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About IVF & Fertility Guide

Nick Peplow

hi, I’m Nick — Welcome!

Nick Peplow

I’m Nick Peplow, the person behind every guide on this site

My day job is running Thailand Care, an independent service that helps international patients arrange treatment at accredited hospitals in Bangkok.

Bangkok is one of the places the world goes for IVF, so a lot of the people who come to us are couples and single women looking into fertility treatment, and over the years I've watched them arrive with the same problem. Their information is pieced together from clinic marketing, forum threads and a success-rate percentage nobody has explained to them, and the questions they most need answered, about what a quoted cycle price leaves out, about what "success rate" is actually measuring, about whether an add-on does anything, are the ones nobody has written down plainly. I set out to build the resource I wished I could have pointed them to, one place with straight answers.

I write about who each test and treatment is for, how it works, what the odds really are and what it costs. The site is new, and the treatment guides are being added one at a time.

The result will be a guide to the whole of fertility treatment, from the first round of tests through ovulation induction, IUI, IVF and ICSI to egg and embryo freezing, donor conception and male fertility, each with an honest read of the success figures, a cost breakdown by country and the questions I'd want you to ask at your consultation.

Where the guides come from

I've sat beside enough patients to know what the process is actually like. You walk into a consultation with a list of questions and forget half of them. You get quotes that don't line up, because one includes the drugs and one doesn't. You get handed a percentage without being told whether it counts pregnancies or babies.

The guides draw on that experience with hundreds of patients, and on published research, national registry data and professional guidelines, including:

  • ESHRE guidance
  • American Society for Reproductive Medicine
  • HFEA and other national registry data
  • Human Reproduction
  • Fertility and Sterility

Clear answers, no agenda

This is an independent website that I own, pay for and run myself. It is not affiliated with any clinic, laboratory or pharmaceutical company.

  • I review every guide against current clinical guidelines and registry data
  • Success figures are given as live birth per cycle started, by age band, with ranges rather than single numbers
  • Clinic listings, when the directory opens, will be free and cannot be bought
  • Your questions shape what I write next

My goal is to make fertility treatment understandable, whether you're a year away from trying anything or starting a cycle next month. How I research and check each guide is set out in the editorial policy.

The bit I do for a living. I also run Thailand Care, which arranges treatment for international patients at Bangkok hospitals. It's where the experience behind these guides comes from, and it's a commercial interest in Thai clinics, so I'll be plain about how I handle it. Thailand's IVF laboratories are genuinely good and genuinely cheaper than the US, but Thailand is not the right answer for everyone, Thai law restricts what foreigners can do there, and this site is not here to tell you otherwise. Thai clinics meet the same listing criteria as everyone else, cost tables show Thailand alongside the US, UK, Europe and Australia, and nothing here steers you to book through me. If you do want help planning treatment, wherever you have it, you pay the hospital's own price with nothing added for my involvement. If a page ever reads like a pitch, tell me.

Are you new here?

I’d start with the [Start Here guide](/start-here), which walks through the tests, the treatments and the order people usually go in.

Two good places to start

Start Here: Your Guide to Fertility Treatment

IVF

Frequently asked questions

Have you been through fertility treatment yourself?

No, and I say that up front because people reasonably want to know where a site like this is coming from. I'm not writing from lived experience of infertility. I'm writing from years of sitting beside patients through tests, quotes, cycles, failed cycles and the occasional baby as the person coordinating their care, and from the clinical literature. Where lived experience matters more than that, I say so rather than pretend.

Are you a doctor?

No. I'm not a doctor, an embryologist or a nurse, and nothing on this site is medical advice. My job is coordinating care, which means I've spent years translating between clinics and patients, but decisions about your own treatment belong with you and your fertility team.

Who pays for this site?

I do. There are no sponsors, no paid listings and no ad networks. If that ever changes, the editorial policy and privacy policy will say so before anything goes live.

Can I get my clinic listed?

Not yet, but soon. A clinic directory is planned, and when it opens, listings will be free and cannot be bought. If you'd like to be listed, get in touch with your accreditation, the treatments you offer, where you operate and which registry your outcomes are reported to, and I'll add you when it goes live.

I found a mistake. What do I do?

Tell me. I check every correction, fix the page if you're right, and note the change at the bottom with the date.

Contact

Got a question, a correction or a clinic to suggest? [Get in touch](/contact), I read everything.