Seeking fertility investigations

[greentree16]

Hi all,

We have been ttc fully for over a year now, off contraception and "not protecting" for two and a half years. I have PCOS and very much struggle with periods, following the pill I had none for 9 months then after that they have been between 40 days to my longest cycle now which is 160+ days.

I had a chemical just over a year ago and from that point onwards I've tracked bbt and ovulation strips, found a few successful peaks but had no luck, and my recent cycle is massively out of whack (likely due to a very stressful 6 months I think).

I really want to go to the drs now to seek some advice and testing, but I don't know how to best go about it? I'm overweight so I doubt I'd be eligible for NHS fertility investigations until I lost a stone or so (which I'm working on).

Do I need to go to my GP and explain the situation to arrange further tests? Or can I contact a local fertility clinic and am I better off going privately?

Hi, my first port of call was calling the GP. We'd been trying for 4 years with no luck. I knew I had pcos as all the signs were there. I was sent for scans to confirm it. Then had a tube flush ( can't remember the clinical name of it). My periods were all over the place so I was given meds to induce one and CLOMID (helps you ovulate) alongside Metformin to help me ovulate and had scans and blood tests on that too to see if it was working. If that doesn't work there are other methods too (don't know which as the first thing worked for me). I think last stop is a free round of IVF on the NHS but don't know if this is still offered. I conceived on the medication and now have a 7 year old. I've been trying again and have just had another scan to see what's going on as I've been trying for about 6 years with no luck.

Definitely contact your GP and explain you've been trying with no luck. Good luck x

Thanks @Mrs86!

Ah I'm so sorry to hear it's taken you a while but so glad that they managed to help you. Fingers crossed you can get it sorted out this time too!

I think you're right I probably do need to go back. I was never put on anything to help with my symptoms aside from an acne cream and I suppose I never really gave it much thought at the time because I wasn't in a position where I wanted to conceive.

I'm just really worried I'll go to the drs and they'll refuse to help me until I've lost a little bit of weight x

Myo instol and metformin are v gd 4 pcos

@greentree16 I was overweight the first time round and it was all over my notes 🙄. I am considerably heavier now though so I don't know what the outcome will be. I've had a bit of a reality check health wise recently so am really trying to get healthy and want to be in good physical health for this time round 😭

I had a healthy pregnancy, no issues with being overweight. From what I remember there were no weight restrictions for the medication/support I was given.

x

I would go to GP, I don’t think there’s any restrictions on getting the tests, as you say it may be IVF that isn’t available but GP can tell you.

Thanks @worldwidetravel2017. I've been taking inositol for the past 18 months, I do think it helped at first but I need to get back into taking it every single day!

@Peonies12 Thank you I think I will 😊

@Mrs86 Ahh it's so difficult to make the lifestyle changes needed though to lose weight sometimes, especially with PCOS! We have just bought smaller plates and bowls so we can trick our minds into thinking we'll still be full hahaha. I think I'll book in to see the GP this week first of all! Wishing you all the luck x

We had been trying for 6 years, have PCOS and I am slightly overweight. My cycles were between 20 days to 151 days but averaged 60+ days. Went to GP and had bloods and DH had sperm test. Had fertility booking appt to go over our health stuff and options and got booked in for Hycosy test. I was just over the weight threshold for letrozole (my trust doesn’t use Clomid anymore) but the nurse said as soon as I had lost the weight we could start ovulation induction. Good luck 😊

@Battenbergsquare ahhh thank you for the info! Were you able to have all the tests on the NHS, was it just the ovulation induction whereby you had to be under the weight threshold? How did you find letrozole?

Yes I had it all on NHS 😊 we did 1 round of ovulation induction privately a few years ago with Clomid and sadly it didn’t work (I ovulated but didn’t result in pregnancy). At that time we paid for the sperm test privately as they said it would be 6 months wait for it to be done or if we paid the £50 I think it was at the time, it could be done the following week which I didn’t understand as it was the same clinic that processed it 🙄 it was a bit of a fight with GP to get bloods done and to be taken seriously but it may not be for you - just stand firm would be my advice.

I did lots of research, tried all the supplements and gave metformin a go (from GP) but it did nothing for my cycles at all. In my desperation I read somewhere that a high fat, low carb diet was good for PCOS and in fairness I lost 2 stone over a couple months last year on it but do your own research on that one, I’m just saying what worked for me.

I didn’t get as far as far as letrozole or even hycosy this time round though as the stars aligned somewhere along the way and am now expecting so I think I ovulated on about CD 5/6 or possibly before but ovulation sticks aren’t really accurate with PCOS.

Thanks all for your support and hearing your experiences, it really did give me the confidence to go to the GP.

They've ordered some bloods and put me on Provera for now to try. GP noted that very likely it'll be a referral to the gyno following the bloods due to my pcos and time it's taking to ttc. Feeling positive that this is a way forward 😊

How old are you? Definitely don’t wait around. I was under 35 and said it had been nearly a year when I made an appointment at around 10 months of trying. Remember it might take a while to get an appointment. Then getting booked into tests takes a while. If you’re over 35 you only need to be trying for six months. However if you have all the money and aren’t fussed you can immediately go privately and get it all done pretty much immediately and then straight onto ivf (that’s the only thing I’ll say - once you start private they basically aim towards ivf).

@Ididivfama in my mid/late twenties, but at the point now where I don't want to leave it for longer before getting it investigated in case it carries on!
That's a really great point re private and ivf. I'd be happy to go private if needed, but wouldn't want to rush into the decision!