would you support a mn campaign to raise awareness of infertility and standardize treatment/tests?

[OracleInaCoracle]

here

there are so many myths and old wives tales around infertility, and each PCT pays by a different set of rules, I thought that moving on from the mc campaign this might be a good step.

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I know what you mean. I had no idea how complex infertility issues were. So many people come on here and say: 'Probably a stupid question but...?'. To he fair, if they're asking in here chances are it's information that's not available anywhere else! Dispelling the myths and raising awareness so we wouldn't

...have to answer stupid questions like 'isn't it your turn?' Or 'why haven't you had your next dc yet?' Would be fantastic!!!! So I'd support it!

exactly! people think its down to waiting too long, or being over/underweight... and thats it. IF is also a leading cause of depression and tests vary so much from clinic to clinic.

would you bump the thread in the link for me please, Im hoping to garner more support.

Yes, i'd support you completely.

My husband and i went through nearly four years of fertility treatment. At the beginning the tests were funded by the NHS, but when they finally realised i was overweight, and DH was of advancing years, they pulled the plug sharpish. We were lucky, we were in a position to self fund and were seen within days, but i totally understand not everyone is in that position and tbh it left us with nigh on £25,000 worth of debt, but having DS1 & 2 come from it, it was money well spent.

People say 'Oh infertility isn't a real illness' and 'Money would e better spent elsewhere in the NHS' but unti it happens to them, they can't begin to comprehend the devestation it can bring.

thank you dee, your last paragraph hit the nail on the head. and IF is so much more common than we realise, but is still a taboo subject.

There's lots of myths aren't there? And PCT's such as Cheshire West are happy to exploit them all when 'consulting' to garner support for removal of funding. I think that Joe Public doesn't understand how restricted access to IVF is (normal BMI, no children for either male or female partner just to start the list). I think people get muddled by what it was like years ago (Walton sextuplets + low success rates) or what it's like abroad (Octuplets/ mums in their 60's). Add in to that the myths about the ease of adoption and you get a very unsympathetic public. A few things make me smile particularly when they come from parents - those who declare that they wouldn't have gone for IVF if they hadn't conceived naturally and people who portray IVF as the straw that will break the back of the NHS because of course having multiple natural babies doesn't cost the NHS a bean does it

lozster, all very true. and yet we hide our struggles from the world, as if its somehow our fault!

If a person living in the UK has 5 children it is expected that this will be paid for on the NHS. If she needed IVF to concieve those 5 children then some of this help will be paid for on the NHS and this will not make it into the Sun, regardless of whether that person has ever paid a penny into the NHS or not.

...example of the mythology alive and well on a thread here.......

exactly!

Bump

I agree and would definitely support a campaign.

I have been diagnosed myself with unexplained infertility and have been basically told to bog off and get private IVF treatment which we cannot afford. I feel totally cast adrift and to be honest not very confident in the diagnosis & feel that there are issues that I raised that were not investigated at all. I don't feel that I was listened to and I don't appear to have had many of the tests associated with a basic fertility work up that I have read others have had. In fact it seems that the tests given seem to vary completely from NHS Trust to NHS Trust. I definitely think that this ought to be standardised not least so that a woman knows what exactly she should be tested for.

I also agree that there appears to be a widely held notion that IVF & other forms of assisted conception is freely and easily available on the NHS. This myth needs to be dispelled.

Fertility issues do seem to be taboo and you do feel like you have to keep it a secret. I also think that more ought to be offered to women struggling to conceive in the way of counselling. I couldn't believe that I went to the outpatients clinic one day in my mind as a woman who was taking longer to conceive than average and in the next breath I was labelled with unexplained infertility, discharged from the clinic and told to get IVF. I was so shocked, there were no niceties, no mental preparation. Naively I expected my GP to contact me to bring me in to discuss things following the discharge but I've heard nothing. Perhaps I expected too much. All these issues swirl around my head and I think that I would benefit from some counselling or at least to have the option of going to a support group. I am frightened though to go to my GP and mention that I am struggling in case it gets noted on my medical records that I am depressed because I've heard that this can go against you if you are considered for IVF or adoption.

I would be happy to support the campaign. I'm amazed after being on the boards here for the last 14 months how little some gp's seem to know about even the most basic blood tests.

Absolutely. For personal reasons (the unrelenting strain of thus-far 'unexplained' infertility is something I wish more people could understand or have access to knowledge about) and to support everyone else going through the same thing.

Even after 18 months of unsuccessful TTCing and some preliminary tests I feel very in the dark about what's going on, and my GP (though very supportive and willing) obviously doesn't have a great grasp on issues such as luteal phase defects etc. I'm shortly to be referred to the fertility clinic. I am anxious and depressed about this - and it's because the whole issue is shrouded in misinformation and disinclination to talk about it that going to the FC seems to me to be a kind of failure on my part - ridiculous of course. If I had to be referred for any other kind of treatment I would feel no shame or sense of having let everyone down. The fact that a woman undergoing fertility problems can absorb this peculiar sense of its somehow being shameful or taboo just goes to show how essential an information/support campaign is.

thanks all, could I ask you to post on the thread linked in the op please.

there are some awful stories on here, and there doesnt seem to be any consistencies in treatment.

example, some women are prescribed clomid, despite ovulating, then they arent monitored. others are scanned twice a month for 3 months to ensure the dosage is safe and correct. its madness.

Bumping this as there has been a response from MN HQ.