Hello everyone can anyone give advice on how best to choose a clinic/hospital to go to for IVF/ICSI? I'm 42 and feel pressured to sort this out as quickly as possible, this is my last hope it feels. We've researched the places with the best success rates and are now waiting for 25 pages of test results from our consultant, before we go for our 1st consultation. A bit scary, a bit worried, as I want to pick the right place, + its so expensive. Looks like we may have to go for ICSI as my partner has low motility and abnormal morphology. Hope we get somewhere with this soon.

Hiya Manuela,
It is really tough making this decision. I agonised over it and found it totally overwhelming intially.
I found it helpful to go on the HFEA website. If you do an advanced search you can put in your age, what tx you need, what area you are in etc and it will give you all the official success rates.
From here, we narrowed it down to about 5 clinics. Then I phoned them to see how helpful they were. One was very rude and not very helpful and the other has still never got back to me! So they were ruled out. With the remaining ones we arranged an informal visit / went for an open evenings. One refused to do this, so they were ruled out as well! We ended up ruling outall th ones nearest to us, but I wouldn't want to go somewhere that aren't going to help me out when we're spending all that money and it's stressful enough as it is.
In the end we decided to go to the Lister in London as it has one of the best success rates in the UK and I'd heard really good things about it. They also have a lot of experience with older women there so may be worth looking at for you?
I also used fertility friends website (if you go on the general chat areas for IVF and ICSI there are threads for each of the clinics).
Once you go for a visit, I'm sure you'll make your end up pretty quickly....I knew straight away in the end. That was only 4 weeks ago and I am now on my way for my first scan and have started down regging!
Good luck, any questions pleae do ask x

Hi tbd, we did go to the HFEA site, to research the best places and got their success rates, and we narrowed it down to 12 clinics, to of them hospitals, Guys and IVF Hammersmith and we are tempted to go to Guys, as costs include other procedures that private clinics dont, but on my table Guys came 4th with their success rates with people of my age, and I know that we should be looking at the top clinics but they do behave like they are a money grabbing business rather then a holistic patient viewed service, which is a turn off, as well as being told we would have to pay anywhere between £6-12k. We looked at the Lister too and they came 3rd on our list of best success rates.
I also registered with fertility friends too, but not done anything there yet. Can I ask how old you are? If near my age what do you think and how do you feel about having a baby so late in life? How do you feel about IVF ICSI not working, or baby being born with abnormalities? I know you can pay for tests to check that but that adds to the already extortionate rates they charge. How do you feel about the birth itself, this scares me though I'm trying not to worry about that, as the end result is what counts. How much are you prepared to spend? How would you feel and what would you do if it didnt work?
We are looking at trying to get assistance with funding for this via our local authority pct, not sure if that will work as over 40. I think its a crying shame that women aged 40-44 are not being given the chance to get financial assistance through the NHS and are penalised for not having had a baby sooner, by being made to pay extortionate amounts of money for having a child and a lot of the time its not the womens fault that she had to wait for so long to be able to get pregnant, the nhs really want to judge it on individual merits when looking at helping women to conceive via nhs if over 40.
We are hoping to go for a 1st consultation next week.
So have you had your 1st consultation with the lister then? how did it go? good luck and hope to hear from you x

Hiya Manuela, I am actually in the opposite situation....I am 27 and am also not eligible for treatment on the NHS as I am too YOUNG!! In my area you currently have to be aged between 36 and 39, but they're changing it to 30-35 soon! Either way, I'm not prepared to wait so long when we've been told we have so little chance of it happening naturally (due to male factor). I agree though that the restrictions on IVF are a terrible shame and frakly, just completely ridiculous, given that it has been recommended that all women should be entitled to 3 cycles on the NHS....which I doubt is happening in many areas....unfortunataly it is a total postcode lottery.

It is such a confusing area and so filled with emotions, heartache and financial implications...it is hard to keep a clear head and think rationally at times. I really think you should try to visit the clinics you're interested in. I also really found it invaluable speaking to the ladies on fertility friends at the individual clinics. I actually have all the same concerns that you mentioned, despite being younger, but I am taking each day as it comes and trying not to think too far down the line as i find myself in a panic when I do that.

I have just started down regging and had my first scan at the Lister today. I have to say they have been really good so far....I really cannot fault them. they are very busy but they have a lot of experience of doing IVF and getting success. As I said quite a lot of the women they treat are older and they do not have any criteria for treating which some clinics do. I'd recommend them but haven't been to any of the others in london. x

