DH and I are seriously looking into IVF as we're now (almost) onto cycle 13 which will be our 5th round of clomid (1 failed IUI).
I have heard that Sydney IVF are very good. We live in North Queensland so I'm keen to gather as much info as I can before we decide whether or not to travel down there.
I am seeing an FS here but they are quite limited with regards to opening hours and the days they can do procedures (eggs harvested on Mondays only and implanted on Fridays only for example).
Yup we were with SIVF this time last year What do you want to know?!
There were no time limitations on anything with them, if transfer had to be done on a Sunday at 5pm then it would happen on a Sunday at 5pm. Blood tests & ultrasounds throughout the cycle are done between 7am & 9am to allow people to go to work after & then you get the results & further instructions around 2pm the same day. We had our egg collection on a Wednesday morning & embryo transfer on Monday morning.
One thing that SIVF does that tends to be different to a lot of other clinics is that 95% of the time they will transfer blastocysts, where others will transfer earlier. A blastocyst is the embryo at five days, it has to many cells to count & to get to that point it has to be a "perfect" embryo & therefore is more likely to turn into a pregnancy. The only time that they will transfer before five days is if the embryos are not looking great & there aren't many of them, say there are only two and they aren't dividng as fast as they should be. In this case they'd do the transfer earlier as they'd have a better chance at survival within the body IYKWIM.
Sarah - thanks for the information. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what IVF involves and how we're going to be able to time it what with living so far away from Sydney.
DH has healthy swimmers (millions of them, plus he already has 3 children) and I am ovulating fine on clomid.
I guess what I'm really asking is how long do you think we'd need to spend in Sydney to have the IVF? I work full time and DH has his own business so our time away from home is slightly limited. Obviously we'll fit round it some how but I'm wondering if there's some way we can start the process up here then fly down for egg collection/implantation?
I have looked at their website and Dr Alison Gee looks nice. Do you know anything about her?
Thanks again for your help, it's good to be able to talk to someone
I don't know anything about Alison Gee, sorry, we were with Derek Lok as he speciailises more in MFI which is what our issues was (is).
If you could work it to get your cycle checks (BTs & ultrasounds) done in QLD and also your meds organised through someone locally then you'd really be able to get away with a week in Sydney max. Come down for the egg collection then stay & relax for the five days until the embryo transfer. Now if you can't organise to do things through a QLD clinic & then come down just for the final bits you'd be looking at roughly four to five weeks. It depends on how your body reacts to the meds which is a big unknown on your first cycle. If you respond really well, like I did, you can have egg collection fairly early (mine was on day 23) but a friend of mine had hers at around day 30 as she took longer to respond to her drugs. So for us it was a total of 28 days from the first injection to the day of embryo transfer, my friend's cycle was 35 days. After the embryo transfer there aren't anymore tests etc until the BT with a yes or no answer, this is done 12 days after the transfer.
There are clinics in Qld you may also want to look into. Monash have clinics in Nth, Central and Sth Qld, and Qld Fertility Group have them in Cairns, Townsville and Mackay. It pays to shop around a bit as costs can really vary. I can also understand it being limited in regional areas like you mentioned regarding dates for transfers etc. But they still may be worth considering.
In my experience SIVF is the most expensive in Australia. They also require a full up front payment which not all clinics do (that is you pay for the Medicare portion of the cycle as well as the out of pocket costs and then get that and your Safety Net out of pocket payment back up to 8 weeks later).
There can be other costs associated with day treatments which vary from clinic to clinic. If you have private health insurance you need to check if you will be covered for the procedure with the clinic/hospital you are going through. I went through SIVF in Canberra and got hit with a few unexpected costs that I haven't had to through Monash.
There are other clinics that do blastocyst transfer (eg Monash). There may be others on BB to give you good advice of other clinics around. Also if you need to do more than one cycle (a realistic possibility for everybody) you need to factor in costs associated with travel, accommodation more cycles etc. You may also be required to be available for tests etc in that town over a period of days/week. I have found doing a cycle near family (ie I cycle in Melbourne but live in canberra) to be helpful.
I hope that is helpful.
Wishing you all the best.
xx
Can I also add that based on the info you've provided (duration of TTC, no sperm issues and you are now ovulating) I'd seriously consider to continue trying as you are for at least another 6 months. Don't go down the IVF route unless you have to. Just because it's been over 12 months doesn't mean all hope is lost. In fact I'd say in your situation you've got a lot of hope.
Sydney IVF - anyone been there?
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