Fertility Appointments and Beyond.... the journey continues

[Gracie2021]

New thread for us to continue our fertility clinic appointment progress...

Some of us are waiting for initial appointments, some are having tests and some are starting treatment!

@tillybabs
@thislittlebird
@kay00
@jeaniej
@PurpleUnicorn01
@paintfairy
@dogmam
@flutterby8
@Ughmaybenot
@dancingfairydreams
@beckycarlos
@jkjellyhead
@juno231
@decaffe
@bumble44
@BritinNZ
@tinkerbell098
@pinkginpls
@thedaydreambelievers
@everymumday
@wanderlust16
@lori23ttc

@dogmam im so sorry for your loss. I know how heartbreaking it is. The exact same thing happened to me only I didnt find out until my 12 week scan. Its a heartbreaking journey. We are going for our second round now. I don't think there's ever a 'right time' to go again as its way more scary. Thinking of you. Sending you love and hugs x the only mildly reassuring thing the Dr said to me was that its easier in terms of getting pregnant afted a miscarriage as your body knows what its doing and also its a positive thing is that you can get pregnant. When the Dr told me that it didn't heal the heartbreak but it did make me feel a bit better about the future.

@dogmam oh no, I’m so sorry to hear that, numb must be an understatement. This is truly the shittiest of journeys. When are you anticipating your next cycle will begin? I’ll be happy when you and all of us can alight all these buses x

@thislittlebird not long to go for you, are you jist to ring on CD1 in Jan?

@acaciabluebell welcome. My GP after doings bloods and SA referred us directly to the fertility clinic. I would suggest you ask your GP to do exactly that. A lot of GPs just follow pathways when it comes to referring on, not just for fertility, for anything, and because they're not all clued up on fertility I think they automatically jump to gyne so I would jist ask specifically for a referral to X clinic. Good luck!

@CuriousAries good luck and hope you don't have to wait long to get going with everything.

@Kay00 it's interesting to read everyone's timescales, I think it varies depending on what clinic you're at, never mind what city you're in. I've been really luck I think, referred after a year of ttc and started first round after 6 months of investigations. Interestingly, at my clinic which treats both private and nhs patients, both are in the same queue, so it's not faster if you're paying.

@PurpleUnicorn01 good luck with your upcoming fet. What protocol are you on?

@dogmam yeah, that’s right. I’m trying to eat healthy, more protein (90% veggie), take my supplements and do regular exercise leading up to it...so I feel like I’m doing something and to make up or Christmas sins. Cycle is due to start 25th or 26th Jan.

Just bought some decaf tea too to try to cut back a bit :/

The other thing I’m waiting for is this 2 hour prolactin test. Speaking to a GP on the 5th to order it. Guys didn’t seem too bothered when I told them I needed this.

@PurpleUnicorn01 thanks so much. I know you've also been through this, 12 weeks must have been so hard. Yeah that's something to hold on to, that I can at least get pregnant, i guess it's just waiting for a better embryo to come along. Did you tell any of your friends or family? None of mine know about ivf never mind being pregnant so I haven't told anyone about the miscarriage. I've been so close to feeling like I need to tell someone but then it's oh by the way I need ivf.. oh and I was pregnant.. oh and I've misscaried. It's just a lot to have to explain, so I've found that hard.

@thislittlebird thank you. Very shitty indeed. I'm not too sure when I'll go again. I only had the surgery a few days ago and the follow up appointment is apparently between 6-8 weeks, then it'll be waiting for CD1 to see if I can get booked in. My clinic makes you ring to see if there's space so it's just a wait and see thing. I'm tempted to push for some more tests though to rule out anything else going on with me, just with having both FETs technically working..

@dogmam only a few days ago, ok yeah that makes sense to give it time. If you have time to kill then more tests is a good plan. have you done the dna fragmentation on your husband? I don’t remember what ones you’ve had. My husband had that and it was ok despite his motility issues, but I’ve seen people with normal sperm results come back with bad results.

@dogmam my friends and family did know and were supportive but i feel like no one understands exactly how empty you feel after a miscarriage. Im having an FET as had an embryo left ive just finished down regs x

@dogmam im genuinely so sad at your news.

