IVF Pelargos

Our journey with Pelargos, Dr Karpouzis & his team has been an absolute dream. It started totally by luck as we were picked as winners for treatment with Pelargos, back at the end of 2022. Something I still can’t believe I won. From those initial phone calls with Dr Karpouzis, to where we are now is just amazing. Before finding out about Pelargos, my partner and I were feeling pretty hopeless after such a bad experience in the UK/Ireland.

Dr Karpouzis is something special and he doesn’t realise how people in our position value him, and his team. What he has done for us in just over a year is something I will cherish forever.

I wish I could let every single person who is feeling lost on this journey know about Pelargos because no matter what comes of it, you know you will be given the best chance and care there is.

I’m still pinching myself and counting my blessings, but honestly, without a shadow of a doubt, Pelargos IVF is always the right choice.

Dr Harry and his team are great. The hospital is nice and modern. Communication despite my coming from the UK was quick and in good English. Could be a little more by way of confirmation eg a formal email with how to prepare etc but maybe we are too big on that in the UK.


The surgery went smoothly. There was an extra last-minute cost but the doctor split the cost with me which was kind. I wished I had a single room though and upgraded, I didn’t sleep as my roommate and her husband talked every hour of the night. There are no privacy curtains around the beds. Also, bring snacks!!! The hospital doesn’t feed you in the 24 hours after surgery due to the anaesthetic. So the only pain I remember is hunger! Everything else was great

Dr Harry and the team have been amazing to me throughout my IVF journey. I honestly didn't think I would be pregnant sitting here writing this review given the odds in my situation due to my very low amh and being told by other clinics to consider donor eggs. I can say that Dr Harry did not ever mention these options to me and made me feel at ease during the whole process, being there to answer all my questions at any time during the day was very easy to get hold of. I cannot thank him and the team enough for everything they have done for me and for understanding my situation. I will forever be grateful as my IVF worked the first time around and I am still gobsmacked. If you are in doubt about what clinic to use I would highly recommend to stop looking and using Pelargos. Lots of love from me and my family x

I want to start this by saying, please do not hesitate! Dr. Karpouzis and his team are AMAZING! All of the research and reviews are 100% accurate, he is the BEST! We are welcoming a miracle next week and it is ALL because of him! An INCREDIBLE doctor and midwife! We are so lucky to have met him!

We started our fertility journey in 2021 in the US where we were unsuccessful with two rounds of IUI, and we weren’t happy with the doctors, treatment, and overall experience. I was 37 at the time and knew my time was limited. This is when we had to decide if we wanted to continue in the states with IVF and find another doctor that we trusted as it would be 100% out of pocket. Both us of traveled outside the US for work regularly so looking outside of the states for treatment was an option and wasn’t intimidating for us. That is when we began our research looking into the best fertility doctors in Europe reading EVERY article, statistic, review, etc. We decided to reach out to the few we narrowed down, but in doing further research we decided the best of the best was where we wanted to start and wanted to make contact with Pelargos IVF. Dr. Karpouzis was our top choice but knew it would come down to how comfortable we felt after a phone interview. So, we sent an inquiry and scheduled the video consultation.

Our inquiry was responded to and we scheduled the phone consultation within a few days of our request. Dr. Karpouzis spent at least 30 minutes with us and didn’t require any kind of deposit for the consult. He directly explained their approach to IVF, what the timeline and process would look like and was extremely straightforward. Dr. H explained what he would recommend, the testing needed and answered every question we had. He reassured us it was our decision without any pressure and provided next steps if we wanted to proceed. Ultimately, we decided to put the deposit down and schedule for a few months down the road at the beginning of the next year. We finally had a plan! It was so nice to not feel rushed or pressured, but have a plan.

When we arrived to start the process, Dr. Karpouzis and his midwife, Vasiliki welcomed us and made us feel right at home. Throughout our 3 week treatment, Vasiliki and Dr. were in direct contact with me every day and reassured me with ANY questions I had along the way. The personalised treatment I received was amazing.

