I’m currently visiting clinics across the UK, putting together a series of podcasts, which I hope will act as insight for you, as the patient choosing a clinic on where to go. I’ve been keen to speak with clinics since launching the podcast, but there’s so many I’ll be honest I didn’t know where to start.
I’m working with Access Fertility who you might already be familiar with from an episode I released during National Fertility Week 2015. Access Fertility provide payment plans with a number of clinics across the UK, if you are self funding. The clinics I am visiting are in partnership with Access Fertility however they all take on NHS clients and I’m getting to have a look around and speak to some of the key staff members who you, as a patient, will be meeting on your fertility journey.
I’m in a very privileged position and I hope that if I’m visiting a clinic in your area, what you hear from my chats at the clinic is of use. I’d really appreciate your feedback.
Each clinic that I visit, I find myself thinking of something else to ask them and each time , I marvel at how fascinating this world of fertility is… and how I hardly asked any questions when going through my own treatment. My advice to you is never be afraid to ask questions.
This week just gone, I’ve been travelling a lot, to Belfast, Manchester and Bath. On my way home from the Bath clinic, I was in a cab to the station and the driver started to talk to me as soon as I got in. He asked me if I was a doctor, which of course I said I wasn’t.
I asked him why. It turns out he and his partner had paid for I VF two years ago which had failed. He talked to me how he was keen to get more tests done and was inquiring about the clinic I had just left.
He was Romanian and together with his partner they’d moved to the UK for work, which was where they had paid for treatment. He went on to tell me about friends in Romania who kept having babies and didn’t want them, and how he and his wife had tried and failed to adopt in both Romania and the UK and red tape had prevented them from doing so.
His heartache was so apparent and despite his broken English, we had a good chat and I told him about my podcast which might be of some help to his wife. I got out of the cab and was struck by how far spread the problems of infertility really are. Whilst I’m making this season of podcasts about clinics you can visit, if you have any questions you’d like to ask, that I can put to experts or if you just want to tell your story – there’s a clever button on the right hand side of my website where you can send a message.
Feel free to just tell your story, although I’m not sure how long the recording is, so maybe try and be concise, which I know isn’t easy when it comes to trying to conceive. But I’d love to hear from you.
We’re in this together, to help each other.
Keep in touch and please do subscribe if you’ve not done so already.
Fertility Poddy x
