IVF at Lee Womens Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

Lee Womens Hospital in Taiwan is fast becoming a popular option for Filipino couples trying to conceive. My husband and I first heard of friends of friends who had a baby at Lee Womens Hospital in 2018. We considered going to Taiwan for our first IVF cycle but chose to stay in Makati and try Kato. For our second IVF attempt we decided to go to Taiwan.

The success rate at Lee Womens Hospital is quite high with their fb page claiming success rate of 80% in one cycle. Indeed when we visited the hospital, my husband and I met several Filipino couples in the hospital who either just got good news of a positive pregnancy test or already had a first baby at Lee Womens Hospital and were trying for their second already. Do take the success rate with a grain of salt because there are so many factors that can affect your own success rate such as the woman’s age and medical conditions. In addition when clinics quote success rate they usually mean a positive pregnancy test, not necessarily a live birth. Anyway suffice it to say that because of the success stories we heard we were encouraged to go for another IVF cycle.

We emailed Lee Womens Hospital and scheduled an appointment. They asked us to scan and send them copies of our passports, marriage certificate and a second ID. We were given choices of 4 doctors and we chose a lady doctor. Most Filipino couples that we met chose to go with the hospital founder, Dr Lee.

We flew from Manila to Taipei one hot and humid May morning in Manila and landed in Taiwan which was experiencing some gusts of winds and thunderstorms that time.

We met with the lady doctor and she asked us our medical history. I had blood tests done for hormone levels and a hysterescopy. My husband had a blood test and a semen analysis. All the tests were pretty standard. After speaking with the doctor and getting our results we decided to go with their IVF program. We bought the medicines needed for egg stimulation to bring to the Philippines back with us. For our initial visit, we spent 3 days in Taichung. We were asked to come back on the 7th day of my next menstrual cycle.

The medicines that our doctor prescribed were Letrozole, GonalF and Menopur. In Kato I also took Letrozole and GonalF, however I immediately noticed that the dosage for my medicines were much higher at Lee Womens Hospital than at Kato. At Kato I only injected myself once a day for 5 days. At Lee Hospital I injected myself twice a day for 10 days. So I thought to myself that this clinic is really aggressive which explains their higher success rate.

Once my next menstrual cycle started I informed the clinic and began taking the medicines and injecting myself with the follicle stimulating hormones. I went back to Taiwan on the eighth day for ultrasounds and blood tests. I was asked to come daily until eleventh day for blood tests (yes more pricking as if I didn’t have enough injections already) and ultrasounds to monitor the growth of my follicles. I had two big follicles and 2 medium sized follicles. On the evening of day eleventh I had a Pregnyl shot to trigger the maturation of the follicles. The follicles were harvested early morning on day 13th.

I arrived at the hospital very early on day 13th and went straight to the operating room waiting area. I put on the gown and hair net and an IV was put in my arm. I was also shaved down there. A nurse came to me and walked with me to the operating room. I noticed that all the nurses and anaesthesiologists were women. Arms and legs were put in restraints and anaesthesia was put in the IV and I went to sleep. I woke up and I was back in the waiting area already. I didn’t feel much discomfort after my egg retrieval. After I woke up from the anaesthesia I rested a bit and soon the IV was taken out and I was allowed to leave.

Because of my low ovarian reserve, we only got 3 eggs. Of the three eggs one egg was immature and not usable. The other two eggs were fertilised by ICSI. My doctor recommended that we freeze these embryos and we do another round of egg retrieval. She wanted me have as many eggs as possible as their clinic recommends 4 embryos are transferred each time for women in my age group (40s).

My husband and I talked about it and decided that we will go ahead with the transfer using my existing 2 eggs. So my transfer was arranged for day 16 of my cycle. Our embryos were 3 days old then.

On the day of the transfer we found out that both embryos have made it so far (day 3) and had good morphology. Hubby and I were so happy. An ultrasound was done to check my lining and one final blood test to confirm good hormone levels and all checked out good. We were proceeding with the transfer.

The transfer procedure at Lee hospital was the best part of our IVF cycle. I stayed at a private room (the staff called the rooms VIP rooms) and was given a 30-minute massage by the hospital masseuse to relax me before the transfer. Unlike in Kato, I did not have to leave the room to go to an operating room for the transfer. The doctor came in and wheeled in an ultrasound machine. The transfer itself was done in my room. The tube containing the embryos were inserted inside and the embryos released into the uterus. It was over in less 10 minutes. I was told to keep my hips up over a pillow and my knees raised for the first hour after. Legs were straightened on the second hour and I moved to either side for 30 minutes each after the second hour. All the while the hips were kept elevated. My transfer was at 10am and my husband and I stayed in the private room up to 5pm. It was quite cozy.

After the transfer was the dreaded two week wait. It’s up to God now. Will the embryos stick? Will we finally be parents?

