been to open evenings and spoken to staff we prefer the feel of Nottingham CARE. It also will be easier for us to travel to. However our reservation is that there is a waiting list for donor sperm (approx 3-4 months), and that after unsuccessful attempts we would return to the bottom of this list each time. We're also assuming that there will be less choice to match us to if there is a waiting list.

Given the demands of the process on time, body, mind and bank balance we can't decide which issue holds the most importance! 

Any input would be appreciated as there is likely to be things we haven't thought about. Thanks.


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## Candy76 (Feb 19, 2011)

I don't have experience with either clinic.
From our experience I would appreciate the honesty of any clinic, here Nottingham CARE regarding their waiting list for donor sperm.
If you donate yourself, do you get 'special treatment' when it comes to receiving donor sperm? (just a thought)
As they are so short of sperm, do they or their patients ship in sperm from banks and if so, could you tack along and share shipping costs?

I would say go with the clinic that you feel most comfortable with. There is nothing like a BFN AND feeling bitter towards a clinic.


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## welshginge (Jul 12, 2009)

I got preggo through Care Notts. They told me the same thing re sperm but they were on the phone 6 weeks later asking me to choose a donor. I had one scan there (rest in Leics satt clinic) & obv egg retrieval & embryo transfer. I was very happy with them, even if I hadn't got pregnant I really liked them, so friendly & calming. Walking down to theatre for egg retrieval I started crying & the nurse put her arm round me as she walked me down. Lovely. I would go back.


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## Happy Couple (Dec 26, 2011)

Thanks for your thoughts. If we are honest I think we actually want to go to Notts but just needed some reassurance that this wasn't a silly decision.


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## kedmo1 (Aug 18, 2010)

we are using Care in Northampton and imported our sperm from ESB, 3 vials is about same cost as 3 lots from care and there is no waiting which is what pushed us towards that. As with egg share they wouldn't put us on sperm list til all tests were back in completely and wouldn't cycle match me with receipent until we had sperm, which was too much waiting for me.  that's the only negative I have against them.
Still no BFP but using them again for my cycle at the moment, I feel comfortable and i think the staff at care friendly.

Not to put a spanner in the works re egg share but I noticed you have had an ovary removed (from your signature) not sure now but when I egg shared at care if you had ovarian disease or ovarian surgery I'm not sure they would accept you as a donor. You would be best calling the donor coordinator and checking if you haven't already.

Good luck.


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## welshginge (Jul 12, 2009)

I asked Care Notts to egg share (I only have 1 ovary) & they said to do a cycle without sharing to see how I respond & then if I get a BFN they may let me share next time. I did meet the required eggs but got a BFP so maybe this is a future option for me.


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## Happy Couple (Dec 26, 2011)

I have spoken to them about the ovary situation and they said that it's not necessarily a problem so we can still apply and see what the tests reveal.


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## kedmo1 (Aug 18, 2010)

That's good news. think all the care clinics are slightly different but I always here good things about them all on this site.


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## BabyJeano (Jan 11, 2012)

The clinic we chose also had a waiting list for sperm and we were told that when it became available there wouldn’t be much choice on donor so we bought sperm from ESB (European Sperm Bank) which was then sent to the clinic and they are storing it for us until we need it.  

We paid for the 3 month membership and the information we have on our donor is outstanding, including a photo of him as a Child and a recording of him talking about himself.
It was good to sit down and go through each donors history and family and the baby photos really helped.  It gave us much more control

x


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## dingle123 (Jun 16, 2010)

BabyJeano - can I ask what your experience with ESB has been like?  The Wife has been back and forth with them now on email for a month and they seem really helpful but just wanted to speak to someone who has actually purchase sperm from them?  We are looking @ purchasing sperm from the US through them. xx


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## BabyJeano (Jan 11, 2012)

Hey

I have to say they were brilliant.  
First off we paid the fee for the 3 months access to all donors so we could select with more information.  We spent a while going through them and finally settled on a few, but had to wait for our CMV results before we could finally settle on one.  As it was our clinic forgot to test me for CMV so said we should choose a CMV negative donor as a precaution, which straight away left us with just a couple of choices, so we picked one, emailed ESB , they sent us an up to date spreadsheet showing how many units he had left.  We then informed our clinic of our choice, they did some behind the scenes checks with ESB (which only took a few days) then our clinic emailed us to say we could go ahead and purchase the sperm.  One call to ESB, make the payment and the little swimmers arrived in the UK the week afterwards.  It was all very straight forward and ESB especially were brilliant and very helpful.
x


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## dingle123 (Jun 16, 2010)

It does all sound very straight foward...I really like the fact you get to see a photo/hear a recording.


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## BabyJeano (Jan 11, 2012)

Yes, its surprising how we ended up selecting (after medical history) on the way the baby photos looked.  We chose a donor that looks like me, so even though biologically the baby wont be mine, in my have my colouring. 
x


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## Candy76 (Feb 19, 2011)

Dingle, if you are looking to get sperm from the US, you could also have a look at xytex's website. Some clinics in the UK use them as a matter of course. I don't have any experience with ESB, so can't compare. We found xytex's service fantastic, there is a massive choice of donors. You can look through basic criteria of donors without paying. There are symbols indicating which additional info is available (i.e. baby photos), which you could then access if you were to pay.
Generally you need to make sure you tick the correct boxes when it comes to identity disclosure, as you can not use a (for ever) anonymous donor when treated in the UK.

Have fun and best of luck with choosing!


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## dingle123 (Jun 16, 2010)

Thanks Candy! We will definetly check the site out. Xx


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## Starz (Aug 24, 2008)

It would be really interesting to know what ht European rules are about sperm donors.  In America the donors appear to be able to donate as often as they want and they don't seem to have the regulations that we have in the UK. It is worth thinking about as if you end up conceiving a child with imported sperm - they could potentially have hundreds of siblings all over the world. In the USA they have a donor sibling register and it is easy to trace siblings if people want to do that.  Xytex even have their own ******** page that people post photos of their children with donor numbers.
It wasn't something we considered when we were offered American sperm.  I think that may influence my choice of clinic. 
Just an extra something to think about!


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## kedmo1 (Aug 18, 2010)

If you are interested in using ESB, flick through a copy of diva magazine first; as ESB were offering free access to the whole donor database with a access code in there advert in diva, not sure if they are still doing it. 

We got baby picture, full donor medical history including grandparents and aunts(more than I know about my own family) , voice recording and personalilty details on donor.  We got hair colour, eye colour, height we wanted and even picked a similar petsonality to DP. 

ESB were so easy to deal with, used email and called only once.  Paid and it was delivered within a week.  I used a well known sperm bank in UK twice before and got 5million and 11million count in samples, with ESB we got 50million in both lots we have used and it was all at iui grade, so much better abroad I think....

The same laws apply in UK using this donor, so he can only contribute to ten families in UK but he could have loads more abroad both in Europe and US but this did not have impact on us deciding to use them.  We discussed the amount of information we got at the start outweighed this and hoped this information would be enough for any conceived child to get an understanding of who their donor was.


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## welshginge (Jul 12, 2009)

For us we wanted to make it as easy as possible for our child to meet their donor should they want to, so stuck to a UK donor. You don't get as much info but after our son was born we wrote to HFEA for more info on him (where born, education, what family members do, a message to us) & how many half siblings S has.


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