Good support and personal attention (June '19)

After trying to get pregnant for 2 years, we'd gotten a referral to the gynecologist. After tests and a laparoscopy it was clear: getting pregnant naturally would be very difficult for us. We were immediately referred for IVF at an academic hospital. According to the gynecologist, the chance of successful IVF was 10 to max 40%. A wish for a child was, after all, also just a wish, and not something everyone gets, she told us. Sometimes we'd have to learn to be content with the blessings already in our lives. This news came like a bolt from the blue. We were completely thrown off balance!

We wanted nothing more than an urgent IVF intake meeting, but unfortunately we had to wait 3 months (!) for that. Just to get an answer to the question of whether IVF even had a chance of working in our case. During that time we drove ourselves crazy googling, and hope for a child faded by the day. At first we definitely wanted to do IVF in the Netherlands, where it felt familiar to us. While googling we also read information about IVF abroad and the differences with the Netherlands. We found out that abroad, multiple techniques are used which increase the chances of success. That's how we happened to land on the Humanfirst site, and -alongside other hospitals- we contacted Evren from Humanfirst. After our first phone call with Evren we actually already knew right away that we wanted to try an IVF process through Humanfirst. It immediately felt trustworthy and professional. Evren basically arranged everything for us, apart from the flight tickets, which helped us enormously in that state of mind at the time. Evren put together a schedule for us and the following month we started with the hormone injections in the Netherlands. We'd had 2 ultrasounds in the Netherlands, after which we left for 10 days to Istanbul (Turkey). We'd chosen a short process because of our jobs. In Istanbul it also felt right immediately. Dr Cem Demirel is a very experienced and professional doctor. During the intake conversation he immediately gave us the chances of success and his honest opinion, which we appreciated a lot. The hospital and the staff also exceeded expectations. We got personal attention and advice wherever needed. We were immediately well taken care of by head nurse mrs Hatice. On top of that, Evren was available for us almost day and night to answer our questions and reassure us, which did us an enormous amount of good at the time. She's also in close contact with dr Cem Demirel. We used the "free" days to explore Istanbul and relax. After the transfer we flew back to the Netherlands that same day. A few weeks later we had a positive pregnancy test! Now, months later, we still can't believe that our first attempt worked right away. We're incredibly happy that we chose Humanfirst and dr Cem Demirel. It felt right immediately for us and we're so happy that we dared to take that step. We hope that everyone who needs it dares to take that step too, just like we did, for an IVF treatment in Istanbul. Thanks to Humanfirst we barely had to arrange anything ourselves, which helped enormously. For the people who -just like us months ago- are desperately googling and reading experiences, we'd advise one thing: get in touch, and decide for yourself afterward whether it feels right.

This story was translated from Dutch by our team. Read the original Dutch version →