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 depending on how much evidence is available to indicate that they are both safe and effective. Please follow the links below to find out how the HFEA rate specific add on treatments.

UK fertility regulator launches improved ratings for fertility treatment ‘add-ons’ | HFEA

Treatment add-ons with limited evidence | HFEA

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) – Black – Black indicates that the HFEA believe that timelapse incubation has no beneficial effect on treatment outcome. Use of time lapse incubation is included in your treatment cycle as standard and there is no additional cost for this. A link to our patient information leaflet about this can be found on our Patient Information Page.
Endometrial Scratch – Amber/Grey – This indicates that the HFEA believe the evidence for improving treatment outcomes for the majority of fertility patients undergoing IVF/ICSI is unclear and that they are unable to rate the effectiveness at improving treatment outcomes for those with recurrent implantation failure due to a lack of good quality evidence. The clinic offer the option of endometrial scratching 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.
Hyaluronate enriched pre-transfer culture media e.g. Embryoglue ® – Amber. The HFEA rate this amber indicating that they believe the evidence for improving the outcome of treatment for the majority of fertility patients is unclear. Embryoglue ® is used routinely for all our treatments at no additional cost.

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.