Attending The Fertility Show in London
The Fertility Show is a big event that takes place in London, where couples facing infertility can go to find support and information about the next steps they should take in their infertility journey. There are a huge range of exhibitors and clinics there, who you can talk to.
We found out about this show through a close friend of ours, who had gone through IVF treatment previously, and funnily enough, we saw that the show was due to take place in London just a week later!
It took a bit of convincing to get Mr S to agree to go, but I said that there would be lots of clinics there from the UK and abroad that we could talk to, within one day, rather than having to track a load of clinics down for ourselves.
We found it to be a really useful day, and it gave us more of an idea of what we did/didn’t want from a clinic. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a good impression at all, from any of the UK clinics that we spoke to. It almost felt like they were rushing us along, trying to talk and then get rid of us to speak to the next couple, which we found quite irritating. They also didn’t seem to want to give a clear idea of what pricing we could expect, which was frustrating.
We spoke to a few clinics from Copenhagen, Spain, and Greece, and all of them were really happy to sit down and talk to us for a good length of time, and they were very transparent about pricing and any additional costs. All of them had an embryologist there to explain how things work in more detail. There was a stark contrast between the UK clinics we spoke to, and the abroad ones!
It was a really useful event to attend, albeit a little overwhelming when you don’t really understand a lot of it. I’d recommend taking a look at the list of exhibitors that will be attending beforehand and making a note of who you would like to speak to when you get there. I feel like that would make things much less overwhelming, and then you don’t waste time speaking to exhibitors that aren’t really relevant to what you are after.
If this is all new to you, I’d definitely recommend visiting to find out a bit more information. You can purchase tickets here: https://www.fertilityshow.co.uk/