After the transfer, I was given aspirin, anti-rejection drugs, progesterone and estradiol tablets. I also had Pregnyl injections every 3 days. After the transfer it’s up to patients whether they want to go back to their home countries or have the pregnancy test in Taiwan.

These are the most frequently asked questions about Lee Womens Hospital.
1) How many visits do I need to make to the hospital?
You should schedule at least two-three visits. The first visit is for consultation. This usually lasts 3 days during which you meet the staff and your doctor. During this visit you may decide to buy the medications for follicle stimulation.

The second visit is for the actual treatment. You may begin your medications in your home country (as the clinic may direct you) and only visit the clinic on your 8th day. Follicle retrieval will be anytime between day 10 and day 14 usually. You may do a fresh transfer straight away or opt to freeze your eggs or embryo as you go through another round of follicle retrieval.

One thing to note about Lee Hospital is that they are all about increasing your chances to conceive. Therefore they encourage women to retrieve as many follicles as possible through multiple cycles. For women of advanced age and/or low egg count like myself this may mean that they have to take follicle stimulating hormones and undergo multiple retrievals in so many cycles to achieve a good number of follicles. This means of course more rounds of payments for the medicines and the retrieval procedures. The clinic fertilise all the follicles so I’ve encountered couples who were already pregnant but with 5, 10 or even more embryos still kept frozen. This can be problematic if you believe (like the Catholic Church does) that the embryo is a human life from the moment of fertilisation.

The treatment schedule will look like this (days stay in Taichung):
Consultation: 3 days
First cycle to retrieve: 7 days minimum (day 8 until retrieval on say day 14).
Second cycle to retrieve follicles and transfer: 14 days (day 8 up to day 14 for retrieval second time, then transfer on day 17 (3 day old embryo), and 3 days rest).

A lot of the couples I met in Taiwan are really committed and many of them stay in the country for months at a time. Couples may choose to stay in Taiwan for the pregnancy test (two weeks after transfer), up to when heart beat is present (further two weeks after the pregnancy test) and even beyond.

2) How much does it cost?
The short answer is it’s not cheap, NTD200,000 thereabouts.

The long answer is that it depends on your own medical conditions. The clinic does not really give an itemised breakdown of costs but here’s what I gathered based on my own expenses:
Initial consultation: NTD10,000
Medicines for follicle stimulation per cycle: NTD20,000. (You may need more or less medicines depending on your response to the follicle stimulating hormones)
Ultrasounds and blood tests: NTD5,000
Retrieval: NTD30,000 plus NTD10,000 for freezing
Transfer: NTD60,000
If you have to undergo 2 cycles of retrieval, total costs for one IVF procedure is NTD200,000

Costwise its very close to what Kato costs.

The clinic does not accept credit cards or debit cards so payment is a bit of a hassle. Payment is cash in NTD or USD, or USD telegraphic transfer.

How about the accommodation costs? Westayed at Alice Hotel where they charged NTD30,000 for a 30-day stay. Taxis cost NTD85 flag down and to go most places will cost you only NTD160 or less. Buses around Taichung are free for the first 10km provided you have the easycard. Food in mall foodcourts cost NTD150 per meal on average. Alice Hotel has stoves and a microwave so cooking your own meals is an option.

3) My impression of Lee Hospital and Taichung
I can not speak Chinese at all. Despite the language barrier, my husband and I did not have a difficult time in Taiwan. This is primarily because the Taiwanese are super friendly, polite and accommodating. Filipinos are an important clientele for the Lee Hospital and as such they have a team of coordinators specially for foreign patients. The coordinators will welcome you and translate the medications and usage for you. All the doctors at the clinic actually speak English but nevertheless the coordinators are also present when you meet with your doctor, and you can ask them to clarify in case you miss something. The nurses in the operating room waiting room have bad English but they are very friendly and will put you at ease. They are the ones who put the IV in your arm and also shave you, and they are all very considerate.

Waiting time at the clinic is not so bad. They have queue systems for everything: ultrasounds, blood tests, medicine education and doctor visits. It does get busy sometimes especially Monday morning appointments and you may have to wait more than 1 hour for ultrasounds, medicines education and doctor visits. Whenever you have to use injections, the coordinator and a nurse will brief you (medicine education) on the proper use and administration. There is a central ultrasound room and most ultrasounds are done by ultrasound technicians. However at critical times like just before retrieval and transfer, your own doctor may do your ultrasounds so that they can check out your eggs and uterus personally. For ladies used to ultrasounds in the Philippines, it may come as a shock that there are no separate dressing rooms or privacy curtains in the ultrasound rooms. You strip in front of the technician and only get a towel to cover yourself with during the procedure.

Going places and eating out in Taichung City is easy. Taichung is Taiwan’s second largest city. It’s not as busy as Taipei and it’s a very charming, laid back city. There are lots of interesting things to do and see here. Check out my Taichung Survival Guide for tips going around Taichung and How to Use the Public Buses in Taichung.