First IVF consultation arvice.

[Nmmck93]

Hey everyone,
I have my first IVF consultation on Wednesday, I asked on the phone by the person booking me in if there would be any scans and his reply was ‘I don’t know it should only be about 20 minutes’ so he wasn’t much help lol!

The only reason I ask is because AF is due on Sunday, and usually is just spotting by the Wednesday but I’m not sure if scans be done on the consultation appointment.

Basically what I’m asking is for anyone who’s had a consultation, what does it involve?
if it helps: it’s NHS and not private and it is Reproductive Medicine Belfast and being see in the Grove Health and We’ll being centre.

also any advice on things I should write down to ask

thanks all!

(currently 11dpo with BFN also)

If it’s the first appointment, they will in all likelihood just look at your fertility history, find out where you are at with it all, and talk about options moving forward. Any scans, checks, bloods will then be orders on the back of this. This said, they might scan you there and then if they feel it’s suitable. Don’t worry about your period; they might even think it’s a good time to scan to see whether your lining is shedding nicely. Some of my scans were timed shortly after my period was due for that very reason. The nurses will have seen it all and there is no need to feel worried; it does take a little getting used to but after the first couple of scans, I didn’t even think about it anymore.

All the best on your journey!

@OpeningActOfSpringthank you so much! I’ll just have myself prepared for a possible scan incase they do do one and it won’t be as much of a shock lol! I have to travel 2 hours to these appointments so I would actually like if they could do quite abit each appointment lol.

thank you very much for this information, I appreciate it x

It might be that they can bunch follow up appointments/treatments together; mine did as I had to travel 90 minutes. It was private though after we switched from our local NHS one, so there might be more flexibility in the system.

I was going to say the same, I had my first apointment (although private) which involved an internal scan and bloods to check my AMH levels and fertility reserves and then a consultation to discuss the outcomes of this and make a plan. Mine was 1 day post period and I did bleed a little, but they were more than happy to scan on my period if I was comfortable with that.

I do have adenomyosis, so I have to have a saline scan ahead of any further treatment to check there’s no bumps in the uterus or contraindications and then a treatment consultation where they draw up the plan and teach me how to do the jabs. So it’s quite a lot to fit in. I’ve decided to wait until next cycle so I have time to do saline scan before hand. But they did offer me the option of blazing ahead with next cycle (9 days away) with the plan to freeze the embryos, then so the saline scan and then implant them post that. I have low ovarian reserve so they have advised I do that and get on with it first but I’m a bit overwhelmed and not mentally prepared so would rather wait so they can do implantation immediately post rather than having to wait for a further cycle and drawing the process out longer.

Hope that helps!

My first appointment was just about discussing options, filling out forms and then deciding to proceed. I was then told to phone when I started my period to book in for scans and bloods. My dh was told to book a separate appointment to give his sample. We had this first appointment at the end of August and had started long protocol by the beginning of October. I was pregnant by mid November! Good luck.