Just sharing some experience, my wife and I did went for 2 rounds of IVF procedure, and still doing it now...
Round 1 : IVF at Sunfert under Dr Wong. Unsuccessful even with 3 Grade A embryos. Still have one frozen embryo there but wife decides not to go back there until we seek second opinion.
Round 2 : Now under Dr Helena Lim at KL Fertility and Dr Yuan at Xi Fertility (they work together). Dr Helena is very nice, and knows that there are much more than just blocked tubes in my wife's case, and together with Dr Yuan, prep my wife and me before even starting the IVF, ensuring the best chances of success (Dr Helena always say, "You must do your "homework" before starting IVF ya...") . It took us 3 months to prep for it... and we are starting the IVF injections whenever my wife's second day arrives (anytime now).

Good luck in your journey TS. You can ping me if you want to know more about the whole process.

This post has been edited by Nitrous: Feb 21 2014, 03:35 PM

Err... you successfully conceived and delivered? But your ID shows that you are a dude....

Anyway, just a FYI that our fresh cycle ET (embryo transplant) was not successful at KL Fertility this round, results came back negative. Guess we will try again, since we have 5 embryos frozen at KL Fertility.
Got 3 more chances to get it right, so hopefully it will turn out better next round. However, with that said, the overall experience at KL Fertility was excellent, Dr Helena is very attentive and caring to my wife, so my wife is happy to continue her frozen cycle at KL Fertility when the time has come...

1. First IVF, I was 35 and she was 34. Just a FYI, the reason why we went for IVF was because wife had both her fallopian tubes blocked, hence no other method besides IVF to get pregnant. But as noted earlier, we have gone through 2 failed rounds, hence we are thinking there are more than meets the eye (literally).
2. Round 1 : Sunfert around 30k-ish, including freezing of remaining embryo and a day-care surgery to remove some polyps.
Round 2 : KL Fertility and Xi TCM Fertility Center (they work together, one Western medicine and one Chinese medicine), 25k-ish and adding up, excluding upcoming FET (Frozen Embryo Transfer) to transfer the remaining frozen embryo at a later date.
Total to date (more to come) : 55k with some spare change to pump petrol and parking, so be prepared...
3. So far my wife has been good throughout the IVF process. Not all women gets hot flashes. She did shed a tear though, when the pregnancy test results came about... so be strong, and encourage her. Speak to those who have gone through the experience, that would help a lot sometimes...
4. No. A few reason to keep it a secret :
4.1 They do not understand the process and what is going on, and will probably insult you for going through that process ("Why do u spend do much on it? Just go for a break la! Don't work so hard." or "SEE! Told you to marry the other women")
4.2 Without realizing themselves, they are actually a burden and a source of stress to your wife during the process. You and your wife needs a quiet time to go through this peacefully, not yapping or nitpicking aunts and mothers... Imagine if the IVF process fails, you'd need to answer to them too, in which the answer probably be "I don't know".
4.3 Further repercussion later on when the baby is born. I know coz I have cousins conceived via IVF, and they nicknamed her the "million-dollar baby". That is something that your kid had to go through unfortunately if they were to know.
5. Don't expect any answers from them. With 2 failed rounds, both doctors are unable to fully diagnose why it has failed (refer to 4.2 as well), although KL Fertility was better managing our expectations by helping us analyze where they think has gone wrong (and next steps to overcome them). There are still powers-to-be which controls human's destiny, and it does not come from the doctor's room or the operating table.

Good luck in your journey.. and all the best to both of you

Long post...

