Follicle tracking - what would you do?

[BalancingStick]

After ttc for over two years, we've finally decided to get some help. Consultant at the assisted conception unit has prescribed clomid. I've got 50mg for three cycles. If it doesn't work, he said we could go up to 100mg. My hospital do not provide follicle tracking on the NHS though - they charge £450 per cycle.

A private clinic nearby charges £99 per scan for follicle tracking, so if I had four scans, or fewer, per cycle it would be cheaper. However whilst the private clinic will provide a report on the scan (number of follicles, size etc.) they will not provide advice on what the results of the scan mean for us or what we should do ie. the scan is just the scan not a consultation as well. So my husband and I would get the scan report and have to decide what it meant and when to dtd.

My NHS consultant would review the private scan results if the three cycles didn't work and we need to go back for a stronger dose of clomid.

General wisdom (as far as I can see through googling) is that the more cycles you have on clomid the fewer scans you have. My thoughts were that we should pay the £450 (ouch!) for the first cycle at our hospital to get the lay of the land and educate ourselves and then go for fewer scans for any subsequent cycles at the private clinic as we would be in a better place to understand them.

Obviously if money wasn't an issue then we would do all the scanning at our hospital for every cycle! But we don't know how long the infertility journey is going to be and we only get one round of NHS funded IVF...

What would you do?

[sharond101]

I'd do £450 first cycle with review and advice then take it from there.

[LittleTalks]

Are there any other clinics nearby that do a clomid cycle? For reference, we did some monitored cycles, paid 75 each for 2 scans and another 35 for a trigger shot and about 20 quid each for oestrogen and progesterone supplementation. Not that any of it worked but we got so much more info than with the NHS cycles we did when they only did d21 progesterone.

[BalancingStick]

Thank you Sharon and LittleTalks! Appreciate your advice