Back to Turkey with Human First (2019)

After an earlier successful attempt in Istanbul and a beautiful daughter later, my husband and I wanted to go for one more child. We knew right away that we wanted to do it again through Human First in Istanbul and not at a hospital in the Netherlands (we'd unfortunately had bad experiences there). Everything about the whole process goes so much more smoothly there.

The personal attention at the hospital (they really look at your specific case), the help from Evren from the Netherlands, and of course the fantastic help and support from the Dutch-speaking host Dayon. It immediately made for a less stressful feeling during what's still quite an intense process. The nice hotel, and oddly enough a kind of vacation feeling, help with that too, of course.

Once in Istanbul, everything felt familiar. The hotel staff even recognized us. The treatment itself luckily went very smoothly. There are frequent check-ups (more often than in the Netherlands) so any potential issues can be addressed quickly. I'd already started hormones in the Netherlands and we flew to Istanbul on day 5. Everything luckily went according to plan and after a week in Istanbul a retrieval could take place. We had 9 fertilized eggs! We were obviously super happy. The great thing about the treatment in Istanbul is that the embryos get 5 days to grow instead of 3 days in the Netherlands. So on day 5 only the very best embryos remain and from those they again pick the absolute top ones to transfer. For me, two embryos were transferred on day 5. The day after that we flew back to the Netherlands again.

Actually we were only supposed to do a pregnancy test 10 days after the transfer, but after a week I already felt it had worked. And sure enough! A positive test.

Now already more than 6 months pregnant with another daughter! So happy and proud that we get to experience this again thanks to Human First and dr. Cem from the hospital. We'd recommend this path to everyone. Especially the feeling during the treatment is so much nicer than in the Netherlands. And I think that's the most important thing; a bit of understanding, the feeling that they really look at your specific case. On top of that, most of the treatment and medication was reimbursed by our health insurer.

Lots of luck to everyone who shares this dream like we did!

Two proud parents

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