Hope I can help, since me and my wife have been through it twice now. Based on our experience of years of survey (started looking since 2012) and 2 failed rounds, Dr Helena is our best choice so far (our personal opinion only). One main criteria is that Dr Helena can speak Chinese to my wife, as she is not comfortable with English. She is also very very caring, and being a woman herself, understands the predicaments that we are going through. However, with that said, your "mileage" may vary since the queue to her clinic is not short by any measure.
One tip, Dr Helena always say, having a successful pregnancy in IVF is like having an exam, if you are not prepared, you are bound to fail, which I do have to agree wholeheartedly with her. Do your homework, prepare you and your wife's own physical and mental health first (healthy, all immunization is done, folic acid, Vitamin D + Calcium sufficient, thalassemia tested, no STD or hepatitis, reduce caffeine intake etc etc), and ensure that a full diagnosis is done first before jumping into the IVF procedure (blocked tubes, hyperactive immune system, uterus lining, sperm issues?). If Dr Helena wants to do further tests, please do follow her advise.
Just a tip which many do not know, KL Fertility have occasional IVF preparation/information talk, this is a good place to get more info and have a short talk with the embryologist and doctors, and have a short tour of the facilities. It is a great place to start, and can put your mind at ease on what to prepare for the IVF. Call them up to see if you can get into one of them... there might be a surprise waiting for you guys there

For IVF, it is about RM15k but it has increased since (cashier have a notice about cost increase recently in March 2014). Note that the RM15K is only until first fresh transfer of embryos, anything besides that require more $$. For example, if you have extra embryos to be frozen (very likely you will have extra, you are not going to throw away those embryos right?), it will cost more $$ (I think about 2K per year) to freeze them. RM15k also does not cover any diagnosis or tests that needs to be done prior to starting IVF (but covers consultations during the IVF process). It also does not cover additional supplements that your wife or you need to take to boost egg/sperm production if required. Lastly, any deviation from the standard IVF procedure also require $$, for example:
1) ICSI step cost additional $$
2) laser assisted hatching too (if required)
3) Uterine scratching process
4) Baby aspirin
5) Folic Acid
6) dan lain-lain...
Sad to say, if you only have RM15K to do IVF, it may not be sufficient to carry on the whole process.

However, extra embryos which were frozen can be re-thawed at a later date, and also will be cheaper to put back, about RM3-4k per round, and this continues until you use up all the frozen embryos. Then the whole process starts over again.

You mean good quality eggs or embryos? Usually embryos that are medium to good quality are frozen, as low grade ones will not survive the freezing and thawing. If you are worried about the eggs quality, and if you are going to KL fertility, I suggest to pay a visit to next door Xi Fertility TCM center, they are Chinese herbalist and acupuncturist specializing on fertility. Dr Helena can only western-styled medicine and advise on supplements to improve the egg quality, but Xi Fertility uses Chinese medicine to "re-tune" back the body to produce better quality eggs. My wife went to both, to get the best of both worlds. Your file can be moved between KL Fertility and Xi Fertility, thus Dr Yuan (from Xi Fertility, she is a certified gynae, but practicing Chinese medicine) can assess what are the improvements required (based on ultrasound imaging and Dr Helena's notes) and act upon them from Chinese medicine perspective. Go google on acupuncture/TCM with IVF process, you can learn more on them.

Good luck to all!

For husband are mainly :
Blood group
HIV 1 & 2
Hepatitis B
VDRL (STD)
as mentioned by shleesy earlier...

For wife :
Blood group
HIV 1 & 2
Hepatitis B
VDRL (STD)
Vitamin D/folic acid?
Antinuclear antibody & Lupus marker (need to be sent to Australia)
Insulin resistance
LH & FSH (2nd day and prior to transfer)

Think that's about it, will add if I remember them.... there are some costs involved in these tests, which are outside of the bundled price, thus be aware of this...

This post has been edited by Nitrous: Apr 10 2014, 11:57 AM

Unstable as in like you don't know which is Day 1 or Day 2?
Sorry, can't help here as this is out of my knowledge area for IVF, my wife always know when Day 1 is (I always assumed women will know this something to do with using a different kind of sanitary pads, but that is just the lame old me).
Yes, you would need to go to visit the doc on Day 2, to scan for availability of the eggs for that month (the doc would estimate the no of eggs to be produced). Try to check with the gynae for her advise.
Good Luck in your IVF!

This post has been edited by Nitrous: Apr 23 2014, 07:57 PM

I believe the Lab will be open and the Dr will still come in if it falls on Sun, they do not work on Mon-Sat schedule, but more in-tune of the women's "schedule". Call them up and double check with them, they can explain it further.

