Online Reviews

We’ve been married many many years. I’m 50 now and we’ve been trying since I was early 20’s. We’ve done many IVF treatments in Australia with my own eggs at Monash IVF in Melbourne, from 30 to 40. At 40 I fell pregnant with my own frozen embryos with twins, but I miscarried.
I gave up for 10 years and then I saw Mary Coustas, I’ve come to Greece to try and get pregnant with donor eggs. I didn’t know about donor egg IVF until Mary Coustas went on TV and did the documentary.

Then I went back to Monash IVF and they said 45,000 Australian dollars to bring eggs for me from an American egg bank. Or I have to find my own donor eggs in Australia, which could take up to 2 years. And a lot of red tape, social working. And you have to advertise. And then I did some research for surrogacy and adoption, but we were too old, because 40 is the cut-off in Australia.

You wait about 10 years and then, if you’re lucky, they may give you a child, because people don’t give up children for adoption anymore.
Surrogacy is even worse. More paperwork. Even the biological mother can change her mind last minute and she can keep it, even if it’s our embryo.

And on the birth certificate it’s her name, not ours. And they have to have contact till 18. Surrogacy is real bad.
So I got desperate, and then I saw Mary Coustas, I googled, ‘where is the best fertility clinic in the world’ and Greece came first, then Spain.

So I googled, ‘Greece fertility treatment’ and Embio came up. Embio looked much more professional than the other Greek clinic and I sent an email to the IVF coordinator. The same night the IVF coordinator sent me an email straight back explaining the treatment to me. I got a shock that she answered back so quick.

And Dr Thanos Paraschos said, “any questions, ask IVF coordinator, and you are welcome at my clinic.”
And he sent lots of information, links about Embio.
And I spoke to the IVF coordinator nearly every night for 2 weeks. I asked her lots of questions and she answered everything. She was fantastic. She gave me the courage to take this leap of faith. And then she sent information, which tests for me and my husband to take in Australia to speed up the process and make it a lot easier for us.
 

We only had to fly over for the semen collection and the embryo transfer. All done in one week. In 3 appointments. Monday, first consultation, Wednesday, sperm collection, Friday, embryo transfer. This never would have happened in Australia. And I don’t believe anywhere else. And it’s also very cheap here compared to Australia. Then we stayed for another 4 weeks, for sightseeing. Athens is very lovely. We were not stressed. It was all done in a week. Very happy with the clinic, the IVF coordinator, and Dr Thanos Paraschos!

I’m 50 and age is not on my side, so my eggs were no good and the suggested treatment was egg donation.

We first had an egg donation treatment two years ago in Spain, in Barcelona, at the Eugin clinic. It was completely unsuccessful, and the embryo transfer was extremely painful. There was never any mention of sedation. And it should have been. Because of the scarring, there was no way to get the catheter through. They knew all my medical history about my cone biopsy, but didn’t take it into account. I had an ectopic pregnancy a few years back, and a couple years ago, I had an abscess in my fallopian tubes. When I was having these problems with the ectopic pregnancy, I also had a cone biopsy. That left scarring, and so from then on it would be difficult to transfer any embryos.

When I saw this website and that Dr Paraschos was trained under Professor Winston in England, I thought I’d be in safe hands.

And so I went through a similar process, I said about the cone biopsy and about the extremely painful transfer that I had at the Spanish ivf clinic, and straight away, the IVF coordinator, put my mind at rest. She told me that Dr Paraschos was very experienced, that he had lots and lots of experience in embryo transfers – straightforward and more complicated ones – and he would know what sort of treatment to do.

Indeed, Dr Paraschos highlighted that there would be scarring from the cone biopsy. That’s what would have made it difficult to have a straightforward transfer. So, if you’re asking me, it was doubtful that they ever managed to transfer the 2 embryos in Barcelona. As Dr Paraschos highlighted, he couldn’t get the embryos through the scarring tissue without doing something about it.

