What Happens After You Choose an IVF Clinic Abroad

What Happens Once You've Chosen a Clinic?

We confirm your choice with the clinic the same day, the clinic proposes dates, and you get the booking back in writing: by call first, then by email, from us or straight from the clinic, depending on how that clinic works.

Here's the sequence, in the order it happens.

• Confirmation: we tell the clinic you've chosen them and send the details they need for the booking: passport data and, once you have them, flight times.
• Dates: the clinic proposes appointment or cycle dates that fit your menstrual cycle and their schedule; you accept or ask for alternatives.
• Deposit: every clinic has its own deposit policy, and you're told what it is before you travel; we explain what it covers and the refund rules before you pay a penny.
• Written confirmation: date and time, the doctor's name, the clinic address, what to bring, pre-visit instructions, and an invitation letter only if your situation needs one.

One thing never changes: you pay the clinic directly, on site or by bank transfer, and money doesn't pass through us. The price is the one the clinic would charge you anyway.^[1]

What Does a Deposit Policy Actually Look Like?

Deposit rules vary from clinic to clinic, so here's one Spanish partner's terms as a real example. Other clinics work differently; the point is to have yours in writing before you pay.

Source: One Spanish partner clinic's treatment budget terms, 2026; every clinic has its own policy

If your cycle is cancelled or your period arrives at the wrong time, the clinic's own refund rules apply (which is exactly why we get them in writing first), and flights can sometimes be changed, depending on the fare.

Key Insight:
The cancellation scale is the first thing we check on any quote, and the first thing you should read. In the example above, the charge climbs from €675 if you stop during stimulation to €5,050 if no embryo reaches the blastocyst stage. You want to know that before day one, not when it happens.

What's in Your Pre-Travel Pack?

A single PDF with everything you'd otherwise Google at the airport: clinic, doctor, schedule, transfers, hotels, documents, and the three phone numbers that matter.

What Does It Cover?

• Clinic and doctor: who you're seeing, where, and when, with the full schedule for the visit.
• Getting from the airport: the clinic transfer where one exists (we recommend it; the driver waits up to an hour if your flight is late), or official taxis and public transport if not.
• Where to stay: hotels near the clinic, sometimes at discounted rates depending on the case, and self-catering options for longer stays.
• Documents: passport, translated test results, imaging on disc, and a marriage certificate if you're going to Turkey, the one country on our list that requires it (in the couples-only countries, unmarried couples bring a partner document prepared by a lawyer instead).
• Practicalities: currency, a local SIM, the weather, and the emergency numbers.
• People: one coordinator on our side and one on the clinic's side, plus the interpreter and the driver, with a WhatsApp line for urgent questions. It isn't a 24-hour line: your coordinator replies the same day, and in most cases at weekends too.

What Costs Extra?

Most treatment packages abroad don't include the things that happen outside the treatment room. Expect to budget separately for these.

• Medication: usually not in the package; often bought at home.
• Interpreter: around €50 to €80 an hour in most of Europe, and Turkish clinics usually provide one free; many of our partners now have doctors who speak English, Italian, or French, so you may not need to pay for one at all.
• Airport transfer: around €100 in most of Europe; free clinic transfers are common in Turkey, though it depends on the clinic.
• Accommodation and flights: we send options and any discounted rates we can get; you book and pay yourself.
• A companion: hotel and transport for the person travelling with you.

→ Learn more: What to Do Before Your First Fertility Clinic Visit

Who Does Your Scans, Bloods, and Medication in the UK?

Usually a private provider, not your GP, and that's the part UK patients most often leave until it's nearly too late.

Most IVF cycles abroad start at home. The clinic wants a baseline scan and blood tests before you fly, sometimes a mid-stimulation scan, and the medication has to come from somewhere. Three things to know:

• Your GP isn't obliged to help: the British Medical Association's (BMA) guidance says GPs may decline to arrange tests, investigations, or prescriptions for privately arranged care if they lack the knowledge or capacity.^[2]
• Private monitoring is easy to find: a nationwide scan provider lists a fertility monitoring scan at £145, and a London fertility clinic lists single hormone blood tests at £40 and a monitoring scan at £150 (illustrative, September 2026).^[3][4]
• Prescriptions: the clinic abroad writes the protocol; you'll need a UK private prescription, which a registered fertility pharmacy then fills, and the cost of the drugs themselves varies widely by protocol.^[4]

Fertility Network UK's guidance on treatment overseas makes the same point: you may need scans or blood tests in the UK and have to arrange them yourself, so ask whether the clinic provides your medication.^[5]

What If Your GP Says No to the Medication?

There are three routes, and which one applies depends on the clinic. Some clinics send the medication to you. Others ask you to travel to collect it: one Spanish partner arranges a one-day visit before the stimulation starts for exactly this, and you go home to do the stimulation and monitoring. And some clinics can recommend a partner clinic in the UK that can prescribe for you.

Important:
Tell your GP what you're doing even if they can't prescribe. Your records need to show the medication you took, and if you become pregnant, your midwife will want the treatment summary. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) advises asking the clinic abroad for a copy of your records to give your GP at home.^[6]

→ Learn more: What to Do Before Starting Your Stimulation Protocol

What Happens While You're Abroad?

