IVF abroad or In Ireland

MamaWant2B

Hello. I'm new to boards as a member and i'm looking for (hoping for) advice / information / experiences please.

TTC almost 3 years now. I have PCOS & Endo and while I had Lap 2.5 yrs ago I feel my Endo is back. Heavily overweight, but about to start sugar free to try loose weight and manage PCOS. OH swimmers have good mobility & speed but poor DNA fragmentation (47% damaged). Tried Clomid and Napro in the past. As we turn 41 this year, I don't have much time left and have decided to go the assisted ICSI route.

I trying to decide which is better... abroad or Ireland.... have reviewed clinics in Ireland and Zlin in Czech Republic and both have good reviews/results etc.....but big difference in cost. when I factor in travel and accommodation and an estimate for medices & tests it definitely appears to be cheaper abroad.

Just wondering about peoples experiences on both options?

MamaWant2B

kitten_k

Hi there is a TTC section on Boards which may be useful to you:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1091

Best of luck with it all.

ParkRunner

From a male perspective, I would recommend staying in Ireland. We have been through two rounds of IVF, the first in Ireland while living abroad, so we travelled home for appointments. It went smoothly and was successful.

We moved back to Ireland in the meantime and just finished our second round of IVF. A few issues popped up this time (hyper-stimulation being the main one) which meant a frozen transfer & a lot more clinic visits.

If everything goes to plan it would probably work out cheaper but more stressful going abroad. If you hit any problems along the way, I imagine the cost of travelling would wipe out the savings from the cheaper treatment & also add a lot more stress.

Thumpette

Hi OP,

We're currently making the same decision. Down to Gennet in Prague vs Sims in Dublin. I have low ovarian reserve and now they tell us my husband also has low motile count so we need ICSI. I have a good few friends who went to Prague and Dublin and rave about how amazing Prague is. You get scans etc here and then travel over for collection and implantation. (There for a week in total). I do worry about extra stress but we're having a Skype with them this week so we'll see how that goes. 2500 in Prague vs 5500 for the same protocol here. Good luck no matter how you proceed! X

Fingersandtoes

While it is much more expensive I would recommend Ireland. I have completed the IVF protocol twice. However both times we couldn't do IVF. The first time my folicils didn't grow and the second time only one folicil grew so I had IUI. While taking the injections and medication there are numerous scans. Depending on numerous factors these dates can't be planned in advance so I think you would have to stay abroad for the few weeks. Also during the protocol lots of rest and no stress is recommended. Anything like delayed flights would hamper all of this. Best of luck with whatever option you try.

Limbo159

Ive had IVF in Ireland, Prague and now currently in the US! Depends where you are thinking? Personally not sure i would cycle again in Ireland.

volchitsa

Limbo : Why not, if you don't mind me asking?

Limbo159

Few reasons, but mainly I think there is a lot of codding in Ireland. I am still not pregnant so maybe my perspective will change.
I had some very bad experiences in Ireland , and now find that being away for the treatment less stressful.
But it certainly isn't financially beneficial.

volchitsa

Thanks. Do you (or anyone) know what the different success rates are, and if they all use basically the same procedures?

Limbo159

lots of places have different success rates.. and it's hard to know because there is different rates depending on that day of transfer, age etc
i know ARGC in London have 80% where as ireland is in around 40-50%

Ruad

I'm currently facing into starting IVF in the Middle East (where we live). We are coming up to 2 years TTC so I just wanted to join in and say best of luck to anyone else starting out!

Bvon

Hi Thumpette
Did you go to Gennet in the end?
Im in limbo here after 3 failed transfers. I scared to go abroad but it feels a better option.

Thumpette wrote: »

Hi OP,

We're currently making the same decision. Down to Gennet in Prague vs Sims in Dublin. I have low ovarian reserve and now they tell us my husband also has low motile count so we need ICSI. I have a good few friends who went to Prague and Dublin and rave about how amazing Prague is. You get scans etc here and then travel over for collection and implantation. (There for a week in total). I do worry about extra stress but we're having a Skype with them this week so we'll see how that goes. 2500 in Prague vs 5500 for the same protocol here. Good luck no matter how you proceed! X

Stella03

Hello OP! How is your ivf journey going? My situation is pretty the same. My dh and I have been ttc for over 4 years already. We had 5 cycles of IVF. Unfortunately all of them failed. Our last option is IVF with donor eggs. We spent so much money on treatments and IVF attempts. Now we are looking for cheaper de ivf options. I made a little research about prices. It will cost less if to go abroad. I'm looking into European clinics. Reviews are so controversial! I hope to talk with someone who had experience with Europe. Anyway I hope you're doing fine! It would be great to see an update from you.