Fertility Treatment in Ireland: 3-Phase Plan

RRM (Restorative Reproductive Medicine) is medical care that identifies and treats the underlying factors causing infertility, rather than bypassing it through assisted reproduction. At NeoFertility we deliver this as a three-phase plan: investigation, cycle balancing, and supported natural conception.

Most fertility treatment in Ireland proceeds to IVF too quickly. We take a different approach. We investigate extensively before we treat, and we treat both of you, not just the woman. If you want to know what will actually happen to you at this clinic, this page walks you through it, phase by phase.

The NeoFertility method is a three-phase restorative fertility treatment protocol developed by Dr. Phil Boyle at his Dublin clinic. Usually, it is not a quick fix. It takes, on average, about 12 months to achieve a successful pregnancy, and the full plan can take up to 12 balanced cycles. Our data shows that pregnancy rates keep improving the longer you persist with treatment.

How restorative fertility treatment differs

Most fertility treatment in Ireland is structured around IVF: ovarian stimulation, egg retrieval, grading and freezing of embryos and repeated transfer. It is a significant undertaking, physically and financially. A single round of IVF in Ireland typically costs EUR 5,000 to EUR 8,000, and most couples need more than one round. Despite state funding, there is no regulator or official statistical reporting for IVF in Ireland. Per HFEA data, the overall average IVF live birth rate per treatment cycle in the UK is currently only 27% (published June 2026).

IVF is less concerned about why you cannot conceive. It bypasses the reproductive system. If the underlying condition is not found and corrected, it stays with you, whether or not IVF succeeds. That is not a criticism of IVF as a technology. It is simply a statement of what it does and does not do.

RRM (Restorative Reproductive Medicine) does something different. We carefully investigate and treat as needed. We look at your hormones, your fertility chart, the male factor, and the timing of ovulation on ultrasound. The diagnostic phase alone often changes the picture entirely.

The three phases are: investigation (Phase 1, roughly 2 months), correction of imbalances (Phase 2, roughly 2 months), and natural conception across up to 12 balanced cycles (Phase 3, which can last from 1 to 18 months). The full plan runs for those 12 balanced cycles, or until a successful birth, whichever comes first.

Phase 1: finding the cause

At your first appointment you will sit down with Dr. Boyle or Dr. Toth for 45 minutes. You will leave with a plan for the next two months, not just a prescription pad. The goal in Phase 1 is to take a thorough survey of your reproductive health and gather the data we need to understand what is keeping you from conceiving. We look at hormone levels, diet, exercise and any underlying conditions that affect your cycle. We assess the male factor from the outset, because male factor accounts for about 40% of cases.

This phase includes:

• Timed blood tests at 7 DPO (Days Post Ovulation) to assess progesterone and oestradiol. This takes 1 to 2 months of charting to do accurately.
• Assessment of the male factor from the first appointment, including semen analysis.
• Supplement and lifestyle guidance tailored to your specific deficiencies, covering diet, sleep, and the factors that impair ovulation quality.
• Fertility charting with a NeoFertility Advisor through ChartNeo, NeoFertility's fertility charting app, which supports Billings, Creighton, Sympto-Thermal, and Marquette methods.

Charting your cycle is not optional in this method. It is one of the most valuable diagnostic tools we have. It lets us assess the quality of your ovulation against timed blood results, and it helps us catch biomarkers that would otherwise go undetected. In many cases, once the chart and the blood work are side by side, the problem is more visible.

Your NeoFertility advisor

When you start charting, you are not working through it alone. We pair you with one of our NeoFertility Advisors, who are trained fertility charting instructors working with us across Ireland, the UK, and Europe.

The Advisor's role in Phase 1 is to teach you how to use ChartNeo accurately, so the chart tells us something clinically useful. We look at the mucus observations, we look at the temperature readings, we look at the identified day of ovulation, and we cross-reference all of it against your timed blood results. That cross-reference only works if the charting has been done correctly, and your Advisor is the person who makes sure it has been.

Most couples need 3 to 4 Advisor sessions, most of them in the first two months when you are learning. Sessions are remote or in person. The clinic pairs you with an Advisor after your first consultation. For pricing detail see our treatment plan cost page, and for the full Advisor list see our team page.

What we find during this phase often changes the picture entirely. In a cohort of 187 couples (Boyle et al., JRRM 2025), what had been labelled unexplained infertility dropped from 24% pre-assessment to just 1% after our full workup. The cause was there all along. It had simply not been investigated thoroughly enough. If you want to understand more about how we approach diagnosis, see our approach to diagnosis.

Phase 2: correcting the imbalance

By Phase 2, we have your blood work and your fertility chart in front of us, and we can see what needs correcting. The goal is to boost and balance your cycle so that you are ovulating properly and your hormone levels are in the optimal physiological range for conception.

We aim for a progesterone level above 60 nmol/L at 7 DPO, and an oestradiol level above 400 pmol/L. These thresholds are higher than the standard day-21 progesterone test, which only answers whether you ovulated at all. What we assess is the quality of the ovulation. The day-21 test is a very basic and poor measure of luteal function by comparison. In our clinical experience, approximately 8 out of 10 couples with impaired fertility show suboptimal hormone levels when properly assessed at 7 DPO.

