Author Archives: Simon

An American success story!

Where to even begin? When I explain to others that Brian and I went abroad from America to Greece to do IVF, their first question is “why?” My immediate response is because Ruth is phenomenal. There really is no other word to describe her and the process that we went through. A year ago we were just beginning IVF and now we have an awesome baby boy! Let’s start from the beginning.

We first heard about IVF Treatment Abroad from an infertility conference. To say we were a bit apprehensive is an understatement. We obviously didn’t want to get scammed, but we really didn’t have the money to do IVF in the states. Our thought process was that we could do the IVF here and hope for the best, or we could go abroad and do IVF and even if it didn’t work, at least we would get a vacation out of it. But it was not an easy road to get there. We had so many bumps along the way to even start the process such as getting shingles, financial crisis in Greece, meds being held up in customs, starting the cycle four days early, flight delays, etc…it seemed like pretty much everything was going wrong but the great thing was that Ruth was there as a support. She walked us through every step, every mishap, and encouraged us to keep going. Ruth is not just a nurse that facilitates the whole process, but she is the foundation of your journey and rock to lean on.

Once we got to Greece, it was beautiful, smooth sailing! Kosta was a great doctor and explained what he was doing the whole time. The clinic was very clean and all of the doctors were very professional. The egg retrieval went well and I liked that we got an update on how the embryos were doing each day. The transfer was great as well. We used our own eggs/sperm. It was great to have Ruth there as a resource through the whole thing because I had borderline OHSS and so having her there to help explain the symptoms I was feeling was a huge help. She was very reassuring. But the awesome thing about this process is that she continues to be a support system even when you are back home. She kept up with us via social media and email to make sure all was well. I had complications early on as a result from the OHSS and she would check in and make sure I was doing okay. Now she gets to see pictures of my little one and watch him grow!

We are so beyond grateful for Ruth and IVF Treatment Abroad. It is impossible to say in words how amazing our experience was. With all of the complications we had, our IVF experience could have been a disaster, but because of Ruth’s dedication to making her patient’s experience nothing but the best, it was one of the best times of our life. We highly recommend IVF Treatment Abroad!

Kim’s IVF Treatment story

Being part of a family run business holds great responsibility, just as it does in the corporate world. I would like to think that we never become complacent about what we (particularly Ruth) does, so it is always nice to be reminded by the people that matter most that they rate our services as highly as they do. No company should take their customers or their employees for granted and we will continue in our own small way to meet the high expectations we constantly strive to achieve and deliver for our patients.

Merry Christmas everyone!

My experience of having DEIVF abroad arranged through Ruth Pellow (Fertility nurse) collaborating with Iakentro clinic.

My journey began in 2012 when I was 45 years old, and was advised to go straight to the DEIVF route in view of my age.  I had my first attempt with a London clinic where an altruistic ED was found and I started on medications. My first endometrium lining scan showed a polyp, which was removed in January 2013, and had a fresh embryo transferred ( 2 perfect text book blastocytes) in March 2013. It didn’t result in a pregnancy; my lining was 7.3mm on the day of the embryo transfer despite taking very high dose of oestrogen.  The London clinic then wanted me to go straight into a FET, but I refused, and decided I need to do my own research into why my lining was thin etc.

During this research I came across Ruth’s website:  https://ivftreatmentabroad.com/.  I contacted Ruth via email and she responded very promptly.    During my first telephone consultation with Ruth I felt very reassured by the extent of her knowledge, professionalism and sensitivity in this area.

I arranged to meet Ruth in person soon after the telephone consultation and combined this with a week’s vacation in Athens, Greece in October 2013.  After the face to face consultation and a tour around the clinic, my mind was made up.  Ruth has made me feel so at ease that most of my worries and doubts about doing IVF abroad were gone.

I contacted Ruth November 2013 to start the ball rolling for DEIVF cycle abroad.  A donor was matched very quickly, within 3 weeks.  I went with freezing all cycle due to the time and my thin lining issues.   Ruth took all the stress away for me by arranging everything, including where to go for blood tests, lining scans and pharmacy for prescriptions.  I felt more relaxed doing the IVF abroad than in UK.

I started the Iakentro medication regime in February 2014, but encountered problems in getting the lining thick enough for embryo transfer, and had two cycles cancelled consecutively.  On the third month of trying, Ruth and the Iakentro team adjusted my drug protocol and added Tamoxifen and a uterine GCSF wash.  My lining on the day of embryo transfer was 8.1mm.  It was a success – I got my first bfp in May 2014. Unfortunately I miscarried at 21 weeks gestation because of my cervical incompetence that precipitated by urinary tract infection.   I felt much supported throughout the whole IVF process and during my miscarriage. Ruth advised me to wait six months before trying again, which I did.  I got myself healthier and had a Transabdominal cerclage (TAC) placed by  Mr NW in London  Jan 2015. I followed the same drug protocol with the added endometrial scratch and intralipid infusions. My lining before embryo transfer was 8.9mm.  I returned to Iakentro  6 weeks after my TAC surgery for the frozen embryo transfer.   This time it was very successful.  My baby boy was born in October 2015 by CSection; full term, little small, but healthy.

