Tips on speeding up getting to fertility clinic - advice please

Mirry
Glad you are at least in the system. Allthough clinic has said no chance of a cancelletaion it is worth ringing up every 3 weeks or so once you get the date of your apointment to see if they have any earlier dates. Te reality is that some people DO cancel....one of the obvious reasons being that they become preg before the appointment. At work we have a bizarrely high nmber of people who have had fertility issues and i dont know why or how but at 4 of them became spontaneously pregnant after having been told no chance of anything without help.

I do have a slight word of caution about using a private clinic when you are on the NHS list. There is slight variation in the tests used in some clinics. This is because some specialists are more comprehensive on what they ask the diagnostic tests to report on. ironically it is often the NHS that is more thorough in this respect. Also - check with your local PCT on this one - some areas will prevent you having free fertility treatment (tests aren't included) if you have started on the private track. It ISNT fair and is based on the crazy idea that just because you can pay for £300 worth of tests that you can find the money for all treatment. Rules vary around the country.

Hiya Mirry,

It's also worth remembering that Lord Winston said recently most fertility problems were caused by people not having enough sex. Aparently we have it something like 40% less than women in the 1950s. It's not surprising that we take so long to get pregnant, I think I only conceived because I ov'd over Christmas and neither of us was working and were bd'ing every day (not out of pressure, just having fun at Christmas! hehe!) I'm sure it'll happen soon xx

Certainly my experience of the NHS is close to yours though it sounds as if some of the waiting times are reduced - we were referred in Jan and got an appt in June (having had a number of tests done). They will probably want to go through cycle monitoring so you will have a month where they take bloods and scan you to see what is happening (ie they'll watch the follicle grow etc). They may want to repeat dh's sperm test as the results can change over time. So your second appointment may not be for 3 months (they want a separate month to do the hsg, though in my case there was an 8 month waiting list for HSGs as they did them as part of a lap and dye)

Kings has a fairly good reputation.

You have only been trying for a year, and statistically you are fairly likely to concieve within the next 12 months. The doctors you will be seeing know this, and it does impact their treatment - they're not in such a rush with you, because until something is shown to be wrong, then you probably don't need any potentialy invasive treatment.

If that were not the case, and either you were trying for longer, or you knew you had some issue then I would recommend going privately. Some of the London clincs have very good results, and would be able to finish the tests within 3 months of your first appt (which would be say in the next 2 weeks), and you could be having treatment fairly quickly (you may be prescribed clomid whilst undergoing the cycle monitoring, though some NHS hospitals also do that).

Hi Mirry,

Sorry you didn't really get the answers you wanted. My advice would be to start the process going, if everything has initially shown up normal, then there's a good chance you will conceive in the next few months. Try not to get too hung up on dates etc, I kept setting myself deadlines, eg if I get pregnant now I can have the baby before I'm 36/before christmas/before the tax year ends!!! I ended up driving myself crazy! Personally I would prefer not to have my first child due a month AFTER my 37th birthday, but I'd rather that than no child. Start the ball rolling with the hospital, don't sweat as each month goes by, because that's a fast way to make yourself miserable. Good luck xx

ps I think the self funding thing you mentioned means that after diagnosis of any problems, you can finance the treatment yourself (ie IVF, IUI, ICSI etc) but not before.

Positive reports on Kings so will be worth the wait. have you managed to sneak away from your guests to make a call. Also they do have a "last minute cancellations" list. Good Luck

Mirry, yes, I had to have all the tests again that I had at the GP surgery. This really infuriated me (and dp!!) as I wondered why they had bothered at all if the hospital would not rely on the gp tests. I had to have bloods on day 3 and 21. I have an hsg and internal scan booked for monday (yuk!) and dp still hasn't done his semen sample yet and then we have to wait another 2 months to do the follow up one. (None of this helped by GP losing the first semen sample test results so dp had to do another for them, he's completely fed up with all this!). I'm just plodding along hoping that against the odds I fall pregnant before the final appointment to discuss all this!

Hi Mirry, I hate to say it, but your experience sounds very similar to mine. I'm in battersea so I was referred to St Helier assisted conception unit (after I'd fibbed to gp about how long we'd been trying, said it was a year when it was actually about 8 months) I'd had all my bloods done at gps, with everything coming back normal, I had a pcos scan, which came back negative, and dh had a semen test which came back ok. I was referred to st Helier, it took about 10 weeks to get an appointment, I had a couple of tests done straight away (swabs, internal, bit of a chat and some more bloods, exactly the same tests!) then had to wait another two months for an hsg (hysterosalpingogram sp?). That was in September and, this bit really makes me weep, I was then booked in for yet another pcos scan (I have absolutely no symptoms of pcos) in January, yet another sperm test for dh and my follow appointment was booked for July 2007, a full year after my first referral!!! A friend of mine who's a director at Liverpool women's hospital was quite shocked at how slow the system was at St Helier, so maybe it's just London services that are so stretched. it wouldn't surprise me, NHS spending per capita in London is the lowest in the country, despite having some of the greatest need. I really hope you are able to speed the process up, it does drive you mad when they double up tests so much, no wonder the NHS is so short of cash! There is some good news though, I cancelled my last pcos scan as I'm 8 weeks pg, so maybe you'll have the same lucky break! Fingers crossed! x

Mirry, I got referred to an assisted conception unit in west london and had an appointment to see the nurse to discuss my history within 2 months, I think this is about the standard time. However, my hospital does have a waiting list for anyone who is prepared to come in at very short notice, I'm not able to but you may be?? Some people literally cancel on the day (sick child, etc) and it would very much be worth finding out if your hospital had such a waiting list. From seeing the nurse we then had to wait until the next month in my cycle to have blood tests, a semen sample and for me to have internal scans. You then have to repeat the semen sample about 2 months later and then have an appointment about a week after that to discuss all the findings. So actually I was surprised at how quick it has all been going along. Good luck.

some people choose to keep it secret, some to share the information. You have to decide where the balance lies for you as a couple between getting support and extra stress of the 'any-luck-yet?' variety. We chose to tell a couple of friends each and found having an outlet that wasn't each other vital.

Honestly - call them. They're very used to worried people calling trying to understand their systems. And they're bound to have been asked the same question before. My only concern would be whether they would accept privately done tests or whether they'd insist on redoing them.

Have you read the Ben Elton book 'Inconceivable' - very true description of IVF IMO. Also the Prof Winston book 'IVF Revolution' is good although a bit old. He recommends red wine

I'll ask someone who does for you . In the meantime give them a ring. I think it is worth saying that even though you are 35 time is on your side.

Mirry, I suggest you call the clinic direct and ask a little more information. At our local centre it can take about 8 weeks to get an appointment letter but then the appointment folows VERY quickly after. Typically 2- 3 weks later. As eek says the staff at the centre are often much more client centred and are a mine of information.

The caution I would have about goign private at this stage is that it you could shell out quite a lot for just the basic tests. In many cases they will want to to blood and other tests again in order to get a diagnosis. Personlly I would rather save that money to pay for actual treatment if needed.
Do you know what clinic you have been referred to?

It wasn't a problem at all as the consultant I saw also worked in the NHS clinic, which was handy. I think I was having tests etc privately in around january/february & was due to start IVF in the august. The wait for the infertility clinic was several months so if I'd done it all on the NHS it would have at least doubled the wait which, after trying over 2 years and being in my 30s I wasn't really too keen on.

This was all in Edinburgh so I'm not sure if it applies elsewhere.

HTH