Success Story, got my gorgeous pgd baby girl - Savvas/Genesis
Hi ladies, not sure if I am posting in the right place etc but have been meaning to post a message for a while now to give hope to those of you who are considering Savvas/Genesis. I am mum to three wonderful boys now aged 8, 6 and 3, and last September conceived my longed for baby girl on my second trip to Genesis. She is now 4.5 months old, and I finally feel my family is complete. We are so, so happy.
Not really sure where to start, but basically we decided to go for Genesis as it had to be Europe for us (US etc too far away and too expensive) and it seemed the best of the available options. We were pretty nervous as the stats from the clinic are non-existent and there appears to be no proper regulation. Initially when I phoned up Savvas to ask a load of questions that my husband wanted to understand the answers to (such as 'is it illegal?', 'what body are you regulated by?' etc), Savvas became very angry and defensive and nearly put the phone down on me saying 'if that's how you feel then feel free to go to the States'. I was very shaky as Savvas was really quite aggressive (I think perhaps he thought i was a journalist, who knows). However, we decided to push on and later I became very fond of Savvas (see more below).
In a nutshell it did not work first time (June '13), but there could be any number of reasons for that. I was 40 for starters (41 now). Also I had a bit of a disaster with my trigger injection that first cycle and only ended up administering half of it so the eggs were not fully matured. Then when I returned to the UK with 2 ok quality blasts implanted, my son was rushed to hospital in an ambulance with suspected meningitis 2 days after I got back and the nerves sent me over the edge, I think that would have been enough to end an early pregnancy.
However things were totally different second time around and 2 excellent quality blasts were planted (the only 2 I had left after some had died, a couple were 'boys', some had chromosonal issues etc) - and one took. I paid an extra 100 euros for a nurse to come to my hotel the night before the egg retrieval to administer the injection, as I was scared of messing it up again. FYI I paid extra for sperm sorting, totally worth it.
The clinic itself is a touch shabby in the waiting room etc (mind you, so are the Harley St clinics), but the hermetically sealed scientific areas seem very high tech and well maintained. No worries there. Communications are also a bit flakey from time to time but again, it is worth persevering. I did speak to someone on the board of medical tourism in Cyprus and he said that even though Genesis is not a member of their organisation it is very well known in Cyprus, ie not a fly by night, which gave me some comfort.
Regarding Savvas, he has a brusque 'bedside manner', however he is very caring once you are fully on board and really wants you to achieve that pregnancy. He was trained in the UK and is very well known in London in the fertility world. For example, in the early stages of my pregnancy I was seen by a fertility expert in Harley St who managed to get out of me that I had conceived my baby via pgd in Cyprus and he immediately asked if that had been with Dr Savvas even though they were not connected as such. Also, at one point I owed some money for my meds and there was no chasing for it etc - in other words, the money is almost secondary for him to achieving a pregnancy. The nurses are a bit flakey but very sweet.
One thing to bear in mind is that you do not have to stay out in Cyprus for the entire 2 weeks. Second time around I could not afford time-wise to be away from my boys for too long, so I went out on the Sunday, had a scan on the Monday, chilled for a couple of days, had the egg retrieval in the am of the wednesday and flew back to london (very cheap flight) at about 3pm. Was back home to put my boys to bed and spend thurs/fri/sat at home. Sunday afternoon flew out again , embryos were implanted at 5 day stage on the Monday morning. Chilled for 24 hours in hotel bed, reading etc, then flew back Tuesday afternoon. DId not feel like I was away for long at all, and because my husband's sperm had been frozen from the first time, he did not need to come out at all this second time. I stayed at the Curium Palace hotel near the clinic, nice but cheap, good pool etc.
Overall I thought the experience was amazing, and weirdly feel a touch nostalgic coming on the forum. I feel it was something amazing i did for myself (and thankfully DH was on board with it - very sceptical in the beginning but now of course in love with his little girl). Obviously it could have not worked but I was prepared to do it maybe 3 or 4 times, so got lucky with it working 2nd time. And as someone said, I think it is so much worse to never try and then never know. Better to try and have it fail, then at least you know it wasn't meant to be.
Sorry for the massive waffle, very short of time, should be doing loads of other stuff this morning, you know how it is. But please - do feel confident in using Genesis, there is not much verifiable info on them but I honestly think they offer a really amazing service, Savvas is a true expert (have had enough meetings and conversations with him now to know this), really cares about what he does and the result if you are lucky enough to get it, is so worth it. Baby sitting on my lap now as I type.
Big hugs to all of you
J xx