Your coordinator stays on the case: checking the clinic has you booked in, chasing a driver who hasn't shown, finding an interpreter when the promised one is off sick, and explaining any change of doctor before it surprises you.

All of that happens by phone and message, not in person. If you'd like someone physically with you, tell us, and we can discuss that option individually.

How Long Will You Be There?

It depends on the clinic and on you. Donor-egg treatment is usually one visit. With your own eggs, younger patients with a good ovarian reserve can often do it in one visit; after 40, it may take 2 to 3 visits: several egg retrievals, then the transfer.

For a stimulation visit, count on about 5 to 7 days if you start the stimulation and monitoring at home, and longer if everything happens at the clinic. One Spanish partner keeps it to 2 to 3 days per egg retrieval and normally 1 day for the transfer, with the scans and bloods done in the UK; some Turkish clinics ask for a stay of around 25 days.

Does Your Partner Have to Travel With You?

Not necessarily. A male partner can freeze a sperm sample in advance, which then has to be shipped to the clinic by a specialist courier company, or travel separately on a date that suits him.

What Do We Fix on Site?

Small things that feel enormous at the time.

• A transfer that doesn't turn up.
• An interpreter who doesn't.
• A doctor swapped without warning.
• An invoice that doesn't match the quote (it hasn't happened yet with a partner clinic, but we still check).
• A question on a Sunday that can't wait until Monday.

And if you're unhappy with the clinic once you're there, you can stop and switch (the clinic's cancellation terms still apply). It has happened: we've moved patients to another clinic while they were already in the city.

What If There's a Medical Complication?

During the stimulation you have an emergency contact number, and you're told exactly what to do. OHSS (ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome) is rare, and if it does occur, you're guided through it step by step. The clinical decisions stay with the doctors; we handle the communication.

Where you go and who pays depends on the country. Within the EU you can go to a public hospital, and a free UK Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) gets you state healthcare that can't reasonably wait until you're back in the UK, on the same basis as a local resident: free where residents are treated free, otherwise at the local charge.^[7]

The GHIC doesn't cover private hospitals, doesn't replace travel insurance, and won't pay for the IVF itself. But emergency treatment in a state hospital is exactly what it's for.^[7]

With insurance, you can go to one of the private hospitals we'll be able to recommend at the time. If neither applies, you pay.

Bottom Line:
Only a special medical travel insurance policy covers a planned IVF trip; a standard travel policy doesn't, so don't assume. Take out the right one, apply for a free GHIC, and find out where the nearest emergency department is. Put all three on your list before you fly.

What Happens When You Come Home?

You should land with three things: a treatment summary, any prescriptions you'll need in the UK, and a date for your pregnancy test.

• Records: in most cases the clinic provides everything; if it hasn't given you a discharge summary and prescriptions in English, we help you get them translated.
• The two-week wait: the clinic sets the test date; if you're unsure how to take the medication you've been given, message us rather than guessing.
• If the test is positive: refer yourself for NHS maternity care as soon as you know, so your first midwife appointment can happen by 10 weeks; we've never heard of anyone being treated differently for having had IVF abroad, and whether you mention it is your decision, though your midwife will find the treatment summary useful.^[8]
• If there's a problem: we liaise with the clinic so you're not translating medical questions on your own.

When Do We Call?

About a week after a consultation visit, and two to three weeks after an IVF cycle, timed to when you'll know the result. One call and one message, though in practice it follows the rhythm you and your coordinator have had all along. If the result is good, we're glad and we're around. If it isn't, we don't push, we don't talk about "next time" unless you raise it, and we don't keep calling.

Important:
The biggest mistake a coordinator can make is to disappear once you're home. Our rule is the opposite: we're with you the whole way through, for as long as you need us, and we let you set the pace after a result.

What If the Cycle Doesn't Work?

Then the honest answer is that one cycle was never the whole picture, and the numbers say so.

In the largest UK study, 156,947 women were followed across repeat IVF cycles. The live-birth rate was 29.5% in the first cycle and 65.3% by the sixth on the study's prognosis-adjusted estimate: 68.4% for women under 40 using their own eggs, 31.5% for those aged 40 to 42.^[9]

A second UK study of 178,898 women found that, among those who started IVF between 1999 and 2007, 42.3% had a baby within three complete cycles, rising to 57.1% depending on what you assume about those who stopped.^[10]

What that means for you is simple. A failed cycle is information, not a verdict. When you're ready, and only then, we go back to the clinic's feedback, check whether the plan or the clinic should change, and start again. If you have frozen embryos abroad, remember they carry annual storage fees at the clinic abroad, and bringing them to a UK clinic needs an import authorised under that UK clinic's import certificate.^[11]

→ Learn more: Do Frozen Eggs, Sperm, and Embryos Last Forever?

Which Legal Bits Do UK Readers Miss?

Two, and both matter more than they sound.

