Hi dopers, my wife and I are considering going to Thailand to take advantage of their in vitro fertilisation programs. IVF is not legal in Japan, where we live.
There are a number of clinics that operate and I was just wondering of anyone has experience with any of them? Or know of anyone who has experience.
I can’t find much information on the net about the clinics but I’m particularly interested in facilities, success rates, expenses, and, well everything really.
We have our own egg donor, a younger female friend, but need a doctor to extract the eggs from her. My sperm is apparently still OK, so we’ll use that. So the three of us, me, wife and friend, would be going.
So we need a clinic that is ready and able to help with all of that.
I know nothing about in vitro here. Asked the wife and she does not know either. But I can tell you it would probably be best to check with a modern, Western-style hospital such as Samitivej, BNH or even Bangkok Christian – everyone mentions Bumrungrad, but I despise Bumrungrad, and so do quite a few others. Many of the government facilities are good too but difficult to navigate if there is not a Thai speaker among you.
The wife says she has a colleague who is due to deliver any day now and had to become pregnant through some sort of technique, although she doesn’t know if it was in vitro. It’s a holiday today (Wednesday), the king’s 85th birthday, so assuming the girl has not gone into labor, my wife will probably see her later this week. She’ll try to ask about it.
The problem is my wife and her colleague ar both government officials, and as such the colleague probably went to Chulalongkorn Hospital, which is good but not very foreigner-friendly in the sense that while good – it’s the main teaching hospital, and just about all the doctors there also have hours at the Western hospitals – it’s slow like a Thai hospital and the nursing staff on down usually don’t speak English. But there’s no question that it’s good and cheaper than the Western hospitals. (I’ve had two shoulder surgeries there. My doctor kept office hours at BNH, but having the operation at Chula was a fraction of the cost at BNH. My insurance would cover the low cost of Chiula but not BNH.)
My personal favorites are Samitivej and BNH. I use BNH more often just because it’s closer to home. I see they have an the Bangkok Infertility Centre you might want to check out.
I see Samitivej Hospital also has an Infertility Clinic, and it does mention in vitro fertilization. This is a branch of the main hospital, which I’ve been using since the 1980s – until we moved closer to BNH, that is – and these are good providers. I had a salivary gland removed at the main branch 11 years ago.
I said I don’t like Bumrungrad Hospital, because when thet fuck up, they cover up, big time. No interest whatsoever in complaints, only praise. But I have to admit they can be excellent. But they charge a lot too.
Health care in general in Thailand has skyrocketed in price these past 10 years, and it’s simply not the good deal it once was. I’d recommend checking out some facilities in India too if cost is a consideration for you. I’ll still have the wife ask her colleague though.
Thanks for all the inside information! I hadn’t considered standard hospitals before you mentioned them. I don’t know why.
The private hospitals/clinics would run us about $10,000 US I guess, from estimates I’ve seen. I’ll have to look into how that compares with the public hospitals.
Price is a concern, but you can price yourself out by going cheap and getting repeatedly ineffective treatment, as we’ve been doing so far here in Japan because they simply won’t do ova transplants from one woman to another. Because bloodline is so important I guess. Shrug.