To be annoyed that all sexual health appointments in my area...

[MrsLouisTheroux]

are when I am at work or for under 25s?
I want an IUD fitted and I can't find one bl'dy clinic within 10 miles that offers this service out of normal 9-5 working hours. Unless you are a teenager or under 25 that is. I've found several drop in sessions for this age group in the evening. Do people actually take time off work for this sort of thing? My GP has a clinic for one morning a month FFS!

I've had to take time off before for this sort of thing, which is really annoying when it's a drop in service and you're not even guaranteed to be seen! Id have thought you'd be able to get this done at a normal nurse or gp app though? I'm shocked that there are clinics specifically for U25s, it's seems really unfair! I've only seen ones for U16s in the past which I can see the logic behind as they might not want to see family doc etc.

Some sexual health clinics do have appointments, so I'd see if they do. In my local sexual health clinic they have drop in sessions and appointments. They also have a clinic for under 16's but not for under 25's.

I had this when trying to get my pill, gp was booked for over a month, nearest sexual health clinic was for under 21's, walk in centre has clinics but again only under 21's..

I found this out by going into one to ask and the best bit the whole waiting area was empty yet they where fully booked and only under 21 year olds.

Can you not have it done at your GP surgery by appointment?

Not as many GPs fit coils now, they just don't do enough to maintain their skills and comply with the professional requirements.

It is frustrating, drop-in CASH services seem to be targeted at young people as they apparently are the least likely group to make and keep appointments, so offering a drop-in and out of hours service ensures they can access services.

However those of us oldies needing CASH seem to have to take time off work and make appointments. Mind you drop in clinics can be horrendously busy - last year when I needed screening I had to wait 3 hours in the drop-in clinic and would have loved an appointment time!

Totally agree, wanted to just have an mot as it were but there was nowhere to go as I was 26!

Personally I'd want to take the day off work to get a coil fitted anyways.

Years ago if I wanted that service I had to travel 25 miles to an army town where the hospital had a clinic shared with GUM and sit surrounded by sorrowful squaddies regretting encounters the week before!

Perhaps things have improved now, the last decade or so I've had the injection administered by the practice nurse.

Unless your look 35 plus just attend and swear blind your dob makes you 24 and a half.

Have done it many times for the under 21 service here. Its not linked to gp etc.

God, this brings back memories of when I needed to obtain the 'morning after' pill, on Christmas Eve. I was on the pill but also on antibiotics, condom split. Great timing!

My GP had no free appointments until New Year, you couldn't get it over the counter in those days, and all the local GUM/young people/drop in clinics had closed for Christmas until after New Year. If I waited until then, of course, it would be useless!

I ended up being told by the GP surgery that I had to go to A&E, and they would be able to deal with it. I felt like a right tit turning up on Christmas Eve when they were so busy - had to take 3 buses to get there all across the city. I felt even worse when they said they had no-one who could deal with it, and I had to go to the A&E at the hospital on the other side of the city!

3 more buses and a 4.5 hour wait later, I was sent up to the gynae ward, where a registrar sighed lots, rolled her eyes, demanded to know 'why the hell aren't you on the pill, anyway?' as if I was utterly stupid, and gave me four contraceptive pills. 'Take two now, two in twelve hours - it's the same hormones as the morning after pill' she said.

I dearly wished someone had told me this before I spent around twelve hours travelling miles and miles in the snow, as I had plenty of normal pills at home! I actually cheered when I learned they had made it an over the counter medicine some years ago!

I'm glad it's not just me!
kinky GP surgery does it one morning a month. If it happened to be the correct time in my cycle to fit a coil I would still need to take time off work.

Its not all that easy being under bloody 25. I'm 21 and had some unusual symptoms with my implant, my GP wouldn't touch it with a barge pole so I had to report to my local sexual health surgery, across town.

I turn up and the waiting room is packed with worried teenagers people waiting. I go to the receptionist, explain that I was referred by my GP as urgent and she tells me its a drop in service and that means nothing here so I'll just have to sit and wait.

I'm sent to an assistant who gives me a pregnancy test and then tells me she isn't qualified to diagnose me, even though I'd had to tell the receptionist my symptoms to get this far. Back to the waiting room I go. Finally I see a doctor who asks why I didn't go see my GP as they're really quite busy, I tell her my GP referred me to the place that installed the accursed thing, she documents that I'm overweight (thats not causing my symptoms is it, though) then sends me home with, you're having a period. I haven't had a period since I was 15, then three weeks show up in a row (they're not buses y'know). She shrugs and shows me the door.

I missed 2 lectures to pee on a stick.

I'm having the same problem trying to have mine removed.

The GP won't do it, it has to be the sexual health clinic (who appear not to be able to answer their phone) and most drop in clinics are for teenagers. So frustrating.

It's threads like these that make me thankful for my doctor's surgery!