Fertility clinic advice - Care or Nurture?

PrettyKittyKat wrote: »

Morning all,

I am hoping that some of you may be able to give any personal experience of using the Care or Nurture fertility clinics, specifically in Nottingham and where there has been male factor infertility.

We are at the stage where we now need to consider IVF due to low/no sperm count.

We visited both the clinics for an informal meeting and look round yesterday. Now we need to decide which we prefer to book the initial scan and consultation. We will be funding it privately.

If you have used either of these clinics - what was your experience like?

Any advice on supplements that have improved sperm counts (has anyone tried Condensyl?) would also be very welcomed!

Thank you in advance for anyone that takes the time to read and reply!

Sorry to hear that you need to have fertility treatment as I remember how hard it is to find that assisted conception is the only way too have your much longed for family.

I have a wonderful eight year old thanks to the wonderful staff at Care and an amazing egg donor. Though I had most of my treatment at Northampton I did do one cycle at Nottingham and really can't fault their service. Even though I had my treatment quite a few years ago I've stayed in contact with several of the staff and I've helped the clinic raise awareness of the need for gamete donors and spoken about my experience as a patient in print, broadcast journalism and at medical conferences - it is the least I can do after all that they have done to help my husband and myself. I was never made to feel like a medical patient - the nursing staff in particular are friendly and really put you at ease, and these are the staff you will have most interaction with. I can honestly say that my daughter's conception was one of the most wonderful and joyful experiences - her embryo transfer was done whilst the entire theatre team joined in with singing to Elvis on my iPod! It might not have been the way that we thought we would have our family but I am so grateful that everyone at Care made it so much easier and less daunting. In the summer I'm taking my daughter back to the clinic to meet the staff again and see for herself where her story started - she has always known about the fact that she is donor born and that the special doctors helped to make her and she is really excited to see where it happened.

I hope that you are as blessed as we have been, and feel free to send me a personal message if you have any questions you don't want to post on an open forum.

Good luck!

I had two cycles with my own eggs, the first resulting in an early miscarriage, but I was about 40. My egg quality would have been poor and my issues were compounded by the fact that I'm a poor responder to the medication so, though I had plenty of follicles, the rate of growth was so slow that they only managed to retrieve one egg at each cycle, even though I was on the highest dose for nearly twice as long as normal. Having such a poor response is,apparently, quite rare. I then had a cycle with donor eggs which failed, followed by a cycle using the frozen embryos from the donor cycle. The frozen cycle resulted in a twin pregnancy, though sadly one was lost at 9 1/2 weeks, and my daughter is the remaining twin. We also needed ICSI for each of the cycles. Each patient is different though - some are lucky and it works first time, others can do multiple cycles with no pregnancy. I won't say it's easy, because it really isn't, as the emotional toll of trying to conceive is made worse by the damned drugs - they can leave you quite fragile and prone to extreme mood swings. You really do need too have a supportive partner to help you get through it! Anything else you want to know - just ask and I'll try to help.

PrettyKittyKat wrote: »

Thank you LilElvis, it means alot to know I'm not alone! We are likely to need ICSI too I think. I am quite aware at 33 (and a half!) that soon my egg quality will start decreasing and we don't want to add more problems to the mix!

You've still got plenty of time! I had a natural miscarriage at 38 after only trying for a month, but I then wasted a couple of years before seeking help - so I was 43 when our daughter was born. My donor was 32 with two girls (via treatment) and she donated twice - creating 4 families - so our daughter has 6 biological half siblings, strangely all girls. So someone close to your age most certainly can be successfu!l We needed ICSI too and we had 100% fertilisation rate - the embryologists are very highly qualified. There was a whole programme about infertility and IVF on radio 5 today (Sarah Barnet?) - the bits I heard were really interesting as it was a room full of women at all stages of treatment. It might be worth you looking it up on podcast. You've started the ball rolling, so stay positive and enjoy alcohol and caffeine while you still can. X