Hi tbd,
I'm glad they'll soon change it to 30, but shame that means they'll take it down to 35, poor 36-39 yr old women, what will they do? That sounds mad, I thought it was available for women aged 23-39, but maybe that age varies from place to place, i dont know its a minefield of information. A friend of mine who works in the NHS told me it went up to 39 only a few years ago, as people were having babies later in life, so who knows maybe they will examine the current trend and up that age to 44. A friend of mine had her 3rd child last week and she's 44! She had her first born with the ICSI when she was in her late 30's and the other 2 came naturally as she states that for her, the ICSI kick started her body in doing what it was meant to be doing naturally, conceive, get pregnant and give birth, so who maybe we can get there too.
I was told that ICSI works better then IVF, as its a direct hit but one of the top clinics in London advised that their ICSI success rate 29%, was lower in women aged 40-42, then their IVF success rate 44.4%, thats because if a man's sperm motility is lower than 10% the rate is lower. Though dont know why they dont tell you that. So much to consider. Have you been told which treatment is best for you both? IVF or ICSI?
I read an article not long ago, I think it was in the Independent, that said if a man is infertile and it is unexplained infertility, that IVF would not work, as the egg would reject (weak) sperm. There was talk in the article of introducing a test to define this as in doing so it would save the NHS and patients a lot of money and heartache. I think though given that your still young you should be fine, Got my fingers crossed for you. :\)
I know what you mean about the panicking, as it all feels so imminent now, starting to think down the line can feel scary, but as you say take one day at a time.
We narrowed our search down to 2 clinics, Guys Hospital and The Lister, need to call Lister today to check something about their prices. Have you been told you can get up to 3 free cycles with them then?
What's down regging? What do you mean when you say; "they do not have any criteria for treating which some clinics do".

Anyway keep me posted on how it goes with them and good luck x :D

Hi, and a belated welcome to the forum!

I'm 39 and we had ICSI last year. I was too old for NHS (well, I was allowed to go on the list, but was told that the waiting list is 2.5yrs in our area, so would be disqualified by the time we got to our turn.

My OH's SA results showed 99% abnormal forms, so we decided to go for ICSI rather than IVF.

We saw Zita West, who referred us to the Lister. They were nothing but brilliant the whole way through, and I really didn't think of them as a money making machine. One receptionist was unpleasant, but the medical staff were fab.

We were very lucky, and ICSI worked first time. We're now adoring parents to a 9 month old boy, and we're going back to the Lister next year to try for his sibling!

Good luck with whatever/wherever you decide x

Hello Mrs Amanda

Congrat on your birth, we want ICSI too, as my oh has low motility, and given this may be my last chance, I want a more direct hit/more of a chance of success and i feel icsi would be the way. I did look at the lister but they're quoting £7-10k that's too much and may not get any funding, tho will try with my pct. How much did you pay the lister if you dont mind me asking?
Trying to get an appt at Guys ACU

Thanks and good luck next time round.

I don't mind you asking at all. We funded it completely ourselves, our PCT was useless. I had heard that private IVF patients can get the drugs on the NHS, which would have been a great help, but my GP dismissed that idea. We did manage to do small things, like the initial blood tests, and OHs SA on the NHS, which saved a couple of hundred.
Our total bill from the Lister came to around £7.5k, but we were silly and bought the drugs from them. We could have saved money if we'd shopped around, but I was lazy. That money also included the cost of freezing and storing the extra embryos.

It is a heart-stopping amount of money, especially as there are no guarantees of success.

We have already had fertility testing from Jun-Aug 09 and are awaiting copies of test results in the post, so we can take them to Guys, am hoping as done recently in last 6 months that it will suffice and we wont have to repeat them, hence save on that cost. I may look into getting the drugs on the NHS if I can. That is more then we want to spend, we've been told Guys wont charge more than £5k, they told me that, so hope they meant it.
It is a lot of money and you were blessed that it worked, i'm glad for you. It gives me hope as my partner has a normal count and low motility, but he remembers it not being less than 10% which one top clinic required it to be for icsi tx. We want to go the icsi route all the same as it sounds like its more successful than ivf.
We may need to freeze, not sure yet, still trying to get thru to guys for an initial cons.

Hiya mauela,
Yes, there is a government policy which states that all women 23-39 should get 3 goes on the NHS, but it is a recommendation not an order so each trust has interpreted in their own way. Because of the age restriction in my area, we are not entitled to anything on the NHS which is why we have gone privately at the Lister. I think, like MrsA, it will end up costing over £6k, although my drugs are only costing around £500 because I'm younger.

Some clinics turn people away if they have low FSH or AMH hormone levels because they don;t want their success rates to be lowered....the Lister do NOT do this.

Down regging is the first stage of IVF, and basically makes your ovaries shut down (almost like menopause) which is quite scary....but it's just so that they can be stimulated.

IVF is less successful with poor sperm motility and mrorphology because they need to be able to swim to and get into the egg to fertilise it. There can be higher rates of miscarriage with ICSI because eggs and sperm which wouldn't naturally be able to meet do....so this may be particualrly an issue in older women where there is molre chance poorer quality eggs.....but it's all just about chances, there are no definites where this is concerned.

Your tests should be fine to use if they are within 6 months old. You will both need to be tested for HIV, hep and hep c as well.

My previous cons said that if he had needed IVF he would go to Lister of Guys so you can;t go wrong really!! Lister is fab though. The way I saw it was that although they may be more expensive, with the higher success rates, it may work out cheaper in the long-run if it works sooner!

Hope that has been helpful in some way xx