@thislittlebird he's only had the standard SA done, twice and the motility is the issue at 10%. Count is good, above average. He actually had a varicocele removed when he was a child so had surgery for that, and has since had a few small varicocele over the last few year, before ttc. We mentioned them to our clinic when investigating and the consultant said no point getting it removed as can do more harm than good. A few weeks ago he was having pain so is waiting for a urology appointment to come through, hoping they'll maybe have some insight about fertility too but it's just the normal urology department so not sure. There doesn't appear to be any male fertility specialists in the north east where I am so I feel a bit stuck with extra tests, or where to turn to also don't want to pay £££ just to be given 'advice'. What happened with your appointments with Dr Ramsey?

@PurpleUnicorn01 Aw bless you. I deffinetly get the feeling of emptiness too. For me though my sadness and numbness are mainly about having to go through this process and everythung that comes with it again and not be done with this whole TTC/IVF shitshow. Obviously I'm sad for the baby/pregnancy I've lost too but I never let myself get attached in a way where I felt 'connected' to this particular baby/embryo. I'm just so over living through fertility treatment I hate that it's taken over 2 years of my life.
I've got everything crossed for this FET for you. I think I remember you saying you've got a few frozen so I just hope they pick a good one!

@dogmam I hear you sista! With the ivf shitshow. I literally almost cried after my first appointment thinking I reallllyyyyy can't be dealing with these damn injections and emotional rollercoaster/ anxiety again, followed by if its negative at the end il be gutted but if its positive il be having the worst anxiety until 12 weeks ever.

[quote dogmam]@thislittlebird he's only had the standard SA done, twice and the motility is the issue at 10%. Count is good, above average. He actually had a varicocele removed when he was a child so had surgery for that, and has since had a few small varicocele over the last few year, before ttc. We mentioned them to our clinic when investigating and the consultant said no point getting it removed as can do more harm than good. A few weeks ago he was having pain so is waiting for a urology appointment to come through, hoping they'll maybe have some insight about fertility too but it's just the normal urology department so not sure. There doesn't appear to be any male fertility specialists in the north east where I am so I feel a bit stuck with extra tests, or where to turn to also don't want to pay £££ just to be given 'advice'. What happened with your appointments with Dr Ramsey?[/quote]
@dogmam Was it 10% both times? DH was 9% and 14% the times the GP did it. Mr Ramsay didn't do a lot, he examined him, ran some tests and did an US. He said my dh's varicocele was so small it wasn't causing a problem, other tests were ok. But at the point when we saw Mr Ramsay he'd been on impryl, ubiquinol and more for 5 or 6 months, and his motility had increased in the results of the tests he ran 26% (I think) and morphology 8% (previously 3% ish). Obviously we haven't had one done since then as the ACU accepted that result, so I don't know if that's been a consistent improvement, we'll find out in Feb. However, the DNA frag was ok, he had 0% high frag which was great. If you want to skip the physical part of the consult you can order the COMET test online as far as I'm aware, to see what it comes back with.

So the only thing he really did for us was 'clear' us as ready for ICSI, if that makes sense? I think if the results had been worse he would have done something else like told him to go away and take something for a few months.

[quote PurpleUnicorn01]@dogmam im genuinely so sad at your news.[/quote]
I second this.

@dogmam I'm so sorry to hear about your mc, it's so shitty this journey and so unfair 😞

@thislittlebird really appreciate your advice. My doctor seemed confident that my progesterone 'just needed a little boost' and was sure that Letrozole would do that for me, but my first cycle my progesterone only went up very slightly from 23 to 29nmol. Which is good, don't get me wrong, but most people on medication get numbers that are much much higher, and I've read online that 45+ is ideal. I think I'm definitely going to ask about trigger + progesterone support for future cycles. I expect I will probably do up to 6 cycles of Letrozole while waiting for IVF to start. R.e NHS referral my experience was very similar to yours, but can I ask why gynae dismissed you?? That seems ridiculous...

@Juno231 @dogmam Thank you both, I had absolutely no idea GP could actually refer to the IVF clinic. When I was first asking for the referral last year, my GP was adamant that "gynae" was the same as the fertility clinic so I just went along with it. Looking back though, I had only been trying for about 15 months at that point then so wouldn't have met the CCG criteria where I live which is 2 years TTC.
We've passed the 2 year mark now so I wonder if I could ask my GP to refer me if my consultant appointment doesn't go well later this month. I found a list online of the NHS IVF clinics which do treatment for my CCG - do I just pick one of these and ask to be referred? Or would I be able to ask for a referral anywhere - I know some people get their treatment done at a private IVF clinic but with NHS funding.