It is not easy to pinpoint the reason for failure, for my wife and myself, Dr Helena thinks that the eggs transferred did not implant due to very low marker count in bloodtest (this was a fresh ET cycle). We are going for a frozen ET cycle in Aug, but since our eggs are frozen on day 3, we plan to thaw it and let it grow to day 5 blastocyst before transferring. No idea if that will be successful or not, but I guess our age is catching up hence chances are diminishing for us. Remember that there are a lot of factors in getting positive results, not just a frozen cycle transfer, but I am confident Dr Helena will take care of you very well based on our experience.
Good luck!

Blastocyst is actually a 5-day old fertilized egg, where the embryo forms a ball and the ball is almost ready for implant (hatching), in which the inner mass will become the foetus. We have had failures (twice) for 3-day old embryos, hence we would like to go for blastocyst transfer instead this round, as the embryos would have grown significantly with that additional 2 days (and hopefully more robust) and is almost ready for implantation.
The drawback, is that a lot of fertilized embryos do not survive past the 3-days mark in the lab and become a blastocyst. At the end of the day, the lab's petri dish is never a match to a women's uterus, and the women's body is vastly superior compared to the lab's test tubes, thus chances of the embryo surviving inside the body is much higher than on a petri dish.
I do not know how much extra would a blastocyst transfer cost, we will know when we start our ET. As for yourself, my suggestion to you is to listen to Dr Helena, and seek her advise on your ET preference, as each case is different and she will definitely want the best for you.
Hope this helps...

It is the same problem here as well, fresh ET failed twice with us.
For now, go get some rest as you need to clear your body of all the hormonal injections that you taken, go for some holiday and relax. Nourish your body and ensure that your menstrual cycle has return back to normal before you continue the frozen ET cycle.
Our Frozen ET cycle would take place end of this month (after more than 3 months hiatus, doing Chinese traditional medicine + treatment in the mean time), i'll update if there are any further news

Our first IVF cycle only had 4 viable fertilized embryos, 3 of them were used in the first ET (unsuccessful), leaving only one embryo frozen.
We then moved to KL Fertility under Dr Helena to perform our second IVF cycle, in which 7 viable fertilized embryos were obtained, 2 have been used for the first ET after second IVF cycle (unsuccessful), leaving 5 frozen. Subsequently we had the remaining one frozen from the first IVF cycle transferred over to KL Fertility, making a total of 6 frozen embryos.
We will slowly consume the remaining embryos in our FET cycle, in theory, we should have 3 more FET rounds to complete (if things go well). I guess we all have done our best for now, we can now only leave it to the powers beyond our control to determine the success of those remaining cycles.
All the best to your IVF as well... cheers!

This post has been edited by Nitrous: Aug 12 2014, 11:51 AM

So sorry to hear that.
Wish you all the best in your next run. Have you tried a different gynae from the one that you had your prior IVF?

My wife did HSG before, as mentioned above, they inject a type of radio-dye into the uterine cavity, and take x-ray of the cavity to see if the dye actually flows into the fallopian tubes and leaks out.
My wife's HSG didn't go well, results were inconclusive and shows that the dye didn't flow anywhere. She also mentioned that the process was uncomfortable (yes there were some pain). Later on, she went for a hysteroscope, the video confirms that her fallopian tubes were indeed blocked by scar tissues and no dye flow through both fallopian tubes.
That conclusion led to the IVF process that we are going through now...

Just my opinion, based on the experience that we have been through.
15-17k would only be a bare minimum figure, and the cost will keep piling up from there onwards. Last count, I have forked out more than 40+k with 2 full IVF rounds (first round failed), 2 fresh embryo transplant and 1 frozen embryo transplant. This does not include the cost for diagnostic procedures (HSG and hysteroscopy) which involves day-care operating theater.

Note that forking out 17K for the IVF will only cover the start of IVF until the time when the fertilized egg is transferred back to the mother's womb. After this time, any additional visits to gynae or procedures to maintain the pregnancy/baby will be additional $$ going out. If the egg successfully implants and pregnancy is confirmed, the cost adds up (as scans and further medicine like Duphaston cost comes into play). You'd also need to cater for additional cost for freezing extra fertilized eggs if there are remaining, which is a once-off + yearly cost for maintenance. If all goes well from there and pregnancy is viable (heartbeat detected), ante-natal cost (your typical baby growth ultrasound scan, first trimester scan etc etc....) will comes into play.

