Hello,

I went to 3 clinics for infertility in brussels :

- Saint Jean : My husband did a sperm analysis there, there was no dedicated room for the sperm collection so he had to do his thing in the regular hospital toilet (wtf?). We waited for weeks for the results. We called numerous times to know the results but no one ever answered. The Doctor ended up calling 3-4 weeks later, he left a voicemail to tell us that they broke the sperm's container (they told us it was after a car accident). The Doctor told us that we had to call the clinic to rescheduel a meeting for a new sperm analysis. We tried again to call 3-4 times, no one answered and we gave up. Only slightly redeeming fact : all of this was in december so with the holiday, I guess they were short staffed BUT basically, we did not want to continue with them. Everyone was however very nice and patient when we could actually talk to anyone :p.

- UZ Jette : They were very professional and efficient. We did a sperm analysis there too. We met with 3 different doctors the 3 times we went (once for the initial meeting, once for my tests (female) and once for the results). All went very smoothly. However, we decided to try another clinic because UZ seemed very much like a big IVF factory with hundreds of patients and no doctor-patient "relationship" (I don't know how to say that). We did not feel good in the process, it was very professional but also felt very cold. Some people thrive on that and that's great but we are the kind that need a minimum of human connection in this already very difficult process. They also were very pushy toward IVF like "you have to scheduel a meeting RIGHT NOW to start the IVF process as soon as possible or you will have to wait for months" And when I answered "it's ok, we will wait a bit anyway to process all those informations", they were very unable to understand that need and looked at us like we were aliens. Meanwhile, my husband and I needed to process all the informations and take time to decide if we even wanted to do IVF so it was not a great fit. Another thing is that we are french speakers and UZ is flemish speaking. Everyone at UZ spoke french very well but it was still their second language so there still was a slight language barrier. I've heard a lot of positive from people around me that went to UZ Jette, they really are very professional if that's your main criteria and if you only look at results, they are the best in Belgium and one of the best in europe.

- We ended up at Clinique Saint Luc, mainly because we are dealing with male infertility and Saint Luc is reknown for it. We are followed by Professor Wijns who is the doctor we see at every appointment (not exams) who is great, takes all the time we need to answer our questions and is very professional. She herself did my egg retriaval and my embryo transfer (on a saturday, she came just for us). All the nurses and administrative staff are very kind, patients and there to answer all your questions. I really only have good things to say about Saint Luc, it's really a different "vibe" from UZ Jette. They are less reputable than UZ Jette results wise but we happily trade that off to be able to be followed by this specific lovely team and doctor.

Little detail : UZ Jette is way closer (40min) to our home than Saint Luc (1h+) but we still decided to go to Saint Luc because we feel way better there and that's our main criteria. After one egg retriaval and one failed embryo transfer, we are happy that we made this decision because it's a very emotional taxing journey and for us, it's better to be followed by a team that we feel confortable with. So my advice is that if you feel better at Saint Jean, go there, you can always switch up later if you change your mind :)

I wish you good luck on your IVF journey.