Fertility appointment

[Turkeyface]

Hi all,
I hope this is the right place to ask.
I have my first fertility appointment at the hospital next month and I was wondering whether anybody knows what that entails exactly and how long it will be? I have tried to ask the hospital but can only reach their answerphone and then nobody responds to my voicemail.
Thank you in advance!

I should also add that I'm in the Midlands, UK

hi! I’m also midland based and when I had mine it was basically a really thorough questionnaire for both, and then because everything was normal with bloods and swabs run by the GP I was told the next step was a pelvic ultrasound scan and a HSG and I got given an appt for the scan on the day, and was told to ring up on the first day of next period to book the HSG. I was also weighed to make sure BMI was ok! Think that was about it, was about 15 mins long! I then got a letter in the post for a follow up appt about 2 months later to discuss the results of the two procedures!
good luck!

This is really helpful, thank you! So they didn't conduct any of those tests on the day? I was kind of hoping it would be more thorough at that first appointment given that I've waited so long already!

Sadly not, it’s more making a plan about what tests to do next - of course it might be different for if you previous results were different to mine. He basically said all your results so far are normal so this is the standard next step. I think my pelvic ultrasound was about 2 weeks later but they don’t let you book the HSG until the first day of your next period as if you did happen to be pregnant it would cause you to miscarry. They then said I would hope to be seen in 1-2 cycles but if I hadn’t been given an appt they would try and prioritise me for the next one - this is why the follow appt was booked for like 10 weeks after the first to allow you to have had both these tests and they can collate the results.
if you think about it though you are seeing a doc in the fertility clinic which is a comptlely different area of the hospital to ultrasound where you’d see a sonographer and provide a report so they can’t really so everything on the same day, and I said the HSG needs to be planned!

Hi @Turkeyface do you mind if I ask how long you've waited? I'm in a similar area & have just been referred for an ultrasound, have my blood test in a couple of weeks

I'd also be interested to know how long you had to wait to get the appointment. I'm Midlands based too and was referred in February, I still haven't been given an appointment yet but I know the wait time is long.

How long did you have to wait for the appointment once you got given the date? I'm worried that I'll finally get the letter then the appointment won't be for another 6 months!

For me it was around 8 weeks from the GP sending the letter to actually being seen in the fertility clinic so I thought that was quite good really!

Hi there, I was on waitlist for fertility appointment with the hospital but it took so long my fiancé and I decided to go private. However, even then, because things were so fully booked it took us about 3 months to get all the necessary tests out of the way.

The first appointment was us talking about a plan.

we then had an appointment for me to do ultrasound and bloods and my partner to do Semen analysis.

then we had an appointment to discuss results and what steps we would like to take. And what would be needed for each of those.

I had to have another appointment to check my thyroid just in case and also time for rubella vaccine and to collate other evidence of cervical smear from gp.

finally we had to set an appointment to receive our meds.

then an appointment to take my bloods to see where I am in my cycle.

and then if I hadn’t ovulated, I would have been instructed to induce a bleed using the progesterone pills. But because I had ovulated I waited to bleed naturally and was told to tell them when my first day was.

all of this took very long, and because it was the ovulation induction method we chose we eventually were able to start, but when talking about IVF it would have been another couple of months wait after that.

wishing you the best 🩷

To be fair, I'll be happy enough to just make a plan anyway because so far I've had basically no help or support!

From being able to book an appointment to the actual appointment? 8-9 months

To be fair, I'll be happy enough to just make a plan anyway because so far I've had basically no help or support!

So I was referred in October I think, got a link to book an appointment in November, but there was nothing available until May. Then the May appointment was cancelled by the hospital and moved to July

This is really helpful, thank you. If anything, it's helped me lower my expectations massively! It's frustrating for it to take so long, especially when I've waited over two and a half years now, but sounds like it might be a long road ahead!

