r/IVF•
VisualNo8403

IVF with NHS or Portugal

Advice Needed!

Hi! My partner and I been ttc for 1.5 years, all tests coming back normal, so it’s looking like unexplained infertility. I got the ball rolling with NHS pretty early and just had my follow up appointment where they recommended to go with IVF. So far I had pretty good experience with NHS, it’s Wolfson Fertility in London (apart from a few admin issues but whatever) and genuinely preferred the doctors there to a private clinic in London.

The catch is I am not eligible for NHS funding as I am not a permanent resident. Apparently I can still get some stuff covered by NHS like meds and maybe some appointments (just not the IVF itself). I am waiting on more information on this to confirm.

At the same time my partner and I are considering moving to Portugal in September, so there is an option to do IVF there. Here is my pros and cons list:

NHS in the UK
+ potentially quicker timing (doctor said we can start ~6 weeks from now meaning first transfer can be in September already).
+ positive experience so far with all the staff, this gives me confidence
- likely very expensive, even with some coverage from NHS it probably will be on par if not more expensive than Portugal
- concerned about all the negative experiences of other people with NHS.

IVF in Portugal
+ i can hopefully get into a nice private clinic so likely better service and communication
- delay in timing, this is a big one for me. At this point I am not sure how much longer I can wait…
- worried that doing IVF and moving to a new country at the same time might be too much and I might need to delay IVF even further due to some random reason related to the move

I would appreciate any advice or opinions, especially if you done IVF with NHS or in Portugal or were in a similar situation.

Posted Jul 9, 2026, 7:52 PM UTC

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