@acaciabluebell my referral to ACU/fertility clinic was just called gynaecology in all the paperwork. In a lot of hospitals I think they're one and the same. In most CCGs the 2 year mark is usually for IVF and one year mark for further investigations (done at the fertility clinic) so it sounds like you've been down the right path so far to me?

@Juno231 I was just referred to my local hospital though, they don't have any assisted conception services or even a reproductive medicine unit, it's just a local gynaecology department and mine was inside the hospital's maternity ward (that was fun, being surrounded by pregnant women). So I need to be referred on to another hospital now which has an actual fertility clinic to get onto their IVF waiting list.

@acaciabluebell IVF qualification was 3 years if unexplained for our CCG, and basically we’d only been trying 19 months ish when we saw the gynaecologist. She was very old and rude and essentially said we didn’t qualify. Didn’t want to know about our issues really, didn’t ask about mine and said my husband’s 9% motility “wasn’t enough”. I left in tears, but afterwards we went off to get a second opinion and the private consultant said that’s not right, you do qualify for IVF and should push for it, so we did, with the new GP who referred us on the back of that private consultation. I still don’t understand how we were, presumably, unexplained with motility and ovulation issues 🤷‍♀️

Oh and I had exactly this thing too, local hospital, no ACU, with the heavily pregnant women surrounding me when I fled crying lol. Sounds like you have the same path as me. When you see them again ask for a referral and if they won’t do it go to the GP, but they probably will, I think we were just very unlucky. What area are you in roughly btw?

I have to say, I really don’t think this whole progesterone vs ovulation issue is well understood by doctors. There’s this grey area between 5 and 29 where they don’t seem to know if you’ve ovulated or not. I don’t get it. They’re saying to me 5 and below indicates no ovulation, well what’s the middle range between 5 and 20/30? They can never explain it. Clearly when I was on Letrozole I did successfully ovulate more than one follicle based on the scores.

If it helps, 29 is likely to indicate ovulation, it could have just been slightly late to the test or something. I read online somewhere that it’s roughly 30, some doctors are happy with 20. Again, it’s all quite confusing.

I only did three Letrozole cycles because I knew with my husband’s motility it was a long shot. Plus, they were £770 per month :/

@dogmam oh no 😔 I'm so so sorry to hear about your loss xx

You raise the question of telling people about your ivf treatment and that's certainly an internal battle I'm having. I'd rather no one knew, but I might need the extra support. I hope you're getting the support you need xx ❤

Has anyone here done the counselling offered by their clinics? I might try it. I haven’t been sleeping well the last few days, every other night I’m awake all night and then last night I had a panic attack. I suffer from anxiety anyway, but as the ivf approaches it feels like the anxiety is out of hand.

@thislittlebird That's pretty shocking, I'm glad you were able to get the backing of your private doctor and get the treatment you are entitled to! I am based in London, how about you?

Letrozole is also a long shot for us, my husband has low count and 0% normal forms. But as I'm not paying for scans it's working out a lot cheaper as I just get a blood test each month. Although honestly scans would make it so much easier to know what's happening inside my body!

@thislittlebird im actually a trained therapist and I really recommend it. Even if its not with the clinic get it from anywhere

@thislittlebird hugs xx I have suffered in the past with panic disorder from PTSD and am all too familiar with panic attacks . I don't have them as frequently any more, but when I do get them, they tend to come at night time. Its such a lonely and scary time for them to hit! I can also recommend therapy (CBT) for panic attacks, even if you don't get therapy for your fertility treatments xx

Thanks @PurpleUnicorn01, I’ve emailed them asking to be referred. No idea how long it will take, but my private clinic also offer it to me so I could try them if it’s a long wait.

@acaciabluebell I’m in London too! South East. I’m with Guys ACU now. Is your Letrozole on the nhs? They would scan if they were triggering but if this is private it bumps the price right up.

@Kay00 yeah, definitely, the night has been really hard for me lately. It’s like as soon as I lie down to sleep the anxiety cranks right up. My days are a write off, when I’d planned to be healthier and exercise and I don’t want to do any of that when I haven’t slept and been freaking out all night.

@dogmam really sorry for your loss 😘❤️ hope you're ok ❤️

@thislittlebird I didn't necessarily get counseling through my fertility clinic, but got referred super quick by my GP after I told her I was getting anxious & depressed about ttc. That could be a route too xx

This is my first cycle post lap and I'm 10DPO ... I know in my heart that we haven't succeeded, but I'll have to wait for AF to show up this weekend. 🙄
Got my IVF funding appointment next Monday, so I guess I feel like I've something in the pipeline 🤷🏻