Choosing a Fertility Clinic

Helpful pointers when researching how to choose a fertility clinic:

  1. Look for longevity and extensive experience both in terms of the physicians and the IVF laboratory. The clinic should have been in existence for at least five years or more. Centers where at least 1000 IVF cycles have been performed and hundreds of pregnancies have been established almost certainly have mastered IVF.
  2. Look for depth of services, for example, the ability to perform ICSI, PGD, blastocyst transfers, egg freezing, embryo freezing and banking, sperm freezing and banking, egg donation cycles, gestational carrier cycles and the ability to tailor IVF protocols to specific patients. A record of innovation is also something of worth to consider when choosing a clinic.
  3. When looking for the best fertility clinic, potential patients should call different centers and ask to speak to someone about their particular case. Clinics should be responsive to speaking with potential patients.
  4. If it is possible to take a tour of several facilities and visit as many centers as possible. In some instances, this is not possible because the patient may live in another state or another country. In this case, the clinic should be responsive to talking to the potential patient over the phone and help the patient understand their treatment ahead of time and also help alleviate any anxiety.
  5. Patients should try and develop their own sense of how a clinic responds to their needs and try and gauge whether the clinic seems to have a sense of integrity, intelligence, responsiveness and compassion before finally choosing a fertility clinic.
  6. Potential patients should ask if the clinic has former patients that may be willing to talk to them and give the clinic a reference. It may be interesting for a potential patient to talk to a former patient to gain some insight as to the responsiveness of a particular center.
  7. Potential patients who need a specific type of ART cycle should make sure that the clinic has done many such cycles and are therefore very familiar with a particular type of treatment.