The cost for private IVF procedures are very expensive, even we have troubles paying for it, thus I hope that the brief explanation above can give some background info over the cost involved. All is not lost though, I know that LPPKN does provide a cheaper IVF alternative which you might be able to try. Have a look at the link below and perhaps you can try giving them a call?
http://littlemamadiary.com/lppkn-fertility-treatment/

Hope this helps and good luck!

This post has been edited by Nitrous: Dec 31 2014, 11:46 AM

Haha... No worries, anyone would benefit from the info here anyway.
Just an update on our journey at KL Fertility : My wife gave birth to a healthy baby girl about 1.5 months ago. It is a massive effort now to keep her well fed and happy. I would say, IVF process is relatively simpler than taking care of the kid, as the baby needs 24x7 of your attention (though I am pretty sure many of you would be happy to do so)
For those still in the IVF journey, I wish you and your family all the best, and don't give up.... Cheers!

Hi, we are under Dr Helena too.... a very caring doc

It is under Dr Helena. It is FET cycle, the fresh cycle didn't work out.
This is actually our third IVF cycle, first 2 (both fresh, one at another center, one at KLFC) failed to give any results. Only FET (with much needed 3 months of rest for the mother) was successful.

For the successful cycle, we thawed 3 embryos, 2 survived to day 5, with singleton pregnancy. The embryo that didn't survive to day 5 was from our first IVF round at a different center and was moved over to KLFC (after we decide not to continue there).

Our first 2 failed cycles are fresh transfers for both. We do have frozen embryos, one from the first IVF cycle, and 5 frozen from the the second IVF, total 6 in the bank. We took 3 embryos of the 6 to thaw for our successful cycle, 1 from our first IVF cycle, and 2 from KLFC IVF cycle, and waited till day 5 for the results. Only the 2 from KLFC survived, and one of them is our baby now (singleton). We still have 3 more frozen embryos still awaiting the day that they can be thawed.

Note that my wife had a break of 3 months between the failed cycle and the successful FET, in between she went for TCM consistently. She relaxed and quit her job, and mainly rest at home in preparation for the frozen cycle transfer. The reduction of stress helped immensely for our cycle, hence I would suggest that you reduce your stress and relax.

Hope this helps

If you have polyps, yes it needs to be removed before tranferring your embryo back. Note that it takes 2 months (or more) of recovery period before u can transfer the embryo back, thus take this time to rest and de-stress, it helps a lot later during the actual embryo transfer. My wife did have polyps removed too, it was done long time ago before we did any transfer of embryos.

If any of the embryo develops into blastocyst, it has a higher chance of survival inside the mother's womb, as it is at the final stage of hatching and attaching into the uterus. Of course, the embryo has to survive through to the 5th day in the petri dish, that is probably one of the few big hurdles that an embryo has to go through before becoming a baby. With that, I wish you and your partner good luck and all the best, unfortunately that is all we can do for now, and leave it to the powers-to-be to decide on the embryo's fate.

We do have 3 more embryos (not blastocyst) left in KLFC. If we are to return, we will probably do the same process again, and thaw the embryos into blastocyst first before FET process. Unfortunately, the baby is a handful, both of us not getting enough sleep and hardly even have time to bath , hence I think it will be a looooooong time before we return.

Good luck again!

Hi there, if the doc detected OHSS, it is best to postpone the tranfer till you have fully recovered. There is no need to be sad, it may even be better this way. Although my wife did not get OHSS (though there are some pain at the waist after ovum extraction), our fresh cycle transfer failed. Only our FET was successful, after my wife gets good amount of rest (3 months) and stress free environment.
By the way, doctors now think that FET has higher chances of pregnancy, due to stabilization of the mother's hormones and time for the uterus to recover from the massive hormone injections given :
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390443862604578030600949336888

Thus, there is no need to be sad or unhappy to postpone the transfer, it may even be better. The only thing you need to worry now, is to rest and stay healthy. Light exercise, eat healthily and and think of good stuff. Take your mind off pregnancy for now.
Good luck!