So this morning Dr Paraschos knew that we should probably need sedation. He tried without sedation at first, but he was ready for the sedation when it proved necessary. He had to dilate the cervix os (the opening of the cervix) between 3.5-4.5 millimitres, and it was quite straightforward after that.

My endometrium was slightly less than what it should be. Ideally, it should have been between 8 and 12 millimitres, and mine was 7 milimiters. But he said that he had successful pregnancies on women who had only 5-6 millimitres before now.

So that was that, four embryos were transferred, and the IVF coordinator has just given us the final lot of medication to take away.

We stayed 5 nights in Athens.

We already have four sons from previous marriages, but we’d like to have a go and have one ourselves.

Everyone is great here at EmBIO. Dr Paraschos if very professional, very forward. The IVF coordinator, has been answering my emails straight away. I emailed, and I thought, it’s going to take a couple of days for an answer, and, before I thought about it, she answered to all my questions, day and night. Really put you at ease.

I had egg donation with my partner’s sperm. I’m 50 so egg donation gives a better chance. We’ve been trying for six months. In the end we thought we’d better follow this track because the age limit in Greece is 51. In Holland it’s 46. You can’t get therapy after that. When you’re 46 they don’t really want to do it.

Greece is the only place in Europe where you can do egg donation legally until you are 51. At the Embio clinic people speak brilliant English, both doctors and staff. The clinic is very nice, impressive, well organized. Everything was very neat and tidy.  Our first impression was “wow”.

The only painful thing about the embryo transfer was my bladder, which was full as I needed to go to the toilet. Otherwise, it was very quick.

We did all the tests in Greece at Embio, because to do them in Holland would have been very difficult in the sense that you have to explain why you need an egg donor. The doctors are not very happy about that. So I had to go to Embio three times. First for the blood tests and the scan, the 2^nd time for the 2^nd scan and we bought all the medicine in Athens as well, cause you need a prescription in Netherlands. And the third time for the sperm collection and the embryo transfer.

I did a lot or research and I read great reviews online about Dr Paraschos and EMBIO. In the States the cost is much more prohibitive. And so those two things played a major factor.

I was told that I have elevated fsh and would be difficult for me to use my own eggs. I tried 2 IUIs, both failed. The first one ne was natural, the second one wasn’t and after the reading that I did, I didn’t believe that IVF using my own eggs was the way to go.

Then I started looking at either embryo donation or egg donation in the States and I saw that the cost was not something that I could consider. And then I started researching what the cost would be if I did it overseas.

In Europe it was also the age. I’m 41. That is a big problem in the States. Clinics are afraid that their statistics would go down, so they don’t like to take on candidates with limited chances of producing a live birth.

Probably I could have done everything from home and go to Embio for the transfer, but I chose to be in Athens for the entire time (a little over 3 weeks), and I’m glad I did.

Dr Paraschos is wonderful. He is very supportive, easy to talk to, has a great bedside manner, explains things very well, and most of all, he is understanding. The staff was wonderful. Maria is so supportive, she’s always available, she clarifies everything, she’s a great person to guide you through this process.

Hi there, EMBIO Team!

I want to thank especially Dr Paraschos for everything he has done for me, and of course, Miss Helen for their support and all consultation they've given to my mum.

My name is T., I was born at 32 weeks on 22 May, 2014 40cm 1300kg I got out of the incubator in three days but I am still in the hospital and my mum and dad travel 60 km every day to see me in the hospital, watching me grow until I can go  home with my parents.

Another big thank you to Dr Paraschos and here's a picture of me.

Read here how my mum was able to get pregnant after an egg donation and a kidney transplant!
 

At 50, our son Ruben was born to our delight (October 2014) 2858g and 46 cm. A big thank you!

Earlier ... (April 2014)

At almost 61 and 50 years, we are pleased to announce the future BABY for late October 2014.
A big THANK YOU to all the Embio team.

A secretary at the Hospital Foch in Suresnes told us that they also had two ongoing pregnancies from Dr Paraschos at Embio, and a third woman under home treatment...

Again thank you and all the best.

