Alicia's IVF story

"All the staff at abc were incredible - from the very first person we were in contact with to the last!"

We conceived our firstborn naturally so when we had been trying for our second for over 2 years, we knew something was wrong. We didn’t want a big gap between our children so we were keen to have our second as soon as possible. Where we realised we were struggling to conceive naturally we decided to stop wasting time and get some fertility tests done.

All our tests came back normal and we were told that we were faced with unexplained fertility. This is when we decided to start looking at private IVF clinics; we knew we wouldn’t be eligible for NHS funding as we already had a child.

We started doing some internet research and that’s when we came across abc ivf. The first thing that caught our attention was the price but we knew that the cheapest option isn’t always the best so we really wanted to check out the clinic reviews and their reputation before choosing them. We read everything we could about abc and we felt as thought it was the right fit for us. We had a chat between us and we decided that we would go for abc.

My initial consultation at the Liverpool clinic was amazing. The consultant we saw was absolutely brilliant! She went through everything with us, answered all our questions and even explained everything she could see, step by step, during my ultrasound scan. I felt really comfortable with her.

In the end we decided that abc was the perfect clinic for us so we went ahead with the IVF+ICSI package.

The treatment in itself wasn’t easy. It was harder than I had imagined it to be, the steaks were so high that it made the journey so much more emotional. We had been dreaming of our perfect family for years!

Fortunately for us everything else went really smoothly. The egg collection went well and wasn’t painful at all because I was sedated for the procedure. The consultant and the nurses who led this procedure were brilliant and explained everything to me each step at a time and that put me at ease a lot. We also had a great result and managed to collect a lot of eggs.

From that point, the embryology lab team took over and they were calling us almost every day to update us on how our embryos were developing. I really appreciate that!

I had developed mild overstimulation symptoms from treatment so we were advised by the medical team to freeze any embryos created and come back later for the transfer. A fresh transfer could be dangerous for my health but at this point I was really disappointed because I really wanted a fresh transfer. The consultant explained all the risks to me and although it was ultimately my decision, they highly recommended that we freeze. In the end I listened and we froze them all. Looking back, I am very glad and grateful that they gave me that advice.

We ended up freezing 1 day 5 embryo and then 4 more on day 6. I took a couple of months off and allowed my body to recover.

Then when the time came, the transfer was absolutely fine; no pain at all. I was able to walk around straight away but the two week wait was emotionally the most difficult for me. During this time, you don’t know if it’s worked or if it hasn’t; it’s really stressful. A week after the transfer, I had an argument with my partner over something really silly and I just knew that something doesn’t feel right. I felt unusually hormonal so I decided to do a test. It was very early to test but it came back positive!

Seeing the test come back positive was amazing! I just couldn’t believe it. We called the clinic to let them know and they invited us to have a pregnancy blood test and they later confirmed that the treatment had, in fact, worked and that we were pregnant! We were over the moon. I honestly cannot describe how we felt.

Life with two is everything we’ve always wanted. It’s a bit more chaotic but it’s lovely. We wouldn’t change it for the world.

All the staff at abc were incredible - from the very first person we were in contact with to the last! The customer service and communication were also great. We received regular update emails from the team and if we ever had any questions they always got back to us the same day. Having to go through IVF can be such a stressful time and great communication really does make a big difference! I would recommend abc ivf to anyone.

Financially they were brilliant too. Before we started we were really worried that there might be some hidden costs somewhere. It’s a lot of money to save up and we were worried that if anything goes wrong or anything unexpected happens we wouldn’t be able to afford to carry on so we were pleasantly surprised when our treatment cost exactly as much as we expected! Yes we paid extra to freeze our embryos but that’s something we were well aware of before we made that decision. We cannot fault them.

We are so grateful for all the care you’ve given us and now I have a beautiful baby girl sleeping right next to me.

Alicia x