Nottingham - Care or Nurture??

[teapot]

Hi Girls,

Just thinking about having a 2nd crack at this IVF lark after our failed Nov/Dec cycle. Our 1st cycle was NHS at Birmingham Womens Hosp. No frosties, so we have to start again & have to pay this time. B'ham's success rate isn't brilliant, so I've done a bit of searching around & could easily travel to one of the Nottingham clinics or even Northampton (all are around 1 hours drive).

Has anyone any experience of IVF at either of these clinics? & rough idea of costs involved. I've been on both websites, but just curious about 'hidden extras'. How did you find the service? Do they keep a close eye on how you're responding etc..?

Thanks in advance,

Teapot. x

 

[teapot]

Anyone?

 

[ANGEL223]

Hi teapot - nothing to share with you yet but i have just received all the paperwork from Care Nottingham so i will let you know anyhting when i find it out.

 

[raf-wife]

hi teapot im not in that area but just wanted to say do watch out for extra costs, we were quoted £3700, but in total with all the consultations, embryo freezing, another sa etc and if we go to blast its just over £5000
i wish you the best of luck for your next cycle

 

[teapot]

Thank you Angel. I requested a pack from Nurture the other day, so I'll let you know what that one comes up with.

Raf wife - thanks for the reply. That's what I'm afraid of, but with info from lovely ladies like yourself, I can cover all bases from the start & know what to ask about.

My mother in law has said she'll help us out with the costs, but I'd hate to think it was one price & then end up having to ask her for more.
...Wanted to get an idea also to see if it's feasible for us to save up ourselves, but I'd be 38 (!!) by the time we got to that point, so will try & save to pay her back instead.

Best of luck to you both.

 

[raf-wife]

definatly ask for a full price list, how many consultations you will need, if they need another sa etc and then double check it all, also take all your blood results with you so they wont all need repeating that should save a little bit, also might be worth having a little extra in case your meds/doses change, oh yeah also i didnt receive one big bill i have been invoiced seperatly, my first one was for bloods consultation and sa, my second one was for the ivf procedure and i pay for my meds at my scan on monday and then freezing and blast on the egg collection day x

 

[teapot]

I've added up some figures from Nurtures website:

Initial consultation, £160
SA, £85 - I'm sure they'll want to do their own
LH & FSH for me (almost a year since they were done), £60. Might get GP to do this.
diagnostic ultrasound £120
allowance for 6 scans/monitoring days £600 (that's more than I had 1st time)
IVF & anaesthetic £2770

I can't see anything I've missed, so if my meds do stay the same, £4500 should hopefully cover it...
...I've just priced meds on a website called chemist direct. I put in everything I used for my last cycle (although I know it could poss be different next time) & it came up at £616. That's not as bad as I thought it would be. The only thing I didn't price was syringes & needles, but I've got loads left.

My review appt came through today for our failed cycle, it's 10th Feb. I'll have a chat with DH tonight & see if we might go for IVF#2 in March or April.

Anyway, sorry to bore you, but it's quite cathartic just writing it down.

Thanks again girls, ...best of luck for starting stims Raf-wife.

Teapot. x

 

[teapot]

Just checked the price for private treatment at the clinic when we did our first IVF & it's a big difference ....£2200 plus meds.

But the success rates are 30% compared to over 50% at Care or Nurture.

I hate this.

 

[raf-wife]

have you priced up embryo freezing and the price for going to blast in case they decide to do that we had to sign our paperwork to say they could go to blast if they decide to,
also your initial consultation should include a diagnostic scan so you shouldnt have to pay for that, you should def go see your gp and get your fsh rubbella status etc done again now so you wont have to pay for them, my surgery also did my amh for me so we saved about £90 on bloods they wouldnt do the infection screening though so that was another £90
oh yeah and the hfea fee is £104.50 x

 

[raf-wife]

your monitoring scans etc should be covered in the cost of your ivf, just checked through everything ive had and reckon if you go get your bloods done through gp, that including everything based on the prices you put (had to use my own for freezing/blast) i reckon £4500 will cover it all x

 

[fluffystar]

Hi Teapot

I just wanted to wish you luck on your next cycle. I guess we werent one of the lucky ones on the nov/dec thread!

Do you have any feeling as to what you may do differently from your first cycle? I have my follow up on 24 Jan but think my meds could be changed as I only got 4 follies, 3 eggs and 1 embie.

I assume if you change clinics that they may use different meds? I have a friend who is using the same IVF clinic as we did for the proceedure but having scans and drugs from another and they havea completly different drug regime.

I hope that you figure out which clinic to go to withut too much hassle!
fluffy xx

 

[loobylou_01]

Just wanted to say we had treatment at Nurture last year, currently 25 weeks pregnant. It was an nhs cycle but all i can say is that they were amazing, so kind and supportive and obviously it was a success for us.

