Add On Treatments
In addition to routine treatments the majority of fertility clinics offer a number of “add ons”. These are elements of treatment which are additional to standard IVF/ICSI cycles. Add on treatments are rated by our regulators, the HFEA, as either red, amber or green depending on how much evidence is available to indicate that they are both safe and effective.
Green – Evidence of effectiveness and no evidence of harm (these are not always listed)
Amber – Evidence on effectiveness and safety is conflicting, some studies show benefit whilst others show no benefit.
Red – No evidence of benefit, some red treatments have evidence of being harmful.
We encourage all our patients who are offered an add on treatment to visit the HFEA Website and read the information on there carefully before deciding to proceed.
Add on treatments are generally an additional cost to your treatment. At Shropshire and Mid Wales Fertility Centre we only offer add ons to patients we genuinely feel may get some benefit from it. The treatments we offer or may discuss are:
- Time lapse imaging (Embryoscope) – Amber – A link to our patient information leaflet about this can be found on our Patient Information Page.
- Endometrial Scratch – Amber – This is offered to a small number of patients with evidence of recurrent implantation failure. This is available at an additional cost for those funding their own treatment or at no additional cost if the treatment is being funded by the NHS. A link to our patient information leaflet about this can be found on our Patient Information Page.
- Embryoglue (no longer listed by HFEA)– This is used routinely for all our treatments at no additional cost (some other clinics charge extra for this).
As a clinic we regularly review information relating to add on treatments.
The HFEA are encouraging patients who have recently had an add on treatment to fill in their survey which can be found on the link above. We would be grateful if you would complete this survey if it applies to you.