First Fertility Clinic Appointment Tomorrow

I think I'm gonna have to against the grain here and say the mechanics of IVF really don't phase me (it's so cool what they can do! Assisted hatching in particular boggles my mind) and I don't mind self injections. It's just stuff we have to do right? No point thinking about it too much, we just have to get on with it - one day at a time :)

@paintfairy soooo much easier to be a man. OH keeps moaning about his SA last week and every time he mentions it I remind him he didn't have a small man wiping his nether regions with his face right up to it like I did.

@Kitekat81 I think that's how I was! Kind of threw me. I just assumed they worked with your body. 🤣 Clearly not!
@thislittlebird I suppose after the event it'll seem worth it, if it works for you. But if you have to do it several times it'll be difficult. Easier to be a man!

Yeah I really am not keen on the whole ivf everything (doctor told me I would need short protocol) but I don’t know what else to do if we can’t get pregnant through other means, it’s horrible. My friend’s friend had to have it and she definitely thinks it was worth it to get her two children but the prospect is so daunting.

I think my partner would have to inject me too if we got to that.

@paintfairy yeh ivf is so invasive. I never realised about the whole 'artificial menopause' thing until recently, I was like what?! What if it doesn't come back?! And injecting myself everyday, would need to be so strong to do that (I don't think I could do it, I'd have to get my partner to do it). But it does work for a lot of people, and I'm sure when they have their baby in their arms they forget about all of that!

Apparently if you have low AMH they have to push your ovaries/follicles a lot harder to try and produce as many eggs as possible, so they put you on a "long protocol" i.e. more intense stimulation drugs over a longer period, which makes it even less appealing vs. natural ivf.

@Kitekat81 interesting. Yes that makes sense though and seems like a good option. I honestly never realised until the last few days (never really looked!) how much they mess with you for ivf. I honestly assumed they just drugged you to support the stage of your cycle. Not shut the whole thing down and did their own thing. Which seems strange to me, but what do I know! 😏 Its not something that sits that comfortably with me if I'm honest. But I'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Thanks @Juno231 yeh I was looking at Create and have signed up to one of their webinars. They don't have any clinics near me (I'm in Scotland) but I still don't want to rule anything out. Yep I've been taking 200mg of ubiquinol since about July last year, and upped it to 400mg when I turned 39 in November.

@Kitekat81 I don't know where you're based but create fertility are meant to be the best as natural ivf and they don't even have a minimum amh requirement the way most other ivf clinics do from what I gather. All you need is 1-2 good embryos after all!

BTW low amh doesn't mean low quality eggs either - but if you're worried I'd def start with the ubiquinol if you aren't on it already.

@paintfairy no it's not ideal. It ties in with my low follicle count (6/7) and means I have reduced ovarian reserve. It doesn't necessarily mean I can't get pregnant naturally, as long as I'm popping out one egg a month then technically I can get pregnant, but as I don't have as many left it means the eggs I have left are likely to be lower quality. The main thing it indicates is that I wouldn't be a great candidate for ivf. Ivf is all about the numbers, they want to get the most eggs out of you because the drop off rate from retrieval to fertilisation to having embryos suitable for transfer is big. Starting an ivf cycle with only 6ish follicles wouldn't be great, I'd be lucky to end up with even one embryo. I'm going to try and find out a bit more about natural ivf which is supposed to be good for people with low AMH. They focus on just getting one good egg out of you, so you don't have as many stimulation drugs and the cost per cycle is lower. The success rate isn't great, but apparently it's similar to the success rate of normal ivf for someone with low AMH. So I guess if I'm going to do something with a low chance of success, I might as well do the cheaper one with less drugs involved? I need to do a lot more research about it. There's also nowhere near me that does it so it would require a lot more travel costs if we went down that road.

It certainly would have been more of a shock than the offer of a phone call! Lol

AMH seems such a big range, I’m not sure what it tells beyond the egg levels roughly

@Kitekat81 they haven't mentioned testing my amh but part of me doesn't want to know!
2.2? That's not ideal is it? What does that mean for you?

@Juno231 what a shambles about your appointment date! Thank goodness you questioned it otherwise you would have a ridiculously long wait! Have you had your AMH tested yet? I got my results back this week - mine was 2.2

Lol @thislittlebird I chuckled at the receptionist "helping" your hubby with his SA 🤣🤣🤣

@thislittlebird @Juno231 glad it wasn't just me! I'm still sat laughing to myself! 🤣

@thislittlebird @paintfairy that's how I read it too lmao!! Thought you took it well considering how inappropriate it was!

@PurpleUnicorn01 I think the NHS app depends on your GP surgery? I had it at my old one before I moved in Oct but the new surgery uses patient access and none of my new tests have ended up on there.

Hahaha @paintfairy, that would be a different level of service lmao

@Juno231 OMG. What on earth? A secretary that isn't a secretary? 🤣 July is ludicrous. As you say- for a proper follow up maybe but not for your results! You need to know if anything is bloody wrong. And ok you asked and they have moved it, but why were they being idiotic in the first place? I bet most people just accept it. My appointment was a week and a half after DHs SA and the results were back. So you should be ok?

