Swine flu and your fertility treatment
As more wide spread pre-cautions are being taken to guard against the spread of Swine Flu, Fertility Associates are working to minimise the impact on your course of treatment and our clinic.
Swine Flu is a type of Influenza A also known as the H1N1 virus. The symptoms of Swine Flu are very similar to those of the ‘ordinary flu’. Symptoms to be aware of are:
- Sudden onset of illness
- Fever above 38 degrees Celsius
- Fatigue
- Muscle pains
- Runny nose/cough/sore throat
- In some cases, people also have vomiting and diarrhoea.
As part of our plan to minimise the impact of this on your fertility treatment, we have put the following steps in place and ask for your assistance in helping us to reduce the impact of Swine Flu on your treatment.
Fertility Associates ask you to please take the following precautions if you, your partner or anyone living under the same roof feel like they are developing flu like symptoms:
- If you have any symptoms of the flu, we kindly ask you to avoid visiting the clinic.
- If you have any symptoms of the flu, it may be best to postpone your treatment or your consultation until after the symptoms have gone away. Please contact the clinic for advice.
- If you or anyone close to you have any symptoms while you are on treatment, please tell us. You should also see your GP or get advice from the Swine Flu helpline 0800 611 116.
In some cases patients may need or want to stop treatment because of the flu, whether they are affected directly or indirectly by it. In each instance, we are happy to do this. In the case of a cancelled cycle due to Swine Flu
- You will not be charged any discontinuation fees that normally apply to cancelled cycles. If you have already purchased drugs, we will do our best to reschedule your treatment so you can use the remainder of the drugs you have.
- If you need to or want to stop publicly funded treatment because of the flu, we are also happy to do this. We will rebook your treatment as soon as is practical to do this. You won’t miss out because your treatment was delayed because of the flu.
- We do not anticipate having to postpone anybody’s treatment because of the Swine Flu. We will give you as much notice as possible if we do need to postpone your treatment.
If you, a family member or close contact are exposed to the flu, please follow the Ministry of Health’s guidelines by staying at home, taking Tamiflu or other measures that are advised. You can read more online at the
Ministry of Health website. The Ministry also advises people to look at the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website for information on how to keep you and your family safe.
As part of our commitment to our patients and in order to minimise the spread of Swine Flu, we have developed internal guidelines which advise staff on the symptoms they need to look out for and when they should stay away from work if they or a member of their household is affected.
We have also put a number of clinical precautions in place to help reduce the impact on you and your treatment. We will be following the usual precautions to limit the spread of air-borne viruses - such as thoroughly washing hands with soap, covering our mouths when we cough, etc. We know you will do the same while you are at the clinic.
We thank you for your patience and understanding during this time and wish you every success with your treatment.
To contact the clinic please call 0800 10 28 28.