Karen & Dean Thompson from Buckinghamshire, England, knew they wanted children soon after getting married in 2000. But after an unsuccessful 18 months, and no baby in sight, they consulted their GP.

With tests completed, the couple were diagnosed with unexplained infertility and offered an IVF cycle on the NHS. The couple was lucky, a lot of UK couples have to pay for private treatment from the outset, however, they felt they never really knew what was going on and felt uninvolved in the decision process.

Their first attempt at IVF was unsuccessful and they were offered a second chance again under the NHS. Again without success.

Karen said, “I didn’t want to get too upset or stressed about the failure and I just felt we had gone along with what they said. Only now I look back and I think we didn’t get a very good service from the NHS.”

In July 2005, the pair were shocked to find out that Karen was pregnant and that they had conceived naturally. The couple started to look forward to being a family, but at six weeks Karen lost the baby. The opinion of their local hospital was that they could do it naturally and therefore should just keep trying.

Karen began to thoroughly research the private IVF options in the UK and then looked further a field, with a particular focus on Barbados and the Barbados Fertility Centre. Barbados had excellent success rates, great surrounding and most importantly for them they could afford to try it, as the cost was only £3,000 compared to £10,000 in the UK; so the couple arranged to fly to Barbados for a 14-day holiday, which incorporated their IVF treatment.

Every step
This time the couple felt they knew what was going on, every step of the way, and Karen could then see how different an experience this was compared to the UK. But again, the couple had to face the news that they were unsuccessful for a third time.

The couple returned home and again weighed up their options and their finances. They decided they could afford one last shot at IVF and chose to return to Barbados as they enjoyed such a great experience before. If the procedure failed this time, however, they really would have to re-mortgage the house to get extra funds.

Unwind
Karen said, “I took time off work before we went to unwind, and enjoyed reflexology and acupuncture whilst on the island. I just wanted this to be our best Barbados experience and it was – finally our fourth attempt at IVF worked and I fell pregnant.

“I was really cautious after the last miscarriage and gave birth to our beautiful healthy daughter in January. If any couple is faced with having to pay privately for their treatment, then I would advise to really research the treatment available outside the UK. Barbados Fertility Centre showed us how IVF should be done.”

Barbados Fertility Centre
- High Success rates
- Low cost
- JCI accredited
- Internationally trained medical staff
- Short waiting list
- State of the art facilities