Dr P, is sonohysterogram necessary and 2-cycle refund plan

Hi there Dr P,

Hope you are well. My husband and I are hoping to cycle for a girl in April 2012. I am 31 and DH is 41. I will be frank, we are still trying to decide between your clinic and RFC as we only have 1 or 2 shots at this max. I have a few questions if I may:

1. Is a sonohysterogram essential in pre-testing? It costs nearly £400 to have the procedure here in UK, and when this is such a huge push financially for us already, that seems massive for a single test. Do we have to get this done? Is there a less costly alternative of assessing how healthy my uterus is? I have no problems with fertility and have conceived 2 boys first time of trying.

2. I posted another thread re the possibility of you offering a 2-cycle refund package as Dr Lin does at RFC. 3 cycles is completely impossible for us in 1 year (no way we would get this much time off work, let alone afford the travel). I think you said you would be happy to match or beat the 'competition'. What price could you offer and how would I go about firming that deal when it comes to paying prior to my cycle (I have had trouble in the past communicating with your finance lady Elisa).

3. Dr Lin also offers a compassionate package for a single cycle which includes everything except meds (2-probe). Do you offer anything like this?

4. When is the optimum time prior to cycling to have pre-testing done?

5.Finally..sorry for all the questions...what percentage of ladies get to transfer (both with 2-probe embies and GSN). The prospect of a NT terrifies me.
What are the chance os me getting pregnant by putting back 2 2-probe embies?

Thanks so much in advance,

Nichola

Hiya,
brilliant questions Miss_ickle!! The thought of having to pay 400 pounds for a sonohystergram is really off putting.

Just a quick answer to one of your questions on the thread 'offer' Dr Potter's offering $1000 off their package deals so it's $11,200 for PGD 24 for a single cycle I'm guessing this is simular to Dr Lin's compassionate package but I think his costs a lot more if you do GSN.

xx

Thanks Pink4me! Do you know how many cycles you are going to do? Bumping for Dr P again....x

Quote:

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Originally Posted by miss_ickle

Hi there Dr P,

Hope you are well. My husband and I are hoping to cycle for a girl in April 2012. I am 31 and DH is 41. I will be frank, we are still trying to decide between your clinic and RFC as we only have 1 or 2 shots at this max. I have a few questions if I may:

1. Is a sonohysterogram essential in pre-testing? It costs nearly £400 to have the procedure here in UK, and when this is such a huge push financially for us already, that seems massive for a single test. Do we have to get this done? Is there a less costly alternative of assessing how healthy my uterus is? I have no problems with fertility and have conceived 2 boys first time of trying.

2. I posted another thread re the possibility of you offering a 2-cycle refund package as Dr Lin does at RFC. 3 cycles is completely impossible for us in 1 year (no way we would get this much time off work, let alone afford the travel). I think you said you would be happy to match or beat the 'competition'. What price could you offer and how would I go about firming that deal when it comes to paying prior to my cycle (I have had trouble in the past communicating with your finance lady Elisa).

3. Dr Lin also offers a compassionate package for a single cycle which includes everything except meds (2-probe). Do you offer anything like this?

4. When is the optimum time prior to cycling to have pre-testing done?

5.Finally..sorry for all the questions...what percentage of ladies get to transfer (both with 2-probe embies and GSN). The prospect of a NT terrifies me.
What are the chance os me getting pregnant by putting back 2 2-probe embies?

Thanks so much in advance,

Nichola

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Hi Nicola,
Here are answers to your questions. I hope that they help.
Dr. P

1. A uterine cavity evaluation is strongly recommended prior to your initial IVF cycle to rule out small polyps and fiboroids. Such lesions can reduce pregnancy rates or prevent pregnancy all together. SHG is usually the most cost effective way to do this but under some circumstances, office hysteroscopy is the same price (as at HRC) or maybe even lower. The hysterosalpingogram is not the best test for finding small intrauterine lesions but is better than nothing if this is a lot cheaper.

2. We can have some flexibility on the 1 year requirement for the refund 3 cycle program. Our current refund program as offerered is cheaper than Dr. Lin at this point if he will even offer it for gender selection. Please set up a telephone consultation so that we can confirm details of the plan. I stand by saying that we will match or beat prices from local competitors.

3. Our 2-probe price is $10,500 and includes everything except meds. We have arrangements with the various drug companies for compassionate care programs that provide qualifying patients discounted or free meds.

4. About three months prior to treatment would be good to get the pre-testing going. Try not to put it off longer than that.

5. About 90% get transfers with FISH 2 probe. Data that I have published showed an 80% transfer with FISH. With GSN it is going to be a little lower than that, perhaps 80%. The pregnancy rate per transfer and per embryo transferred in much higher with GSN. Overall, GSN is very helpful. There will be some patients that have embryos re-biopsied and frozen GSN that would have been transferred fresh but these are few and far between. With FISH you need to be ready to transfer more than 1 embryo to get decent rates. With GSN you only need one.

Dr P, thanks very much for your answers. Re setting up the consult to discuss pricing, would there be a charge for this? (I have already had my initial consult with you). Should I wait for my pre-testing results before doing this as I guess you will need to ascertain whether I qualify for any shared risk packages?

Do you have any idea what the pregnancy rate would be for someone of my age (32) with normal pre-testing if I were to put back 2 2-probe embies?

TIA x

PS That is great news that there may be a possibility of discounted meds. We are paying for all of this on credit :( Not very sensible I know, but we don't have sufficient savings and I don't want to spend years saving and then find it's too late to do this....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by miss_ickle

Dr P, thanks very much for your answers. Re setting up the consult to discuss pricing, would there be a charge for this? (I have already had my initial consult with you). Should I wait for my pre-testing results before doing this as I guess you will need to ascertain whether I qualify for any shared risk packages?

Do you have any idea what the pregnancy rate would be for someone of my age (32) with normal pre-testing if I were to put back 2 2-probe embies?

TIA x

PS That is great news that there may be a possibility of discounted meds. We are paying for all of this on credit :( Not very sensible I know, but we don't have sufficient savings and I don't want to spend years saving and then find it's too late to do this....

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Hi Tia
There is no charge for a financial consultation. This is done with one of the financial helpers. Pregnancy rate would be about 70% with two embryos FISH2
I hope that this helps
DP

Thanks Dr P, that's fab. I guess you will recommend number of embryos to transfer/number of probes based on my response to the process!

Kind regards x

Quote:

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Originally Posted by miss_ickle

Thanks Dr P, that's fab. I guess you will recommend number of embryos to transfer/number of probes based on my response to the process!

Kind regards x

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Correct, we will look at the quality and consider whether twins is an acceptable outcome for you.