We had appointments scheduled for every couple of days and ended with 5-day blastocysts. We had 2 eggs that were top quality and although the odds were against us, we decided to go with a fresh transfer of only 1 egg. The instructions were to take it easy for the next few days where we stayed in Marousi, and departed for work travel in Europe for the next couple of weeks. While on travel, I was still on medication and Dr. Karpouzis was in direct contact with me the entire time and even helped me with sourcing medication in foreign countries where the brand of the drug was different from that we got in Greece. We were in two different countries traveling while getting the pregnancy blood test done at day 12 and day 14, and once we got the results we sent them to Dr. Karpousiz via WhatsApp, and he immediately reviewed and confirmed pregnancy! He advised an ultrasound was needed at week 6 and to stay the course with medication. We felt so comfortable with him and his team that we ended up flying back to Greece for the 6 week ultrasound to confirm a heartbeat. It felt like coming home when we arrived and saw him and his team! He performed the ultrasound and wished us the best. We considered a birthing option in Greece just because of how at home we felt with him. Once we arrived back home, he checked on me to guide me through the next ultrasound until I was able to see a doctor here in the states. Just amazing!

If I could rate him I would give him 100000 stars and we cannot wait to return for another transfer! Our little miracle is scheduled for delivery next week and we are so excited to send an update to Dr. Karpousiz and Vasiliki!

Dr. Harry is very patient, and he is very upright, almost answering every question.
My email is full of Dr. Harry's emails.

Moreover, he has not yet charged you a penny and is still very patient in helping you answer all your questions.

I believe he must be an excellent doctor.

At the same time, I feel that he is a very, very smart, sensitive, and intelligent doctor.
If there is an opportunity to collaborate, I feel that he is extremely creative and able to flexibly solve various problems.

Harry is an excellent Doctor. He was very honest/realistic with us throughout the process. He is very knowledgeable and made suggestions the UK doctors didn’t seem to have considered.

After 4 years of failed IVF in the UK, we now have 2 healthy twin babies thanks to Harry. We will be forever grateful.

We couldn’ have ask for a better Doctor! Dr Harry works with heart, and kindness and takes a measured approach to ensure the best chance of success. After one failed attempt with IVF using another Doctor, we decided to do some research on the internet to see if we could find a qualified Doctor and we found Dr Harry through Whatclinic.

The day we went to see him in his office my husband and I immediately saw that he was the Doctor we had been looking for. We immediately made plans to start our next Ivf journey with him, and we thank God, it was the best decision we have made in our life!

I, as a 35-year-old woman with a very poor ovarian reserve (0.31ng/ml) was really challenging because I could not produce more than two eggs per cycle, but he did everything possible to make it happen by changing my protocol, doses………finally we got two blastocysts that resulted in a beautiful and healthy baby boy who is now two months old(we did two retrievals and one transfer).

We can't explain the joy and happiness we have to be called parents today! We deeply appreciate Dr Harry for playing an important role in this journey! We thank each one of his team as they were equally as caring and professional. We absolutely recommend Pelargos Clinic for everyone who plans to do IVF.

My experience with pelagros IVF and Dr Karpousis has been entirely positive. We spent a long time looking into clinics abroad as our research pointed to clinics in Greece and Prague had the highest success rates in europe. our decision to go with pelagros IVF was based on his high first cycle success rates. At the moment I'm 10 weeks pregnant after just one cycle. I found Dr Karpousis to be completely professional and always responded to my questions about medication etc. He set out a plan for my cycle, and we decided to do a frozen cycle, as this can lead to higher success rates.

When my eggs were collected he got 10 mature eggs, nine of these fertilized and we got 6 day 5 embryos. I came back to Athens a few months later for the transfer which was successful. Dr Karpousis took his time with our cycle and it was worth the wait. The clinic he was based in for my cycle was at IASO hospital in Athens, but I know that he works out of a few different clinics in Athens, depending on the customers needs or age. IASO institute of life clinic, the staff were great too, and we are so impressed by the lab there. The embryologist explained to me on the day of my transfer that we had been selected to have our embryos scanned with new artificial intelligence technology to rate the embryos chances of pregnancy. We were really grateful for this and that lab is known to be one of the most advanced in Europe.

One embryo was given 89% chance and the other 39%. We have found this to be accurate. Dr Karpousis staff Elizabeth and Maria were very helpful and friendly too, organising different parts of the cycle and getting prescriptions and referral letters. My experience was great with both the clinic and Dr Karpousis and we would completely recommend pelagros IVF, going to Athens itself was lovely and Athens is a really interesting historical city to explore.

Outstanding treatment from start to finish. Informed by our doctor personally every step of the way. Made a dream become a reality.

If you are reading this review you are most probably one step away from making your decision regarding a choice of a clinic, struggling to find this one decisive factor, as most of the clinics show excellent statistics.

The good news is those general statistics do look good for most of the clinics as technologies and science made big progress in the field of IVF.
The bad news is that none of these statistics can be 100% applicable to you.

