I feel used and betrayed

The one thought that went through Slavica Dmitrasinovic's mind a few days ago as she prepared to have her sixth IVF treatment was: "I want to die. I had been so humiliated that I was trembling all over and couldn't have been more stressed," she says. "I was - and am - desperate to conceive but it is deplorable that women like me, who are obviously very vulnerable emotionally, should have to endure what I have."

Slavica's experience centres on Professor Ian Craft and his controversial London Fertility Centre (now the London Gynaecology and Fertility Centre) in Harley Street, which has so far charged her £25,000 for her IVF treatments yet, she says, treated her with contempt.

She says Professor Craft's clinic has also lost irreplaceable embryos, missed her health problems - and thus wasted thousands of pounds on treatments that were never going to be successful - and then threatened to confiscate her passport on the morning of her treatment, when payment was slow at being deposited into the clinic's accounts.

Slavica, who has travelled from her home in Paris for each treatment, says: "I had to plead and argue with them for three hours until they agreed to go ahead," she says.

"I had been told that I probably wasn't conceiving because I was too stressed, so the clinic's attitude towards me was unforgivable and totally unprofessional. I was eventually given my anaesthetic, but I felt so low I hoped it would put me out for good," she says. "I didn't ever want to wake up."

She was already under the anaesthetic when Professor Craft implanted three embryos. She didn't see him immediately before or after the treatment. She said he didn't apologise or try to calm her. Afterwards she sat alone before going home.

Now, Slavica, 49, feels totally betrayed by Craft, a man she consulted and put her trust in because of his reputation as one of the world's leading IVF experts, particularly among older women.

Craft is Britain's most controversial fertility expert and the only one to assist women over the age of 50 to become mothers. Last week he launched an appeal to persuade women to donate their eggs in order to get cheaper IVF treatment for themselves.

Slavica's experience with Craft has so far been unsuccessful. Three women, two of whom she knows, have donated their eggs to help her. She has given up her career, used up her life savings and her marriage is on the rocks - the results, she says, of the strain of the past two years.

Slavica, a former tourist executive and her husband Branko, 41, who are from Yugoslavia, met eight years ago, married in 2000 and now live in Paris where Branko, an economics graduate, works as a waiter. She says: "I know I have left it very late to have a child, but I hadn't met the right man. I had a miscarriage in 1997 but since then, nothing. We consulted gynaecologists but were told there was nothing obviously wrong with us and we should keep trying. Nothing happened.

"Women over 43 are not given fertility treatment in France, but we had read about Professor Craft's successes. In autumn 2000 we came to his clinic and they agreed to help us. We had all sorts of tests and were interviewed by two psychologists. We obviously passed the tests because we were given the green light.

"Because of my age, a girlfriend of 27 donated the eggs. My first implant took place in April 2001, the second in August, the third in October. None worked and I never saw the same consultant twice.

"The implant process itself only takes five minutes. Afterwards I would sit in an armchair for about 20 minutes and then go home. It was all very clinical and no one made me feel special - I thought I was coming to a prestigious clinic where you paid a high price for being made to feel comfortable. But I just felt low.

"The hormone injections I had been taking from the start of 2001 also made me feel fragile and sensitive and the least thing made me cry." But Slavica had set her heart on becoming a mother. Her friend's eggs had all been used, so the clinic organised an anonymous donor. In due course nine eggs were fertilised by her husband and placed in storage.

Professor Craft himself was due to do her fourth implant last April. "At the crucial moment," she recalls "when everything was ready for the implant he suddenly stopped. He said I had a retroverted womb - one that tilts backwards and affects how embryos are implanted - and he couldn't proceed because it would be too painful. He seemed so out of control that I felt frightened. After all, he was the man I was supposed to trust.

"Now I realise that he was upset because my first three treatments probably failed because no one had spotted my retroverted womb and thus implanted the eggs incorrectly.

"At the time I didn't dare question him further in case he stopped the treatment. I was then given an anaesthetic and he implanted two eggs. But no one apologised or explained anything to me."

The treatment failed. "I'd been told my problem could be stress so my husband and I decided to take a six-month break from work paid for by selling a house Branko owned in Luxembourg. The couple went on gentle trips to European seaside and mountain resorts and Slavica had aromatherapy and antistress massages.

The night before the fifth embryo implant was due, a doctor at Craft's London Fertility Centre phoned to confirm that everything was ready.

Slavica arrived at the clinic last November feeling more confident, relaxed and hopeful than she had for years. "We had had five eggs from an anonymous donor that had been fertilised by my husband," she recalls.

"I was put through various tests, including a scan of my womb, and I was told I was in peak condition. The doctor went to get the embryos that had been donated, fertilised and then frozen, but when she returned she told me they had gone.

"I was so shocked. Why had they told me Branko had to repeat all the physical and psychological tests. They were again given the all-clear and Slavica started hormone treatments in May this year. "Then, about a fortnight ago when my cousin arrived at the clinic to donate her eggs, she was told they couldn't remove them as I hadn't paid for the treatment," continues Slavica. "They called me in Paris asking for the full £5,000 for the next IVF treatment in advance. I gave them my credit card details, and they took out £2,500 one day and £500 the next. "This put me over my credit limit, so they couldn't take out any more. They said unless they received the final £2,000 immediately, all treatment for the donor and myself would
stop. I pleaded with them to give me a few days, and then when I did give them the money, they told me I owed £300 and unless I paid that they would confiscate my passport.

"The treatment proceeded and it's a relief it's over. I will have tests next week to find out whether it has been successful. But, whatever happens, I will never get over how appallingly I have been treated. I hope no one else suffers as I have."

Shirley Reynolds, centre manager at the London Gynaecology and Fertility Centre said that Professor Craft was abroad and uncontactable but added: "We cannot comment on individual cases because of client confidentiality."