Had I known about Ruth and the Iakentro team when I started out I would not had to have wasted over a year doing IVF.  I cannot speak highly enough of Ruth and the Iakentro team in their work and their help and support in my emotionally and financially taxing journey to become a mother.  I felt well, at ease and was in great hands all the way through.  I will be back to Ruth to pick up the remaining embryos soon in 2016. Kim, UK.

Hitting the right notes – as always!

Hi Ruth,
I wanted to send you a heartfelt thank you for all of your help during my journey.
Your patience and understanding to my million and one questions was so appreciated and helped me make some big decisions.
I will forever be grateful that you came into my life and gave me the guidance I needed.  I could have landed in a thousand other places but you were meant to be apart of my journey and for that you will always hold a special place in my heart. I know that this is your job, but you never made me feel like a number and that made all the difference.
Whatever the outcome, I know I made the best decision going through IVF Abroad.
Thank you Again and I hope our next discussion is about my positive pregnancy test!
xo
Anon. 01/12/15

Fertility Show 2015

The Fertility Show at Olympia will be on the 7th and 8th of November 2015 and we will be there alongside one of our Greek clinics on stand 91 (opposite seminar room 4).

As usual, we will be there to explain our services and how we can help and support you throughout your treatment cycle with our collaborating clincs, all with the able assistance of your very own fertility nurse specialist who has over 20 years experience.

Should you wish to pre-book a free consultation, please contact us through here or at info@ivftreatmentabroad.com.

Claudia’s story

In March 2014 I got into an egg donation program with a clinic in Spain. I’m from Germany and here, unfortunately, ED is forbidden by law.

It took me some month to find that clinic by searching the internet for recommendations, statistics and all those stuff everybody in my situation will know about… They presented with good numbers, high success rates and acceptable prices, so we chose that clinic. We had a coordinator, with whom we corresponded by email and who gave us all the instructions. The doctors that she referred to when answering our questions were always different ones, which made me wonder how much they might now about our special case and how individual such a treatment could be. 

We had 1fresh and 3 frozen transfers, all of them unsuccessful . From transfer to transfer we felt more like we were just one couple of many and like nobody really cared about us and the reason why we didn’t succeed.

So I started again to search the internet for an alternative. 

And that’s when Ruth’s name came up. I read through her ivf. Treatment abroad site and decided to contact her. I got an answer almost instantly with many information and the offer to chat via Skype. So I spoke to Ruth and that’s all it took to convince me, that this was the right place to go  for us.

We talked about the former treatment and she suggested to do some further tests and also recommended one clinic in Greece which she thought would be best for us. Just a short time later we went to that clinic  to do some tests, get matched to a donor and do the paperwork .

We got a proven donor and 9 out of 10 retrieved eggs fertilized and developed into very good blastocysts that had to be frozen, because my endometrium wasn’t as good as it should have been to do a fresh transfer. So I went for a frozen transfer some weeks later. Everybody at the clinic was very warm and welcoming and made me feel like an individual and not just like a number.

And I got pregnant!!! We were so happy that after all those unsuccessful attempts and the thereby associated stress it finally happened!

Unfortunately the pregnancy didn’t develop further, but at least we got pregnant and now we are quite confident that the next try might be successful.

All this time Ruth guided us through every step, explaining everything, making suggestions and always being available when needed: You have a question? Email and you’ll get an answer within the hour. Need to talk? You Skype Ruth, talk to her and she’ll make you feel better, or at least comfort you, instantly. 

You can feel that she has a lot of experience and, even more important to me, plenty of empathy and the real ambition to help you make your dream come true: a child of your own. 

I wish I had known about her before , because now it feels like we wasted one precious year.

So, if you’re thinking about whether you should try with ivf. Treatment abroad/Ruth  I can only recommend to go for it! You’ll be in very good hands and you’ll be seen as the person you are and not just another client who needs to be handled.

Good luck to everybody !!! ‘

Claudia

Fertility Show 2014

Olympia, London

Well, we are back and are exhausted after a fabulously successful show! With 6 team members plus some of our previous patient volunteers (and some of their offspring)! we hardly had time to catch our breath. Thank you to all our volunteers and especially to all the visitors to the show that expressed an interest in our services, and lets face it there were a lot of you!

Our success stemmed from the fact that we were the only stand there offering our unique services namely that you get your very own fertility nurse specialist planning and organising everything for you, and of course this costs you no more than if you went to one of our collaborating clinics direct. Bargain!

So now all we have to do is start thinking about doing it all again next year. We might just about have recovered by then!!