Our Assisted Conception Unit

Helping you to create your family

The Assisted Conception Unit (ACU) at St Helier Hospital is run by a small, enthusiastic and professional team, offering a very personalised and sensitive service for clients who are having problems conceiving.

Located within the women's health building at St Helier Hospital, Beginnings is at the heart of women’s health with all related expert departments on-hand when needed, including the antenatal clinic, delivery suites and neonatal unit.

Following a referral from your GP or fertility doctor, treatment is available to you in one of two ways: either NHS funded or self-funded. Both options are, of course, subject to the necessary paperwork and tests to confirm the couples' suitability for treatment.

Assisted conception encompasses a wide range of treatments from ovulation induction, timed coitus, Intra-Uterine Insemination (IUI), Donor Insemination (DI), Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) and fertility preservation.

An overview of what happens

The ACU at St Helier has been involved with transport IVF since 1996. Its own on-site laboratory was opened in February 2017 by Professor Lord Robert Winston and Mr RauI Margara. If you are a suitable couple for IVF, your initial consultation will be here at Beginnings. Here you will have the opportunity to discuss issues such as research, freezing of embryos, eggs and sperm, and the embryo transfer itself.

Your follow-up appointment will be with one of the fertility nurses at Beginnings to answer any queries you may have. The fertility nurse will explain the different types of drugs and teach you how to use them. 

Contact details

Reception: 020 8296 3860

Waiting list enquires: 020 8296 3861

Fertility nurses: 020 8296 3862

Embryology: 020 8296 3864

Opening hours: Monday – Friday 7.30am to 5pm (Saturday by appointment only)

IVF involves removing eggs from the woman’s ovaries and fertilising them with sperm in a laboratory. One cycle of IVF takes between four to six weeks to complete, and you will need to take fertility drugs to stimulate your ovaries. During your normal menstrual cycle you release one egg per month. By using fertility drugs to release more eggs, you increase your chance of pregnancy. Eggs are collected under ultrasound guidance, in theatre under either general anaesthetic or sedation (your choice). The eggs are then fertilised in the laboratory. The fertilised eggs are balls of cells called embryos. The number of embryos that are transferred will depend on your age and chance of success. If there are extra embryos they may be suitable to be frozen for future use.  You will take a pregnancy test two weeks after egg collection, and your first pregnancy scan will be two weeks later.

Success rates are very much dependant on the age of the woman. Whilst none of us can make ourselves any younger you can improve your chances of success by being a healthy weight before treatment, keeping your alcohol consumption to no more than one unit of alcohol per day and stopping smoking (this includes your partner).

The final step of the IVF process is the embryo transfer; first one of our embryologists checks the embryos to select the healthiest one(s). A speculum (as used in smear tests) is gently placed in the vagina and a small soft plastic tube placed through the cervix into the uterus (there is a cartoon of how IVF works on YouTube).

Intra uterine insemination (IUI) is a fertility treatment that involves directly inserting the sperm into the uterus. It can be performed by using the partner’s sperm or using donor sperm. Couples may decide to use donor sperm if the male partner is not producing any sperm at all or if there is a risk of passing on infection or a genetic condition. Donor insemination allows us to treat single women and same sex couples. It is not always necessary to take fertility drugs to undergo IUI/DI treatment, however fertility drugs are recommended if there are problems with ovulation.

Funding

There are two types of funding available to you: either NHS funding or self-funding.

NHS-funded treatment

The clinical commissioning group (CCG) where your GP is based is responsible for your NHS healthcare costs. Each CCG receives limited funds from central government, which means that each CCG has to set its own priorities.

Some CCGs do fund IVF, but usually to a limited extent. Others do not fund IVF at all. The CCGs set their own criteria for treatment to which Beginnings must adhere. If you live within the Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth area and are registered with a GP, you may be eligible for NHS-funded treatment, provided you meet their eligibility criteria.

Self-funded treatment

You may wish to fund your own treatment if you are not eligible for NHS funding.

We describe the treatment as ‘self-funded’ rather than ‘private’ because the treatment is exactly the same as for patients funded by the NHS. The charges we make are non-profit-making, ie they are at cost price. All income from self-funded patients is put back into the IVF programme.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority 

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) provide clear and impartial information to all affected by fertility treatment.  They are the UK government independent regulator overseeing fertility treatment and research.

HFEA website: www.hfea.gov.uk.