This phase may include:

• Follicle stimulation to achieve a mature follicle if hormone levels are sub-optimal
• An HCG ovulation trigger where indicated, plus luteal phase HCG support
• Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN), prescribed to 71% of all couples in our 2019 JRRM cohort
• Targeted treatment for conditions that surface during investigation, including endometriosis, PCOS, adrenal fatigue, thyroid dysfunction, or chronic endometritis
• Surgical referral for laparoscopy or hysteroscopy where indicated, with referral to skilled excision surgeons rather than simple ablation

The conditions that surface during Phase 2 can include endometriosis in up to 60% of those who go to laparoscopy, adrenal hypoandrogenism, recurrent miscarriage risk factors, and low hormonal reserve. We look at the conditions we treat individually and apply the appropriate medical treatment for each patient. This is what multi-factorial means in practice: several causes, each addressed specifically.

You will know Phase 2 is working because you can see it. Your blood tests will start to land in the target range. Your chart will start to look like a balanced cycle. We go through both with you at each appointment, so you understand what has changed and why.

Phase 3: natural conception over 1 to 12 cycles

By Phase 3, your hormone levels are healthy and in the optimal range, your fertility chart is normal, and we have confirmed follicle rupture by ultrasound. The identified medical issues have been corrected and your cycle is balanced.

At this point it is normal for conception to take between 1 and 12 cycles. That is not a failure of treatment; it is how fertility works. Pregnancy rates keep improving with each balanced cycle, and the data supports staying the course. In our JRRM 2025 cohort, only 2% of couples discontinued treatment once they had started, compared with discontinuation rates exceeding 65% in published IVF data.

For some women, particularly where the history strongly suggests endometriosis, surgical referral happens earlier in the process rather than after a waiting period. If conception has not occurred after four balanced cycles, we consider whether a laparoscopy is the right next step, to rule out or treat endometriosis or other physical causes that may not have been visible earlier. Throughout Phase 3 you are not waiting in the dark. You understand your chart, you understand your blood results, and you know what a balanced cycle looks like. That is the difference between being a passenger in your care and being a participant in it.

Pregnancy support

Support from NeoFertility does not end with a positive pregnancy test. The early weeks are the most vulnerable, and we monitor you closely throughout:

• Weekly blood tests in the first 3 weeks of pregnancy
• Progesterone support is commenced immediately if indicated
• Blood monitoring every 2 weeks from 8 to 12 weeks, then monthly thereafter
• First pregnancy scan at around 7 to 8 weeks. Very early scans at 6 weeks can be falsely reassuring, which is why we recommend waiting a little longer.
• Follow-up scan at 10 weeks
• Medication to reduce miscarriage risk where hormone levels remain below the target range

This close monitoring is one of the reasons our safety outcomes compare very favourably with IVF. In our published 2019 JRRM cohort, singleton prematurity was 4.0%, compared with 11.8% in CDC IVF data. Our twin rate was 2.5%, against 6 to 7% for IVF. These are real numbers from real patients.

Your GP and obstetrician continue to provide standard antenatal care alongside our monitoring, and we provide GP correspondence and referral letters as needed. You can also read our patient stories to understand what pregnancy support looks like in practice.

You will usually see the same clinician at each appointment. Both Dr. Phil Boyle and Dr. Agnes Toth treat patients at the clinic. Dr. Boyle is the founder of NeoFertility and president of the International Institute for Restorative Reproductive Medicine (IIRRM), an international body of clinicians advancing evidence-based restorative treatments. If you want to know who will be looking after you, see our team page.

Our results in brief

These are real numbers from real patients. In our published 2019 cohort (Boyle et al., JRRM 2025, 187 couples), the crude live birth rate was 41%, with follow-up to 32 months. For couples who had previously failed IVF, our published cohort of 403 couples (Boyle et al., Frontiers in Medicine 2018) achieved an adjusted live birth rate of 32.1%, in a group where the average couple had tried IVF 2.1 times before coming to us.

Our multiple pregnancy rate is 2.5%. For full cohort breakdowns and outcome tables, see our published results.

Why couples choose NeoFertility

A single round of IVF in Ireland typically costs EUR 5,000 to EUR 8,000. Most couples need more than one round. Our treatment plan is a fraction of that cost. For a detailed breakdown of what is included, what to budget for, and how Irish health insurance applies, see our treatment plan cost page.

Beyond cost, the approach is simply different. If you have been told you need donor eggs because of low AMH, we start from a different premise: a low AMH does not necessarily mean poor egg quality, and we have helped women conceive with their own eggs where IVF clinics had declined to treat them. IVF clinics often decline women with a BMI above 35; we do not apply a BMI cap. We only need one good follicle per cycle, not the 8 to 12 that IVF retrieval requires. We assess and treat both partners throughout. And we do not hand you off after conception.

NeoFertility is a restorative fertility clinic at Suite 7, 1st Floor, Beacon Mall, Beacon Court, Sandyford, Dublin 18. Your first consultation is 45 minutes. You do not need a GP referral to book. If you are ready to find out what is actually happening with your fertility, book your first consultation.