We will definitely go back there when we want to try for another baby.

Hope this helps and good luck

xx

 

[teapot]

Hi Teapot

I just wanted to wish you luck on your next cycle. I guess we werent one of the lucky ones on the nov/dec thread!

Do you have any feeling as to what you may do differently from your first cycle? I have my follow up on 24 Jan but think my meds could be changed as I only got 4 follies, 3 eggs and 1 embie.

I hope that you figure out which clinic to go to withut too much hassle!
fluffy xx

Hi Fluffy,

Lovely to hear from you. How are you doing? I was more affected by the cycle than I thought I'd be. Felt quite emotional the first part of January - probably my own hormones trying to kick back in.

I've got a feeling I should have been stimmed for another day or two, so I think I'll ask about that or they might up the stims meds. As they can only get to one of my ovaries, more stims will mean a better harvest? ...Kinda hoping the private clinic will be able to get to the other ovary though.

Do you think they'll try ICSI with you to get a better fertilisation rate? I suppose see what they have to say on 24th.

My follow up isn't til 10th Feb! But Nurture have an open evening this evening, so I'm going to go to that & see what the story is. I am so scared of spending all that money on a cycle & having another failure.

Then, we just have to figure out if we go for it asap, or have a break & wait until the summer.

Best of luck for the 24th. Do you know when you're thinking of having another go?

Teapot. x

 

[teapot]

Just wanted to say we had treatment at Nurture last year, currently 25 weeks pregnant. It was an nhs cycle but all i can say is that they were amazing, so kind and supportive and obviously it was a success for us.

We will definitely go back there when we want to try for another baby.

Hope this helps and good luck

xx

Hey Loobylou,

Thank you for your recommendation & congratulations on your PG.

Do you mind me asking was it your 1st go? and what was your 'fertility issue'?
I was talking to someone the other day who also had a successful cycle there last year & couldn't speak highly enough of her treatment there. I like that they are connected to a University too.
For my agegroup, if you can get to ET, their success rate is over 60%! (swings temporarily back to optimism).

Best of luck with the rest of your PG & a happy healthy little bundle of joy.

Teapot. x

 

[fluffystar]

Thanks teapot,

I dont know whether they would try icsi, i just didnt have many eggs to start with. The little spermies found their way into all three eggs but for two of them there were two sperm in each rather than 1. I guess that means poor egg quality and the embryologist explained that the outer part of the egg ws obviously breaking down too soon and let more than one sperm in.

I am quite worried that they will say my eggs are no good completely but will crss that bridge if I come to it. I will probably give it another go but need some time out from it all really. Plus, as we have another nhs cycle our pct make us wait 6 months to start a fresh cycle. Obviously, I can do a frozen cycle sooner as I had no eggs!!

Let us know how the information evening went today wont you
fluffy x

 

[teapot]

Hey Fluffy,

Perhaps the icsi would mean that only one sperm would be allowed near the egg. I had no frosties either - only got 2 eggs, what a load of old shite. Is there anything we can do to help egg quality? What drugs were you on? Maybe a different regime would suit you too?

The info evening was a disaster from start to finish, I left Birmingham at 5.10 & didn't get to Nottingham until 7.15!! Traffic was awful, by the time I found the right building, they were all finished & were just doing the informal chats bit.

On the bright side, I didn't have to watch the slideshow about what happens & I got the info pack/had a few questions answered. My achievement was NOT crying while asking questions as normally happens when I get stressed out or frustrated.

THEN, got back into my car & had a bloody flat tyre. Brilliant. On my own, no-one around. Took me almost an hour to change the damn thing the nuts were on that tight. THEN, part of the M42 was closed, so I got diverted off some stupid extra-long way round & didn't get home til 10.30pm.

My extremely rational brain (not) has been telling me that all this means either we shouldn't do another cycle or at least not in Nottingham. How ridiculous.

I might look at Care in Northampton (heard lots of comments about Nottingham Care that it's a bit like being 'processed'). & Northampton is a similar distance from me.

Hope you're week is going well. x

 

[fluffystar]

Goodness what a nightmare! Is tere an open day at northampton too that you can go to?

I dont know what we could do to improve egg quality, that is going to be one of my questions next week.

As for drugs, I was on suprecur 0.5 mg during DRing and then 150IU Gonal f and a reduced dose of 0.3 mg suprecur. I have attached my schedule spreadsheet that I filled in as I went. How does that compare to yours?

fluffy

 

[alamaya]

Just a quick one from me.
I vote Nurture lol.
However i am biased as on my 1 NHS go with them i am now 23 weeks pregnant .
My husband had a very low count and on the day quality was poor but Nurture who i understand have excellent skill with getting embryos to a blastocyst stage (5 day old) got one for us.
Obviously i cant comment on cost but more than happy to comment on how meds and things work
Good luck.
xxx