Amirah's IVF with ICSI story

"My treatment at abc ivf was completely different to the NHS funded round…"

After about 5-6 years of trying to conceive naturally with no success, I decided to start looking into it a lot more seriously. Initially I went down the natural route, I even tried acupuncture, but when that didn’t work we went to our GP and were referred for lots of fertility tests.

We got diagnosed with unexplained infertility, because there was absolutely nothing wrong that they could find with my husband and I. Then we were told that our best option would be for us to go through IVF. We were eligible for one round of IVF which would be funded by the NHS, so we did that but sadly it wasn’t successful. The treatment in itself was really harsh and it really put me off having any further treatment.

After 2 years off I was ready to try again so I started researching different clinics and the costs of treatment. We came across abc ivf and saw that it was cheaper than many other places but it also had really good reviews so we quickly called them and started our journey.

The price was the main reason we chose abc ivf. From my research, there was no guarantee that treatment would work and we couldn’t afford to pay upwards from £5k per round of IVF so we decided to go with abc ivf.

We booked a consultation and during this appointment I had a scan, we went through our medical history and discussed our first round of IVF and we were recommended a round of IVF with ICSI. This was a little bit of a knockback because IVF with ICSI is more expensive than IVF on its own but it was more likely to result in a pregnancy for us so we decided to go ahead with the experts’ recommendations.

I had some blood tests and another appointment to talk through all the medication, arranged for the medication to be delivered to me at the right time and then as soon as my next menstrual cycle started, I began treatment. During the next couple of weeks I continued to take my medication and went in for a few monitoring scans so the team could assess how my follicles were responding to the medication. Everything went really smoothly and I got to the egg retrieval stage healthy and happy.

I didn’t have many eggs collected, but the team reassured me that quality is better than quantity and that it only takes one embryo to create a healthy pregnancy. So that’s exactly what happened. I had my only embryo implanted and then 2 weeks later we found out that the treatment had worked. Our miracle embryo was now implemented in my womb and growing! We were in absolute disbelief. It honestly felt like a miracle.

My treatment at abc ivf was completely different to the NHS funded round I had at the other clinic.  My first round felt very rushed and I was stressed the whole time - I couldn’t choose my appointment times, I didn’t see the same consultant for my appointments, I didn’t feel like anything was explained to me properly, ended up developing OHSS and overall just felt like a number instead of a real person. Whereas at abc ivf, my experience was the completely opposite of this - there was just no stress at all from the very beginning right until the end of my treatment. At abc I could choose my appointment times to fit better around my work, I was explained everything clearly and always kept in the loop, the treatment in itself was a lot easier on my body (didn’t develop OHSS again) and they just made my journey as easy as they possibly could. I honestly couldn’t fault abc at all.

Life as parents is absolutely amazing; it’s better than I thought it would be! I would absolutely recommend abc ivf to anyone who needs help starting a family like we did. We actually can’t wait to come back, probably next year, to abc ivf to try for a sibling.