Private Fertility Tests

[Worried2010]

Hello! I am new to this and hoping to find some advice / cheering up...

We have been ttc for 6 months and are wanting to looking at some basic fertility tests. We know that the NHS won't generally allow this until you have been trying for at least a year, so we are looking at going privately. Does anyone have any experience of this (partic. in Scotland) and know how much it is likely to costs and if you need a GP referral / how easy it is to get one from your GP if you go private.

I realise that we may be being hasty but we are keen to find out sooner rather than later if there is a problem rather than spend another 6 months going through this stress and upset only to find it was never possible in the first place.

Any advice would be very welcome - or just some cheering stories from people who have been through this and come out (sucessfully) at the other end without having to get help!

[helenlouisey]

Hi worried2010, I'm afraid I don't have any experience of this in Scotland, only England (London) but my experience was that after 6 months of trying I self referred to a specialist in London, I believe that many private consultants will allow you to self refer. Have you managed to find any private consultants / clinics in your area of Scotland? If I was you I'd maybe go to your GP and see what they say ? or call a couple of places and see if they accept self referrals?

My initial consulation cost around �£200 I think, then depends on what further tests you need, I believe my HSG was around �£350 and bloods probably rans to about �£100 in the end. My husbands sperm test was a couple of hundred pounds I think it may have been less.

Good luck

[LucyT66]

The Glasgow Centre for Reproductive Medicine (which also has a centre in Edinburgh) is absolutely superb.

You can go for a basic assessment - ovarian and semen analysis, simply to find out how things are looking. It costs around £200.

[InMyPrime]

Hi, if you've been trying for 6 months, it shouldn't be a problem for you to get your GP to run some basic check-up tests for you. We've been TTC in Edinburgh for about 4 months and I've already had a Day 21 test done by my GP (mainly because my cycle has gone completely haywire ) and my husband is getting a sperm test this week. I think it depends on the GP. Some will fob you off and tell you to wait but our GP was happy to get some initial tests done for us.

If you want anything more than basic tests done then it is true that you may have to wait unless you have clear infertility problems. My Day 21 test results showed ovulation, according to my GP, so she did say then that she would find it hard to justify referral to a specialist with those results as people with abnormal results are given priority for specialist referrals, So if TTC-ing for the next few months still doesn't result in anything for us, then we will face a wait to get any further help. But initial tests like sperm analysis and Day 21 bloods should be available from your GP for free I imagine, so there's no point in forking out for these unnecessarily!

[Worried2010]

Thanks for the tips everyone. We are off to see our GP next week and will take it from there, depending on how helpful she is!