Question for people who traveled for IVF

[AJCash]

Heyo,

We picked a clinic, and we're aiming for sometime between late December and mid January to do this thing. The clinic we picked is on the other side of the country from where we live, so it will take a fair bit of planning.

Can someone who has done this tell me your experience with it? Did you do monitoring at home somewhere and then a last minute trip to the fertility clinic for ER/ET or did you just take a vacation and stay near your clinic for the month to be monitored there?

Or something in between? Half and half?

The cost of a last minute flight would be crazy high, but so is the cost of a month-long "vacation". I reckon my husband would have to stay at home and fly in when it's go time anyway.

Would be super grateful to hear experiences with this. IVF is expensive enough without nailing down the other details as cost-effectively as we can.

 

[Pinkie3]

Hi, I am in the UK and just had a cycle in Greece, although mine was a donor cycle a lot of women do their own cycles abroad too and not much difference in how we cycle just a few more scan for follicle checks.

I had my bloods and scans at a local clinic privately and they would send the results directly to me and my clinic, ok they can be costly but probably less than travel costs. Because we were doing a fresh cycle it was a last minute flight and we stayed for 8 days (allows for EC and 5 day ET). However if we have to go again, the DH will fly over on his own to deposit his goods that they will freeze, then I can go alone, so that's always an option if DH struggles with last minute arrangements.

Good luck, you will be surprised at how you make the travelling work for you.

 

[AJCash]

Thanks for the response. I appreciate hearing how this sort of thing works for people.

The only thing I'm worried about outside of price is that trying to fly into a snowy area in January might be another issue. With my luck, it'll be the blizzard of the century going on. Might have to try to schedule flights a few days ahead of the trigger shot if it's possible and just do that there to try to plan for that too.

 

[messica]

I only had to drive across my state (6 hour round trip drives). I was allowed to do satellite monitoring up until the week before retrieval and everything else between that and beyond transfer had to be done in house.

If I were you I'd check with your fertility clinic as far as what they're comfortable with before you make any plans. It may be an option to stick close to home for much of the process, or it may not be allowed at all! Their rules (as well as your local facility capabilities) will likely dictate what you end up needing to do.

 

[blacksnow]

My friends, who travelled to In**cta clinic in Poland, visited the clinic three times. The first visit lasted one-two days, they stayed one week for the second time, and couple of days for the third time. They got results by mail, called or wrote mails if needed smth to discuss. If I remember well they booked tickets in advance.

 

[myonechance]

I traveled from WI to VA and stayed in a hotel for 2 weeks. Husband flew in the day before retrieval and we traveled home together the day after transfer.
So much more expensive hotel, last minute flight for him and our last minute return tickets, rental car....
the clinic i am using for the second IVF charges the same as the first clinc but is only an hour away.
( only traveled the first time because i started the process and testing before i moved to WI and didn't want to have to start over)