Westmead IVF Feedback?

[dextersmum]

Hello Ladies,
I was looking for a little feedback about Westmead IVF.
Ive just made my first appt. with Dr Alan Tong, has anyone else seen him.
I would love to hear positives and negatives.
Also costs, I have been given a price guide but not sure I understand the whole thing.

I have 3 children, my partner has none, however after 4 years of trying, I have convinced my partner we need help. I am trying to be positive about the whole thing but in the back of my mind dreading that we will spend the money and have it not work. I guess I just dont want to disappoint my partner.
Many thanks

[dextersmum]

Hi Jelly beans,
Thank you for the feedback.
We have our first appointment with the clinic on Monday. So very excited and yet so extremely nervous. So far its just been all the pre testing, but it seems Dr Tong finally has a plan for us and are good to go.
Thanks for the baby dust.. I am sure I will need it xo

[mattsmel]

Hi dextersmum,

I haven't had experience with WFC myself, but a guy from work did. He and his wife were extremely happy with the clinic and service, they had luck with their first IVF cycle (I realise this can vary, but they were thrilled) and the price seems to be very reasonable, compared to other places. In fact they were so happy, that they have recommended WFC to another colleague of mine, who will also be seeing Dr Tong.

I wish you the very best of luck :)

Mel

[mumtochris]

Hello Dextersmum :wave:,

I am also seeing Dr Tong at Westmead IVF, we actually went to see him the Saturday before your appointment. How did you go?

Dr Tong started out ok, but now I will never ever recommend him to anyone. I've just made an appointment to see another FS at the clinic for a 2nd opinion.

We had just failed our 2nd IVF attempt in March and during one of the routine ultrasounds the nurse discovered that I have fluid on my c/s scarring. Since finding this out and especially since the 2nd ET didn't work, I did some research and found that c/s scarring (let alone the fluid) is a main reason for secondary infertility. I told him this and even showed him the print outs from my research and he didn't even care, he just wanted us to do IVF again. That was so disappointing and frustrating, how could he be so uninterested and dumb? Surely having fluid near my scar can't be a good thing, no wonder the embryo couldn't stick and luckily it didn't because it could then have caused a miscarriage.

He is just in it to make money, he didn't offer any solutions or suggestions as to try and improve our chances of a successful transfer. I had to practically demand booking in for a hysteroscopy, which can apparently fix my scar and therefore increase our chances of a BFP.

I wish I read your post earlier, but I still wanted to give you some feedback. Dr Tong started off OK, but now I regret seeing him. I hope you have better luck with him though. Either way, best wishes to you and your DH for your BFP!

Kind regards and baby dust to you :babydust1:

[dextersmum]

Hello Mumtochris,
Thank you for your feedback! Any feedback is welcome, positive or negative. I am sorry to hear things havent gone well for you. I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to not have your concerns addressed. Can I ask who you chose to get your 2nd opinion from? I would be interested to hear how you go with this.
I have a friend who is thinking of doing a cycle with Westmead but she is waiting to see how we go.

I guess I chose Dr Tong because he is a Gynocologist as well ( I suppose they all are) but I was having a little issue down there with my cervix and picked him, thinking he would help me with it while taking care of the IVF. As it turns out I am being looked after quite well by our local Gyno so not to worry.
My secondry infertitlty is caused by male factor and we are going to be using ICSI.

So we are starting our very first cycle in June. Currently I am on the pill and start sniffing 7th June.
So far we have found Dr Tong to be ok. Admittedly DP was getting a little frustrated with all the trekking to Sydney for the initial appointments with 3 - 5 weeks between each one. We live 5 hours away. But finally we took care of everything in our last visit, all paid up and took our drugs home. So now I guess I just have to take my drugs and grow some eggs and hope for the best.


Best of luck to you with your Dr. Would love to hear how you go.
Cheers

[mumtochris]

Hello Dextersmum,


I have booked in to see Dr Lorance Melhem on 17th June, I'm looking forward to it. The reason I chose her was very sexist, I wanted a female FS this time in the hope that she may be more sympathetic and understanding and not just in it for the money. I have since read some older posts on BH about WFC and was pleased to hear two separate posts saying how "wonderful" she is and also how "she takes her time with her appointments and has no problems if you need questions answered", gee that was reassuring, I just have to try and not get my hopes up though.


