First Fertility Clinic Appointment Tomorrow

@Juno231 oh and 🥳 for AF. Yes I know what you mean!

@Juno231 wonder if they'll repeat later if treatment is ages? God i hope not......

Yeah I don’t get it @Juno231 but here we are.

I had my call with the private doctor (13 minutes 🙄) and they’re going to do a monitored cycle on me this month. I’m thoroughly confused by the range of reactions I get to this progesterone issue.

They think I do ovulate because someone who doesn’t ovulate would have a result of 3 or 4 so they think I’m ovulating and missing the peak. So I’m going for a follicle scan this week, a blood test when LH is detected, and then another scan later in the month.

I really hate all the waiting and lack of answers involved with all this, and the stress, obviously, and last but not least the cost of the private involvement. Hopefully by the time this monitored cycle is done I’ll have heard from the nhs re wait time.

@paintfairy ah yes I did read somewhere today that they only get repeated if it's been more than 3 months since they were last done. AF showed at 1pm! I'm so relieved for once.

I had to have day 3 and 21 for the referral. It was the day 3 they couldn't get right and the referral bounced back because of it.
I'm not having to have them repeated though because they were recent.
@Juno231 has AF appeared?

@thislittlebird yeah that sounds bonkers to me as the whole reason why those things are measured on Day 3 is that it has the least interference from your cycle - otherwise it can vary wildly across it. Doesn't matter though, the referral is most important as they seem to redo most of these tests anyway (which I'm now thinking might be because they know how random they can be depending on the referring GP!)

@Juno231Ours just wanted two sets of day 21 (in which they do thyroid, lh, FSH too) and then off you go. I do think there’s a huge lack of consistency on this front across the system and it’s not reassuring.

Yeah I’m not looking forward to the quick fire question round @Flutterby8. I need to make sure I ask everything and worry less about the cost I suppose.

@Flutterby8 @thislittlebird I didn't think you were allowed to get a referral without a day 3 test? IMO it's just as important the day 21 one as it checks your thyroid functions, PCOS indicators, menopause indicators etc. Either way they'll make you "redo" them once you get to the fertility app but my god it's making me lose all faith in GPs!

@thislittlebird I'm just going to wait for my referral now rather than go back to the GP for day 3 bloods. Im sure I will get a better plan with the hospital than my GP will offer so Ill bide my time.
I will have to dig all the results out and look into them properly as i had other tests run at the same time. I didnt really pay that much attention to them as my progesterone was low. Thats a job for another day though!!
Sounds like your phone call will be like a quick fire round of questions!! Lets hope you can speak quick enough and get as many questions answered as possible!!

@Flutterby8 do we have the same GP? Lol. I was never asked to do a day 3 test either despite asking about it because of early menopause concerns. The first doctor I tried raising it with didn’t even pay attention to what I was trying to say about the wrong time of the month. I went for the private AMH test and follicle scan in the end and my AMH was 36 with 28 follicles. I’m not sure if it’s worth asking for the day 3 test now I’ve done those, I can’t change it, all I can do is carry on with the plan as it is for now.

The other GP I spoke to said it should be over 30 for progesterone. I’ve had results of 17.5 and now 10 (although I think if I had done it on day 21 it might have been a little higher this time, I tried to adjust it for my own cycle to day 23 and I’m not convinced that worked).

I’ll keep you posted on the call tomorrow. If it runs over 10 minutes I get charged £155 so I really need to plan my questions well around next steps/tests/clomid etc . The joy of private. It will be 11 minutes, I’m sure lol.

I’m not sure I do know of any @Juno231 but I do have one friend I could ask maybe, not a bad idea. I have some tramadol here from when I had a small op that I never used, maybe I’ll take one of those 😐.

@thislittlebird, my initial day 21 bloods were 16 something. These were taken on day 21 as I didn't realise any different. My cycles aren't 28 days long, so day 21 was pointless for me to be tested on, as I found out via this forum, not my GP.
When the GP asked me to have a retest the following month, I asked about going a bit later in my cycle as I typically have a 30/31 day cycle. I was told a straight no. Had to be day 21, even though I knew it wouldn't be accurate.
So I went on day 23 I think? Results were better, if I remember rightly, 24 something? I don't have them to hand.

It was this result that was marked as normal, which on paper and given the reference ranges is. But as lots of people pointed out on here, it should be over 30 to confirm ovulation.
When I asked the GP she wasn't sure but agreed to refer me anyway due to my age and how long I had been off contraception for without even a hint of a positive.
You'll have to keep updated with your conversation tomorrow.
I probably missed it somewhere above, what was the result of your day 21 bloods?

@Juno231, I was never asked to do a day 2/3 test? I assume that will be asked for at the referral maybe?

@Flutterby8 gp told me I was fine early menopause wise based on my day 3 test but the doc has added amh to the test so that will be interesting to see. I'm surprised she did tbh as everything I've read seems to indicate the NHS doesn't take much stock in amh results. She seemed to think that if everything else is fine but amh is low she'd expedite my ivf path as time will be of the essence.