What counts is a tailor-made treatment based on your individual condition. And that is exactly what you get at IVF Pelargos as Dr Karpouzis is personally following on your case, adjusting protocol as you go.

The combination of a strong academic background, experience but also being passionate about his job as well as fully dedicated to the positive result of your treatment, makes Dr Karpouzis an exceptional doctor.
Being 10 weeks pregnant, I have only positive thinking regarding the outcome of my pregnancy but even if it would not lead to the desired outcome, I know I would fly back to Greece and would be in the best possible hands. This gives me peace of mind.

Special thanks to Maria for all the patience and kindness!

I started my fertility journey back in 2019 in the UK with three rounds of unsuccessful IUI treatments in UK.

I was advised to look at maybe using an egg donor due to my age and this would increase my chances of success. Unfortunately, the prices in the UK were astronomical and this would’ve meant that for me it would not have been possible. However, when investigating worldwide I came across Pelargos IVF and Harry Karpouzis MD.

Scientific Director Pelargos IVF in Athens and Institute of Life. This is one of the largest and most advanced Assisted Reproduction Units in Greece. It was established within the premises of “IASO”, the largest Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic in Greece.

Of all the fertility clinics I looked at, this was by far the best and most traceable. I looked at reviews and peoples comments that had been there before for treatment and felt very confident in my choice.

From all information and communication from my first contact in November 2019. I was made to feel very included and informed. Every single question or query that I had was answered very quickly. Costs were exactly as explained from day one with no additional costs that were ever undisclosed. They even guarantee two embryos which on my first attempt I did have, but unfortunately only two.

In my first round of IVF in February 2020, I had the two embryos implanted, unfortunately, this was unsuccessful.

The great communication continued and we discussed what we could change to make the chances of success better this time. I felt included every step of the way, understanding every stage with ease, even through the hard times of a failed attempt, the start of a pandemic and the COVID-19 testing: we were able to get another egg donor that would hopefully be more compatible and harvest the eggs by April which was amazing.

Out of 10 eggs that were harvested, 7 reached the embryo stage. These were 5-day blastocyst. This was amazing after only getting two the first time around.

With the lockdown starting at this time and travel being difficult from the UK they were frozen.

As soon as we were able to downcycle me and arrange travel together with accommodation we were able to go ahead again in August 2020.

The week before I was due to travel everything went wrong, a scan appointment with the radiographer at Harry’s request revealed a large fibroid. The scan showed that this fibroid was on the outside of my uterus. The fibroid was large 12.5 cm x 13 cm. I immediately contacted Harry who said he wanted to look into things, but would get back to me immediately, a phone call a few hours later confirmed that it was fine to go ahead with the implantation. He felt the fibroid, would not affect the chances of pregnancy, he would prefer it removed but it was my choice. However, a successful pregnancy for me might prove painful and challenging. The choice at this point was whether to go ahead now or get the fibroid removed. With seven embryos I decided to go ahead and take the risk with the support of Harry.

This wasn’t the end of my problems as at this point my mother who was due to travel with me had a fall and broke her wrist she was unable to accompany me but luckily my auntie stepped in and took her place.

I had two of the seven embryos implanted made a point of resting for four days after implantation before travelling home. To my immense joy, this was successful and I was able to see a positive result on a home pregnancy test within 10 days. I then had the pregnancy confirmed with two blood tests a couple of days apart. This confirmed I was indeed pregnant. I had an early scan at seven weeks to confirm everything was okay and whether there were one or two embryos.

Where am I at now?
I’m 47 years old, and I am very pleased to let you know I have a beautiful healthy baby boy born 7lb 14oz in May 2021. With 5 embryos still frozen and further opportunities to increase my family availability.

This is all thanks to Dr. Harry Karpouzis and the Pelargos IVF team at the Institute of life facility, Iaso Hospital in Athens, Greece. They will always hold a special place in my heart, “thank you guys so much, I might even see you again.

When I saw the 2 hearts beating at the scan, my heart started smiling and shining. Dr Harris, You have made what could have been a very difficult time much easier.

You are the most professional, confident and efficient doctor Harris Karpouzis. Thank you for everything you did for us. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Dr Harry and Team were attentive from the start. He would respond quickly to questions throughout the process and the service was so much more personal (and about the 3rd of the cost!) of London based clinics. We are now 5 months pregnant and would definitely recommend this clinic. Going to Athens was a great opportunity to fit in a couple of enjoyable breaks and to see some of Greece. Maria can help you organise the trip. Thanks, Dr Harry, Maria and team!