Rom -sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you. Having some serious problems with computer - I am on dial up and have had rouge diallers coming in, so hopefully have got those barred through BT....just hope it is not international rouge diallers or will have to have a bar put on international calls which doesn't really work for this household as have family in Australia and New Zealand.
Anyway....I had been attending my GP following a serious car crash when out of the blue he asked were we trying for a family. Up to that point I can honestly say that we were not really trying as such. Had been told to wait at least a year following the accident due to my injuries, but he referred us for various tests just to see if everything was OK.
Another couple of years of trying without success he recommended we see a conslutant. At this stage we paid for the initial consutation and he recommended IUI treatment at our local hospital, but said he would refer us to a consultant at the Regional Fertilty Clinic just incase the IUI did't work. After 4 attemps and 4 failures out appointment at the RFC came up and we did not pursue any further IUI treatment.
We saw the consultant in the RFC in September 2002 had further tests including DH's swimmers tested again and had out follow up appointment in March 2003. Out initial offer of treatment was for May 2004 (pg naturally by then). After we lost DS in Spetember our GP recommended we seek treatment immedialey rather that wait so we paid again to see out Consultant in the RFC in January 2005 and had our offer of treatment in April 2005. If we had waited for an NHS appointment we would not even have seen the consultant by now never mind have started treatment.
Our IVF treatment is NHS funded and we will be eligible for two attempts on the NHS. I believe that the upper age limit for NHS funding is 38 but I am not sure if this differs from clinic to clinic or is a standart cut off, although there are many ladies on here who have had IVF treatment into their 40's with success, persumably privately. ICSI is available where there are male factor issues.
I would advise you to see a sympathetic GP and get things moving. Sometimes just by being proactive you take some of the stress out of trying and that is when it will happen naturally.
We are so lucky that we have a fantastic GP and consultant. GP called at our home after hours one evening after Adam was born just to let us know that he was going on holidays for a week and would not be in the surgery should we want him for anything or was there aything he could do for us while he was there.....not many would be bothered to do something like this.
Rom sorry if this is another essay but hopefully this will be of some help with reagrd to time scales etc. but the longer you have been trying the higher up the waiting list you will go - we went straight in at number one this time even though we had achieved a pg in between times.
I wish you the very best in whatever you decided to do but don't leave it too long. Making enquiries doesn't tie you to anything and if it happens naturally in the meantime all the better.
Hope everyone else is OK adn I will catch up later on