@thislittlebird do you have any friends with sedatives 😅. Quite a few of mine have xanax or valium at home I could have asked for if I needed it... I might just take some codeine on top of the paracetamol /ibuprofen I'll grab though.

@paintfairy I'm really not worried about the appointment being with a nurse at all. If anything, I find nurses generally seem to have more time for people and are a bit more approachable. I think its just typical apprehension!

Hey @Flutterby8, thanks for the welcome. Our GPs both sound equally as amazing as each other . What were your day 21 results like? You had a really similar scenario to me. Receptionist told me they were fine and only realised when I saw the results myself in writing months later. Will be speaking to the private consultant about my results tomorrow.

Private consultant suggested he try impryl @paintfairy. Men and women can take it so I was tempted to order some too.

@thislittlebird what is he taking?
@Flutterby8 mine was with a nurse but she was brilliant. So it might be ok?

Hi all :)
Been a bit absent recently and didn't realise there had been so many posts on here! No notifications! Whoops!

@paintfairy, your appointment sounded really promising! At least you haven't got long to wait for the next step which must be a relief for you! I'm really glad!

@Dancingfairydreams, sorry your appointment wasn't so positive for you. I never realised there would still be a risk of ectopic if you had IVF? What is the next step for you both? Are the hospital pushing for any other testing or is it a case of lowering your BMI for now?

@Juno231, a whopping 13min appointment! Either they're really busy or stretched with staff given Covid?! On the plus, at least you've had it and it was quit positive. Seems things are moving quickly for you! Just a shame you have had to do a lot of the leg work with the calls so far! Interesting about the early menopause though. It runs in my family too although the GP had carried out bloods previously and said I don't have any issues. I've always been worried about this factor to be honest with you! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

@dogmam, thank you for asking.

To be honest, not a lot has happened here. My initial telephone appointment is booked in next month. I had the confirmation letter through a few days ago. The appointment is with a nurse and will be a telephone consult only (no video call which I am thrilled about!). It states the appointment will be no longer than 15mins long and despite booking for a specific time, I could be called anywhere over a 5hour time frame.

There were 2 questionnaires in with the letter, one for each of us with pretty standard questions. Downside is, as it is only a telephone call, I don't know what to do with the paperwork as it doesn't say in the cover letter? I'd assume I have to send it to them but there is no mention of this and no contact email address. So bit clueless here.
Only other thing that has changed is I've started taking Pregnacare (I know, should stick to non commercial vitamins). It was on special offer and I thought it wont hurt. The only difference I noticed is that I have had a much lower pre-ovulation temperature than normal so can see a clearer rise in BBT. This month I got a high OPK (Clear Blue Advance) and my temp rose with it and after a couple of days I got my peak and my temp spiked, much higher than it does normally. Coincidence?
Either way, we only DTD for the 2 days before ovulation and a couple of days after (excluding other random days but they're not as important) so I feel like I've missed a chance.

@thislittlebird, Welcome! Sounds like your GP has been as useless as mine! She told me that my initial day 21 progesterone bloods were low (granted, they were), ordered a repeat test which was marked as fine. Was told it was fine by reception when I chased it, but when I asked for a copy of the results, I saw it clearly wasn't fine and was still low. Consequently, I've had to badger them for referral, which to be fair, they seemed glad to do.

@paintfairy mine too, just hoping the supplements will help.

@thislittlebird he's got low motility.

I forgot to say, was his SA result a bit off whilst on the supplements @paintfairy?

@paintfairy I get so anxious and stressed, if these people had seen me when I had to have one of those ibs tests they’d be keen to give me a sedative lmao. I might enquire about the cost of something to help me remain calm with the private clinic but I bet it will be pricey like everything else.

I just bought him pants in the end, he kept saying no and it was annoying because they’re just pants???? I got him some cotton boxers from Next and now he’s liking them more than he thought, he’s wearing them indoors and sleeping in them, better than nothing.

@thislittlebird I'll be crapping myself if I have to go for one. Not going to lie.
DH was already on supplements before the last one. I keep telling him about his pants. 🙄

Yeah my dh’s was August and another coming up soon (after he’s finished self-isolating). I’ve got him in new pants and on the supplements so hoping there’s a little improvement @paintfairy

@Juno231 that is a lot! I am a terrible patient and I’m a bit concerned I’ll react badly if there’s any pain. Wondering if I can take anything a bit stronger than paracetamol beforehand to stop myself freaking out.

@Juno231 I'll see how I feel when you report back. 🤣 But really I want to know my tubes are clear.
@thislittlebird he had one back in sept he requested from GP. He's got another this week.

@thislittlebird I've had LEEP, a cystoscopy and about a million pap smears before so feel like my foof has been through the ringer already. I'm just hoping it won't be too bad!

Has your DH had any SA yet? @paintfairy