I am usually pretty unflappable but I am so upset tonight that I've had to post on here - and I've never posted on IABU before.
DH and I have been going through the infertility rigmarole for five years now. It has been a long and torturous process mainly because I had (non-fertility related) health issues that make everything more difficult before we started and then I was found to a benign pituitary tumour during the process that lead to us having to stop TTC while I was was treated and my condition stabilised.
I am now 39 and I have been very lucky in that my local authority grant women under 40 three funded cycles of IUI and two of IVF. I received most of the initial fertility assessments at my local hospital and then last year I was referred to a clinic that is about two hours' drive away for IUI & IVF. Every time I went to either my hospital or the clinic they would seem to have forgotten how old I was and when I brought it up they would seem surprised and say I looked young for my age - every BLOODY time. Usually this would be flattering but not in these circumstances as it seems to have affected my treatment.
It was agreed and written in my notes that I would initially try the less invasive treatment of IUI and would then progress to IVF. Sadly, IUI didn't work for me and when I brought up the subject of IVF before Christmas I was told it was 'too late' to go ahead with it now as I wasn't in the system and the clinic was fully booked up until after my birthday (which is in early June). This was despite me saying that I wanted to go ahead with IVF if IUI didn't work months back - and stating again that I would need to do this before June of this year when I was was forty. Then there was a cancellation and I was able to start IVF last month.
Today I went to the clinic and they couldn't find my ovaries (don't ask!) so I have to take six more days' worth of a higher dosage of Menopur and then they will scan me to see if there are any follicles. If not, the IVF will be cancelled and I was told very abruptly that I almost certainly won't get the second chance of IVF. I am so gutted as I had no idea that I wasn't on the list for IVF, I thought I would just progress to it after IUI - no-one told me that by continuing with the full three cycles of IUI I was putting my chances of IVF in jeopardy.
I just don't know what to do. Am I being unreasonable to put in a complaint. I'm not a whinger generally but I just feel so low that I have lost my final chance. I suppose I could be referred to another, larger clinic but it would be very short notice and I don't know if I would be any more likely to get treatment there either.