My cousin was the one who actually referred me to WFC, she was lucky enough to get her BFP on her first cycle, she was seeing Dr Soo, who I originally saw too, but he left to work at Melbourne IVF and Dr Tong took over his patients. I also found out that a girl I used to work with went to WFC and fell pregnant on her first attempt too, just not sure who her FS was.


What a coincidence, AF arrived for me on Wed (possibly TMI, sorry) and if I listened to Dr Tong I too would be on the pill right now, we could have been doing the cycle together!!


Sorry to hear about your travelling, it must be hard sometimes to organise trips but fingerscrossed it will be so worth it. Do your kids come with you too?


Good luck with your egg harvesting and keep me posted on how things go, I'll let you know how my appointment goes too! :goodvibes:

[dextersmum]

hello again mumtochris,

No my kids are not aware of our plans, nor does our entire family... or any of our good friends. I have talked to a few people who are outside our circle. But at my partners request we have decided to keep it to ourselves. Its probably more a man/pride thing considering it is MFI.
If we are succesful and get past the 3 months and all is well with testing ( downs) we will advertise then. Until then we have been 'looking at a few cars' in Sydney which explains our trips away... haha.

Ill keep you posted for sure, so good to have someone to chat with.

Can I ask what you think the next step for you will be?

:babydust1:

[TTC Dane]

Hi ladies,

I am new to this and I am not sure how to go about it.
My hubby and I have been seeing Dr Melhem for nearly 3 years with no success, we recently changed to Dr Fong (also at WFC) and we are hoping this might help our chances. No real reason fro changing docs except that there was 9 week waiting period to see Dr Melhem and we were not willing to wait any longer before doing another cycle.
We have had 7 failed attempts at WFC. 1 x IVF 1 x frozen and 5 ICSI. :(

We have even gone the next step of looking into adoption or surrogacy.

We both feel at a complete loss as to what our next step is going to be.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for listening.

[mumtochris]

Hello dextersmum :wave:,
I totally understand your decision not to broadcast your TTC to the world, especially for your partner's sake. You don't need that added stress of having to answer questions from those who know, even though they mean well. Anyway, have fun with your car shopping! :laughing:

The next step for me is to visit my new FS in a few weeks and we'll discuss the option of me having an hysteroscopy to look into my c/s scarring and fluid as I believe this is the reason my ETs have not been successful - how can the embryo implant to a scarred uterus??? I'm hoping the new FS will answer all my questions. Depending on what she advises, I will either have the surgery or try another cycle. We have no frozen embryos so it will be a fresh cycle.

Hello TTC Dane :wave:,
Welcome and nice to hear from you. Well, I'm about to visit Dr Melhem soon, so I'll let you know how I go. Good luck with seeing Dr Fong, maybe a new Dr can offer new suggestions, that's my hope for you:fingerscrossed:. I really feel for you with your 7 failed attempts, no wonder you're both at a loss, TTC really takes a lot out of you doesn't it?! I wish I could offer you some advice. Have you tried doing acupuncture before/during your cycles? Admittedly, I only tried it once and it didn't work, but I have heard that acupuncture can be quite successful when used in conjunction with IVF. I know there are acupuncturists that specialise treating IVF patients only, but most acupuncturists would be qualified in treating IVF patients. When we're ready to try our next cycle I would like to try it again. Also, I've heard Chinese herbs can be good too (although they don't taste very nice). I started taking them for 1 week but stopped when we decided to see a new FS. In saying all this, money is a big factor as these things don't come cheap, but if you're able to try it, even just once, at least you know you gave it a go.

By the way, there is a really interesting post that I think you should read by a member called Vickee. She started a thread called "What made the difference after 7 failed IVF attempts" just a few days ago in the same section as this thread, I would recommend you have a read as maybe there is some advice you could look into with your new FS. She eventually got her BFP on her 8th attempt, maybe that's a sign for you too! It was an interesting read, I had to reply to it! :)

Best wishes to all :babydust1::babydust2: