- Location, location, location….
Always factor in a clinic’s proximity to your home or work. You will need to attend the clinic on a number of occasions through your treatment. Appointments are frequently scheduled early in the day so check your journey time to avoid added stress
- Parking
What parking options do you have once you arrive at the clinic. Is there ample parking or will you have to drive in circles looking for a space to park. This just adds extra stress when trying to get to your appointments
- Emergency 24/7 cover
It is important to have access to some friendly advice sometimes. Does your clinic of choice offer an out of hours emergency advice line for you during treatment cycles.
- Cost
The costs of fertility treatment can be vast. If you are self-funding your treatment this website helps you to compare different prices of treatment, whilst at the same time considering the location of each clinic. Prices do vary across UK clinics.
- Success
It is important to compare the success rates in clinics when choosing where to have treatment. A true marker of a successful clinic is one that achieves high success across all age groups. Total Fertility attempts to keep you up to date with clinic success rates. For more information take a look at our additional information on “Making Sense Of Success Rates”.
- IVF clinic or Satellite
IVF clinics usually offer all aspects of your treatment under one roof but a satellite IVF clinic may not. This may be to your advantage as many of your appointments in a satellite clinic will happen closer to your home or work place, hence reducing time travelling. This allows some patients to access successful clinics more easily. However, check where the egg collection and embryo transfer procedures take place as this may involve travelling some distance.
- Funding options
Always find out how a clinic will permit you to pay for your treatment. Most clinics will offer direct payment methods. Some clinics work in partnership with Access Fertility, which can make funding multiple cycles more cost effective. Some clinics will offer 0% finance options for you to consider. Planning treatment costs is important to avoid escalating unexpected costs and helps reduce the stress you will experience.
- Egg collection every day
Make sure you find out which days of the week the clinic will offer egg collections. It is fairly standard for clinics to offer this Monday to Friday (5 days each week) and rarely at weekends though some busier clinics will offer this. It is important not to compromise your chance of success if a clinic relies on certain days to perform egg collections.
- Embryo transfers
Make sure you check whether the clinic offer embryo transfer 7 days a week. It is important to replace embryos as soon as they are ready for implantation and a reduced less than 7-day/week service may not be optimal.
- Patient information events
One of the best ways to get a feel for a clinic is to attend a patient information event. It allows you to meet staff and ask a few basic questions and is an ideal way to help you make a final choice about the fertility clinic in which to have treatment. Total Fertility can help signpost you to the clinic that is best for you but you have to make the final decision.