I'm not even sure if they are testing my AMH to be honest. That's another question to add to my list! I'll email next week. I'm a bit confused. As I'm to sign paperwork for funding etc at the same time as my HSG but I'm sure she mentioned blood tests. So what if they come back with something? Whatever they are even for! 🤣

@thislittlebird omg. I misinterpreted that. The receptionist offered to do it for him. 🤣 I was thinking- that's a bit involved?! 😱

@Juno231 my husbands results came within 10 days. Also download the nhs app for you both. I think you can link it to your drs surgery results to show on there. I know you can book your appointments through it.

Oh that’s interesting @Juno231. Glad they moved it forward, six months for results is stupid.

My husband has to ring and book his own SA too and then the second time the receptionist actually offered to do it for him which was a shock. He still did it himself in the end.

I’m sure my husband’s results took a couple of weeks at absolute most.

Have you got your AMH results now? I don’t understand why the nhs work like this tbh, it’s really odd and makes no sense. Why not book results appointments straight after or get the GP to tell you? It’s strange.

So ladies - OH had his SA this morning and I emailed the doctor's secretary to let her know the last test has been done and can I please arrange a follow up. She emailed me with a number to call to set this up (no offence but how does it work to have a secretary that doesn't set up appointments?). It was the wrong number but the person gave me the right one to call - which in turn took 15 min of being on hold to get through... only to be told my 8th of July appointment is the follow up! I told them surely it's unreasonable to have to wait 6 months between appointments just to hear what my results are? So the central booking guy agreed and said he'd try and move it forward for me, and booked it in for the 25th of March - PHEW!

Now I'm panicking that the SA results might not be done by then? But surely they should be! @paintfairy your OH's didn't take long did they?

On the one hand I'm anxious because I've clearly altered the timeline the doctor had set up but on the other hand I'm fuming. The results could show something is wrong and they would wait another 4 months to even start to address it? Plus it ignores the part where I could take the results and just go private to sort it AND it ignores that the doctor was concerned that my AMH might be low and said if it was, we'd get started on assisted conception straight away.

@xpeach123 do check this thread if you're wondering about your first fertility appointment! (creepy lurker here, soz!)

@ThashG that will be really specific to your trust I think? That is, if I look at my local ccg policy it lists which clinics I can choose from, so it's not just random ones where I can pick whatever I want. So check that first, then check their stats against your Age/AMH or whatever and def check for user reviews! E.g. one of my options is St Helier but if I check mumsnet for it the feedback is godawful and I'd avoid it like the plague if I could.

Hi there, I’m 34 and have been offered IVF via the NHS after 2.1/2 years of unsuccessful attempts of conceiving. I really don’t know which clinic to choose. Has anyone any experience of the HEFA website? Or does anyone have any recommendations? I only know of the ARGC clinic but that’s a private clinic and it’s one of the best in the world. Any recommendations for NHS funded clinics? Thank you in advance smile

Yeah it’s a lot because you suddenly don’t really know if you’re ovulating or not @Positivity2019. I suspect I am but whether it’s every month or not is hard to say. One doctor said to me that it would be 4 or under if there was no ovulation, no idea how accurate that is.

I’ve started taking b6 after ovulation this month exactly for this reason, and I also read that vitamin c is good for progesterone from what I recall, so I added that to my collection. There’s a fair bit of useful info online if you fancy going down the low progesterone rabbit hole when you’re feeling up to it. I did read some positive threads on the topic though and I found them quite calming.

I think stress can interfere with it too when we produce too much cortisol so I do wonder if that’s much of the issue for a lot of us.

@thislittlebird it’s quite a shock getting such low results isn’t it. That is quite reassuring though that people are still successful despite low levels.
I have been researching vitamins and supplements that might help but it’s so overwhelming. I was taking Vitamin B6 through last year. I tried wheatgrass supplements because I heard that might help. I dabbled in Coq10 although not for very long. I stopped it all last Autumn because I was just feeling overwhelmed by it all.

@paintfairy that’s good on the SA front, hoping my DH will improve too 😬

Referral process yeah, it’s frustrating how slow mine is but yours sounds ok after the slow GP bit.

@Positivity2019 hello, so sorry to hear about your ectopic, that sounds awful. Feel free to join me in the low progesterone club . Mine was 10 last month, but I’ve read some threads since where people have got pregnant despite low results so maybe there’s hope for us yet.

Hello everyone. This has been such an interesting and reassuring thread to read. I had a phone consultation with a GP yesterday after two 21 day blood tests showed my progesterone levels at 9.3 and 7.2. So shockingly low. In all likelyhood not ovulating regularly. GP has referred us for further fertility investigation and honestly I have been a mess of emotions since yesterday. Had to leave my work early and took the day off today to regroup.
I have had a pregnancy last year which ended in a surgically managed Ectopic and I lost my right tube. So I must ovulate sometimes but it all feels very hopeless. Been trying since June 2019.
Your knowledge has helped me understand what to expect going forward and I can be asking for too, so thank you.