Preliminary consultation
One approach is to have a preliminary consultation from a gynaecologist harley street to make sure you are happy with the centre. This will obviously cost extra, but the price may be justifiable considering the overall cost of treatment. You need to feel confident in the doctors and to feel comfortable in a place that will be providing very personal services.
Special conditions
Some clinics may not be prepared to treat certain groups of patients, applying age restrictions, the refusal of single women, or those with certain medical conditions. Check that the private fertility clinic is prepared to meet your specific needs. Child’s organizer, Clare Brown, suggests that couples shortlist five clinics, then have preliminary consultations at threes before making their final choice.
Services available
You need to find out all of the services offered by the clinic. In addition to IVF, they may provide other forms of assisted conception, such as Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer, Pronuclear Stage Tubal Transfer and they may be able to provide donor eggs or sperm. Ask also whether the centre specializes in any particular type of treatment, for example, some of the new techniques for male infertility, or whether it has particular experience in treating a specific patient group, for example, older women.
Financial planning
People, who have IVF treatment privately in a private fertility clinic, usually find they have to make huge sacrifices to pay the very substantial bills. There are two important things to remember: one that it is very likely that you will need more than one cycle of treatment, so plan accordingly; the other that you still have a life to lead. Your treatment may last several years, and during that time you are likely to need a holiday, especially to help relieve the stress, so you need to take that into account too.
Price of the drugs prescribed
Finally, it is important to sort out the cost of buying the drugs needed during treatment. If you have a supportive GP, you should be able to get an NHS prescription for drugs, even if you are having your treatment in the private sector. If not, you may be able to buy them from your clinic, or get a private prescription from the gynecologistHarleyStreet and buy them from your local chemist. Do not leave it till the last minute.
Conclusion
Most chemists do not keep stocks of the drugs, so you will probably have to order them and wait a day or so. They are very expensive, so it is worth looking around to find the cheapest supplier.