• Legal parenthood: a spouse or civil partner is automatically the second legal parent wherever treatment happens; an unmarried partner becomes a parent only through consent forms at a UK-licensed clinic, so donor-sperm or donor-embryo treatment abroad needs advice from a UK fertility solicitor first.^[12][13]
• Surrogacy abroad: the HFEA has no remit over arrangements outside the UK, the surrogate is the legal mother at birth, and you'll still need a UK parental order.^[14][15]

Legal advice isn't an optional extra for unmarried couples using donor sperm abroad. It's the difference between both of you being your child's legal parents and one of you not.

Where Else Can You Get Support?

From people who aren't selling you anything, which is exactly why we recommend them.

• Fertility Network UK: the UK's national fertility charity, with a free support service (online chat while its phone line is closed) and plain guidance on treatment overseas.^[5][16]
• BICA: the British Infertility Counselling Association's directory of specialist fertility counsellors, useful before donor treatment and after a negative result.^[17]
• The HFEA's guidance on treatment abroad: short, blunt, and worth reading before you book anything.^[6]

So, What Should You Do Now?

If you already have a shortlist, these six steps take you from "chosen" to "home".

Step 1: Understand the Deposit Before You Pay It

Ask for the deposit and refund rules in writing. Know what happens if your cycle is cancelled or your period arrives on the wrong day.

Step 2: Build Your UK Monitoring Plan Before You Fly

Book the baseline scan and bloods with a private provider, and sort the prescription route for your medication. Tell your GP what you're doing.

Step 3: Sort the Insurance and the GHIC

Take out a special medical travel insurance policy that covers a planned IVF trip, and apply for a free UK Global Health Insurance Card if you're going to an EU country.

Step 4: Pack the Documents, Not Just the Clothes

Passport, translated results, imaging on disc, and a marriage certificate if you're going to Turkey. Photograph everything and keep a copy in your email.

Step 5: Save the Three Numbers

Your coordinator, the clinic, and the interpreter. Put them in your phone before you leave the UK, and keep the pre-travel pack offline.

Step 6: Don't Have a Shortlist Yet? Start There

Tell a coordinator your situation and we'll send two or three clinics that fit, with what's included and what isn't. Then everything above kicks in.

→ Get your free clinic shortlist: MedicalNavigator.com/contact

Too Long, Didn't Read

• Deposit and refund rules differ from clinic to clinic; one Spanish partner asks for 80% to confirm dates, so get yours in writing.
• You pay the clinic directly, never through us, at the same price as going direct.
• Your GP isn't obliged to prescribe or monitor; private scans cost around £145 to £150 each.
• Count on 5 to 7 days per visit if stimulation starts at home, longer if everything happens abroad; donor cycles: usually 1 trip.
• Your coordinator replies the same day, weekends included in most cases, and calls about 2 to 3 weeks after an IVF cycle.
• In UK data, an estimated 65.3% of women had a baby within six cycles; one failed cycle is information, not a verdict.

References

1. Medical Navigator. Why Our Service Is Free for Patients. Updated 30 April 2026. ↩
2. British Medical Association (BMA). General practice responsibility in responding to private healthcare. 31 August 2023. ↩
3. Ultrasound Direct. Pelvic fertility monitoring scan. Provider price page, accessed 7 September 2026. ↩
4. Published clinic price lists (United Kingdom). Self-pay price lists of four HFEA-licensed fertility clinics in London, Cambridge, and Manchester: IVF, ICSI, medication, freezing, and donor-egg packages. Clinic names withheld. Accessed 7 September 2026. ↩
5. Fertility Network UK. Treatment overseas. Updated July 2022; accessed 7 September 2026. ↩
6. Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). Fertility treatment abroad. Reviewed 14 July 2016; accessed 7 September 2026. ↩
7. NHS. Get healthcare cover abroad with a UK GHIC or UK EHIC. Page last reviewed 12 December 2023; accessed 15 September 2026. ↩
8. NHS. Refer yourself for NHS pregnancy care. Page last reviewed 29 January 2025; accessed 15 September 2026. ↩
9. Smith ADAC, Tilling K, Nelson SM, Lawlor DA. Live-birth rate associated with repeat in vitro fertilization treatment cycles. JAMA. 2015;314(24):2654–2662. ↩
10. McLernon DJ, Maheshwari A, Lee AJ, Bhattacharya S. Cumulative live birth rates after one or more complete cycles of IVF: a population-based study of linked cycle data from 178 898 women. Hum Reprod. 2016;31(3):572–581. ↩
11. Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). Importing and exporting sperm, eggs and embryos. Reviewed 12 March 2026. ↩
12. UK Parliament. Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008, Part 2: Parenthood in cases involving assisted reproduction (sections 33–58). legislation.gov.uk; cited at sections 35–37 and 42–44. ↩
13. Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). Becoming the legal parents of your child. Published 18 July 2016; accessed 7 September 2026. ↩
14. Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). Surrogacy: a factsheet. Published 26 November 2024; reviewed 16 June 2026. ↩
15. GOV.UK. Surrogacy: legal rights of parents and surrogates. ↩
16. Fertility Network UK. Support line. ↩
17. British Infertility Counselling Association (BICA). Find a counsellor. ↩