We’re very happy with the service. The IVF coordinator was fantastic. She explained the whole process, was very thorough with whatever was going to happen, and was very attentive. The doctor was wonderful, gentle, kind, and explained everything and overall we are happy with the service from the beginning to the end. The whole process was explained, what needed to be done, so we recommend this service to everybody.

The clinic is great. We came for egg donation. I have PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) and we’ve been trying for several years unsuccessfully with a number of cycles in Australia. We had to be here for 10 days. Our whole experience was very positive.

My sperm was good, good mobility, good quantity, but my partner did not have enough eggs due to premature ovarian failure. It has taken us 3 years trying unsuccessfully, and we had an insemination. All stimulations did not work.

We were registered on waiting lists for egg donation in France in 3 different hospitals close to where we live. You have to wait for 3 years for a donor free of charge. If you find the donor yourself, the waiting time will be reduced by 6 months.

At 38 and 39, we said we could not wait, and hospital TOURS 37000 mentioned two countries for egg donation, namely, Spain and Greece. The doctor there referred us to EMBIO clinic, because she had the opportunity to visit this clinic herself.

We sent emails to two clinics in Spain and two in Greece. We had quotes from 7000 to 10,000 euros in Spain, and from 4000 to 5000 euros in Greece. We had contacts with EMBIO (in Athens) and Iakentro (in Salonica).

I immediately rejected Iakentro, because they required a cash payment, which is prohibited by French law. We cannot pay more than € 3,000 in cash to a professional.

We planned to stay for 7 days, although three days were enough for the egg donation treatment.

My partner has a retroverted uterus and so the embryo transfer really hurt.

During the embryo transfer, 3 doctors in France took 45 minutes to 1 hour each to get the embryos into the right place in the womb. Dr Paraschos only took 3 minutes, as he realized the situation himself, and used a shaped tool to reach the bottom of the uterus.

I will never forget this common sense solution, and how Dr Paraschos has invented these tools by which he can see and reach the bottom of the uterus. It seems incredible how French doctors never thought of such things!

We had 6 embryos initially and 4 good embryos on the day they were transferred. The doctor said that, normally, there only remain one or two.

The relationship with the doctor is very good. You get the feeling of being treated personally in a private office, always in the presence of your IVF coordinator who speaks French excellently, on a PhD level.

We forgot about Spain because it was twice as expensive and we also had to pay for the cost of donor’s treatment. Once we realized we could not make external transfer and should pay cash, we had the choice between the two Greek hospitals.

Our choice was made in the process of 30 emails exchanged with Elena, the IVF coordinator, for 7 months. She was so involved in her responses that there could be no better choice for us. We knew we wouldn’t go anywhere else but Embio, even if we could find a cheaper clinic.

I came here for an IVF treatment using a donor egg, because we want to have a child together. We’re a second relationship. We tried to have a natural conception, which didn’t work. David is 53 and I’m 50 and we are too old to have any IVF treatment in the UK. We did some research. Greece was very favourable, and Embio had a very good profile.

On the whole, communication was very good, very informative. We had some initial communication with Dr Paraschos and then our IVF coordinator took over.

Today we had the implantation. It was fine, very quick, painless. I was very nervous, but no need to be nervous. Three embryos were transferred.

Our blue-eyed egg donor in Athens

The donor has blue eyes like us. We couldn’t have a brown-eyed child. It would look impossible genetically.

Cost of IVF Treament in Greece

We were quite pleased with the cost, because it was less than we thought it would be.

IVF holidays

We needed to be here for 5 days, but we chose to come longer for vacation. Athens is a good location with lots of things to do and see. We both like ancient history, so it’s a perfect place. We went to Nafplion, the old capital, and Epidaurus.

Dr Paraschos

Dr Paraschos is very friendly, appears very approachable and informative, communicates very effectively.

Egg donation in Greece at Embio

The clinic is modern, spacious, easy to find, easy to park (we hired a car from the airport).

It has been easy. Nothing has been too difficult or complicated.