TTC for a year - what happens next?

[pizzaobsessed]

Hi ladies, we've been TTC for nearly a year and at my recent smear, the nurse said to book an appointment in with the doctor in the next couple of months to discuss.

What are the next steps please? Do they run bloods? Anything else? When does your partner get involved in being tested?

Thank you

Hello! At the year mark you'd call your GP and tell them it's been a year TTC and nada. They'll ask some standard questions about your weight, periods, lifestyle etc for any clues about eg PCOS. Then they SHOULD book you in for day 2/3 bloods and day 21 blood tests. I said should as a lot of GPs have no clue what they're doing and might test everything on day 21 for instance or completely forget to do one set of blood tests...

Day 2 tests for things like FSH, LH, oestradiol, TSH, prolactin etc. Day 21 purely tests for progesterone to confirm if you ovulate. The day 21 test should actually be around 7-9dpo or 7 days before your period is due. So if you don't have a perfect 28 day cycle with ovulation on day 14 make sure you push back on it being arbitrarily on day 21. Always get the actual results as well as GPs are very capable of telling you everything is "fine" without it being the case (can you tell I've seen lots and lots of terrible stories on here?)

Your OH should request a test on his side from his GP - normally your GP won't action anything on their behalf. This will be to check the quality of his swimmers.

Usually you also get sent for an ultrasound to check for any abnormalities.

Once all tests are done you get referred to the local fertility clinic. These will either action whatever came out of your tests (eg prescribing you something to ovulate or if the swimmers are terrible you'd get referred straight to IVF). If the tests were all normal though there are more investigations they can do instead.

Hope that answers it but let me know if any of it doesn't make much sense as it's a bit of a ramble!

Oh and depending your cycles, waiting times for GP appointments, and ability to get an SA done - the initial tests can take 3 or so months to complete. Make sure your OH gets the ball rolling on his side as that usually has the longest waiting periods.

Then once you get referred it can take another 3 or so months or longer to get an appointment to your local fertility clinic.

To give you an idea - I did my first blood test last July and only just am waiting for IVF funding approval...

Thank you so much @Juno231 that's so informative and useful to know. I'll make sure I keep on top of the GP and ask for results of the bloods.

Fingers crossed for your IVF journey lovely, such a long wait already x