I've not even had a link to book an appointment or anything, it just says I'm on a 21 week waitlist. I think I'm on week 19 of that waitlist now so I'm gonna give it a couple of weeks and phone the hospital, if I'm not anywhere near the top of that list we'll look into going private.
So frustrating your first appointment got cancelled, that happened with my husband's SA too. At least we've had the results from that now. And I get exactly what you mean on just wanting to have a plan in place, it would be nice to have things being looked into rather than month after month with no change!

Wishing you all the best with it all!

That sounds awful, I'm so sorry! It's a good idea to pester a little bit, although I left multiple voicemails that my hospital didn't respond to. My husband's SA came back needing a repeat, despite us explaining ahead of time that we'd struggle to get the sample there intact because of how far away we live. Fingers crossed you get some luck soon, it's a horrible journey to be on at this stage

I'm not sure if anyone cares, but I had my first appointment today. It was a long one, with lots of forms to sign and tests to do. I had two swabs, an internal ultrasound, lots of blood taken and talked to the doctor about medical history etc. She explained the reason for asking my husband to repeat his semen sample, which was because only 1% of them were moving. She almost immediately suggested IVF and has given us an absolutely terrifying information leaflet that's made me wonder how on earth anyone goes through that.

Wow that sounds intense, I didn't realise the first appointment was more than just a consultation. It's good that they're getting so many tests done already though.

Was it a bit of a shock for them to suggest IVF so soon? I would have thought they'd look into other things to try first.

Wow. Thats a lot to take in. Maybe it would have been kinder to ease you into the idea of IVF than just state it first time. Sorry it’s gone that way.
I’d say there may be the chance to roll things back a little and see if their motility can be improved in other ways first though. Do you have a second appointment lined up with them? What’s the next step?

Yeah, it felt a bit intense and a little cold on her part. Think my partner was in shock!
The plan so far is to repeat the SA and basically go from there, nothing else booked in at the moment. I think the aim was to make an appointment some time in September when the results are back.

It was definitely a relief to feel like we were finally getting some answers, but totally disheartening to hear that our only chance might be IVF. If I'm being honest, I was already a bit anti IVF and having read the leaflet I'm even more scared

How come you are anti IVF? As someone who had an ectopic, my partner and I actively wanted IVF because it’s the safest way to get pregnant and also ensure that your embryos are healthy and in the right place. But we were recommended to try Letrozole first, which we are doing just now

I’ve just come across this thread so hope it’s ok to post!

myself and husband are in the midst of been referred to fertility so reading this is all very helpful! I’ve just recently found out I have PCOS with very irregular cycles. Husband is having his analysis end of August so hopefully things will be moving after that 🤞

@Turkeyface its nice to read your update, I’m sorry ivf might be your only option, I can appreciate how hard that must be 🩷

@Plumchumm do you mind me asking about the ovulation induction? From what I’ve read I think that might be offered to me! X

@Turkeyface did they actually say your only chance might be IVF? I'm just surprised they've worked that out so early into getting the more specialised tests done. Have you had a hycosy or anything yet? Like @EmPeEf said I'd see about rolling things back. Good that you're getting a repeat SA test as well

@Em3009 this is our first cycle doing it properly because last time I got pregnant right before we started, but we lost it at 8 weeks.

so currently I am on progesterone pills to induce a bleed - they have me taking them for about a week then when I stop it will cause me to bleed. They told me to let them know as soon as it starts.

Then they will tell me when to start Letrozole, it will likely be on day 3 of my cycle. I’ll do that for 5 days.

after that they will schedule me for regular ultrasounds to see how the follicles are responding, I think it’s like an ultrasound every couple of days.

When we have a follicle that is big enough, I will do my trigger shot to induce ovulation, and my partner and I will dtd naturally over a couple of days.

i also have pcos and irregular cycles. You got this 🩷

It seems incredibly gruelling and I don't do well with hormones being pumped into my body, just a personal preference really