Today’s bonus episode guest is Dr. Caroline Phillips of Fertility Clinics Abroad. She started the site because she saw there was a need for an unbiased view of the IVF clinics available to people seeking treatment abroad. There are other websites out there that also provide information on IVF clinics abroad, but Fertility Clinics Abroad is different because:
- The information is written by people who have worked in the field of IVF and understand the questions to ask.
- They request specific information from each clinic you don’t find elsewhere.
- The content for each page is written by them (not the clinics) to ensure that you can directly compare one with another in an easy-to-understand format.
Dr. Phillips and Heather discuss everything you need to know about fertility tourism:
- What is fertility tourism, and what countries are most popular?
- How does the cost of treatment compare in different countries?
- What about patient safety?
- Along similar lines, is there always a way to research a clinic’s success rate? And do most clinics define success the same way?
- How quickly can someone typically receive treatment?
- How long should you plan to be away to conduct treatments?
- Do English-speaking patients ever experience a language barrier, or is there usually someone on staff who speaks English?
- What local laws should be considered before deciding which country or clinics to research?
- Do male partners always have to travel with you, or is there a way to ship their sperm in advance? Here in the U.S. at least, it’s hard for both partners to get off work for very long.
- Where do patients typically stay once they are in their destination country?
- What can be expected during treatment? How quickly is it safe to travel home?
- Other than what we’ve already discussed, what are your tips for a good fertility tourism experience?
