I’m 33, and we’ve been trying for seven years. I’ve blocked tubes, and they’ve both been clipped. There’s a toxic fluid inside them. In England they clipped them so that the toxic fluid couldn’t go backwards. So my only chance now is IVF.
This is my 4th go. We had 3 IVF cycles in England with my own eggs. I had one chemical pregnancy from one of my cycles in England, but it ended in a miscarriage. After 3 unsuccessful goes I just wanted to try something completely different. We decided we should try abroad.
I saw that Dr Paraschos had worked in London and Bristol, and emailed him and he was very very helpful.
IVF Cost
The ivf cost as well is cheaper at EmBIO. We stayed at a hotel but even with all that, it’s still 2000 pounds cheaper than what we would have paid in England.
An IVF Holiday
I had the egg collection on Friday and the embryo transfer on Monday. It took me 6 days, because I wanted to be here for the scans. You didn’t’ need to. You could have the scans in England before you came out. I just chose to do everything at Embio, because I wanted to have a different experience than in England. If I were in England, I know I would be working. I didn’t want to work. At Embio (Athens), I had something totally different. I wanted to have a holiday, just to relax and focus on IVF, really.
Regular IVF but so many differences
In England they didn’t put me on enough medication. They’re too conservative. At Embio they monitored me really thoroughly. The IVF coordinator, is amazingly helpful. I like the fact that you see the doctor all the time. In England you don’t see the doctor. You just see the doctor on one consultation. The rest is done by the nurses. Dr Paraschos you see him every time you visit, which is good. Everywhere I’ve been at Embio, it’s been really positive. The staff speak very very good English. IVF coordinator has been brilliant and the doctor is very very helpful.
The right IVF choices for you
In England they always give you too many choices. “Do you want to do a 5-day transfer, or a 3-day transfer?” and it’s your decision. As if we knew a thing about it! Here they just did what they thought was best for me. I like it here because I can let the doctor decide what is going to work best.
Dr Paraschos transferred on the third day. Fingers crossed, it will work.
Then in England you are only allowed one embryo to transfer. Here we transferred three on the 3rd day. It’s just a different experience.
Not knowing what to expect?
If anyone from England is willing to talk to me, I will be very happy to talk to them and help them, tell them about my experience, because I know it’s stressful about coming here and not knowing what to expect.
Just ask IVF Coordinator to talk to me!