Fertility clinic appointment September

[Scotgirl1]

Hi everyone

After TTC for a year I went to my GP and asked for a referral. Appointment has came through for September. Found out recently that Husband has low sperm count and motility issues. Suspect this is due to a varicocele. We haven’t told anyone and it’s so lonely :( most of my friends are mums or mums to be and busy with their own lives. Would love to chat to others in the same boat! Xx

Sorry to hear that @Pumpkin19 35 seems too young to me for the cut off. It's the same in my area too. You're very brave for going abroad - I wouldn't know where it begin!

I just googled clinics abroad. A lot of people on here talk about Reprofit in Czech republic and that's where we went. Was a lot easier than I thought and will go back if we try again. Our savings would've been wiped out with one round over here

Thanks @pumpkin19 I'm probably getting ahead of myself thinking about treatment abroad as we need to wait and see what they say at our first appointment. But thank you for sharing your experience, it's always helpful to hear from someone who has been through it x

Hey all -
As I said previously- I am waiting on my fertility clinic appt, but I am looking your opinions please

So To recap, on my 1st set of 21day bloods my progesterone was low (9.8 - normal range 16-28) but it was taken 12days bedore AF landed

So I calculated the correct date this cycle and got my results this morning and progesterone is normal & 25.1

So now judging by these results and my transvaginal exam and DF SA all is fine so far

I am going to push GP next week to do Day 3 results to get AMH

Does this sound like unexplained infertility so far or what other tests do they do at the fertility clinic on ur 1st appt?

I'm kinda afraid that I'm going down the unexplained fertility route and don't they tend to just offer u IVF in this case?

Any help/advice is so so greatly appreciated!

I know it sounds weird but when I thought I had low progesterone at least I knew that was the reason I wasn't getting pregnant and so I was all geared up to be taking Clomid etc

Can I please have as much advice as you all can offer

Thank you

Hi @Broodyaf I'm sorry I can't offer much advice as we're also waiting on our first appointment. However, someone said on another thread rather than think of it as unexplained, think of it as they just haven't found out what's wrong yet as there's most likely more tests and examinations they can do. I've only had the 21 day test and my husband has had a SA, I know they'll want to check more things but not sure what yet. Our GP was very reassuring and said that the clinic are great at 'unpicking' things to figure out what's going on as that's their area of expertise. Sorry I can't be of more help but try not to worry (easier said than done I know!) as I'm sure your first appointment will offer more information and advice on how to move forward. Do you have your appointment yet, do you have long to wait?

Thanks very much for your reply @nextweek
No we don't have our appt yet - that's another disaster

So I went to GP back in Feb, as at that stage we had been TTC for 15months. He sent me for 21day bloods as well as chlamydia & gonorrhoea. All came back fine except low progesterone. He sent the referral off in March and fertility clinic received it 11th April. GP marked the referral as Urgent (I'm 37) but when I rang fertility clinic a month ago they had downgraded it to routine as GP hadn't put much info on it to suggest my case was urgent!
I live in N.Ireland
Waiting list for routine is 6months +
Waiting list for urgent is 1 month

Fertility clinic said I should be called November ish and advised me to get GP to send in another referral.
So I have an appt with another GP in my practice on 20th Aug and I'm going to get her to put in another referral & stress the urgency's I'm also going to ask her to do the day3 bloods which show up AMH, LSH etc

Sorry for lengthy post! 🙈

@Broodyaf that's so frustrating that it wasn't marked as urgent, hopefully the different GP can sort that out for you. I've been on the waiting list for an appointment for almost 4 weeks, got told our appointment would likely be in November. I'm 35 so don't think we'd be classed as urgent. Is there a cut off age for NHS funded treatment in N.Ireland?

Yeah the cut-off age is 40, but at the speed they're goin I'll miss the cut off 🙈😂

If the cut is 40 then you've still got plenty of time to get the ball rolling, although I appreciate it's all very frustrating and the wait is torturous sometimes! Hope your appointment with the GP next week goes well and they do those tests for you x

Hello all

This seems to be the best place for me to fit in, hope ok to join in.

We have our appointment on friday to find out about what drugs I’ll need and hand in all our consent forms

Husband has azoospermia (zero sperm) had the 2 and 21 day blood tests and all look fine for me. My husband has had surgery to look for sperm which they found (yippee) it has now been frozen, now just need to start my side of things.
This is all new to me and overwhelmed with all the paper work and thoughts of what is coming next. Would love to just be able to chat with people about it as I go. If I’m ahead of anyone and can answer any questions then just shout. Or if anyone can let me know what to expect then I’d be grateful xxx

Hi @Honey1989 welcome :-)
That's great that they found sperm. My husband's sample came back with some of the results out with the 'normal' range, but not sure what the scores/percentages were. My day 21 tests were fine, but that's all we've had done so far and now just waiting for our first appointment at the fertility clinic, fingers crossed they don't find any other problems!
Can I ask if it's ICSI you're having? I'm read a little bit online and it sounds like ICSI is good for male fertility, but I'm not clear if ICSI is part of IVF or instead of?! Totally understand how it can be so overwhelming. Lots of luck for your appointment x

Hey @broodyaf that's awful!! So frustrating. I hope the GP will actually do it properly this time. We've had something similar - found out the other day that the referral letter that our GP sent 9 weeks ago hasn't been accepted as GP didn't provide enough info... at least we think that's what happened. The triage centre was dealing with 2 referrals of mine (gynae and fertility) and has managed to confuse themselves . So waiting for GP to call me back at some point this week to tell me what the hell is going on. Plus a good friend of mine has just told me she's pregnant with their second... I'm really happy for her but it also kinda feels like a knife to the chest :(

Hi @honey1989 that's a lot to take on, but that's good you have some sperm on ice. What's next for you?

Hi @nextweek we are having ICSI and I believe it’s instead of “traditional” ivf. It’s the only option for us and I guess different for each couple and the clinic make the decision xx

Thanks @Honey1989 Really hope it all goes well for you, sounds like it's all moving in the right direction x

We just got through our first appointment at the fertility clinic. It's in September, Quite surprised - I was expecting to have to wait a bit longer after reading some of the experiences on here.

For anyone further ahead in the process , how was your first appointment? I am assuming it will mostly be a chat and then we will agree next steps.

@duckling3 that's great that you've got your appointment sooner than you thought! Can't offer any experience I'm afraid as we're still waiting for our first appointment, but lots of luck to you when it comes.

Thanks @nextweek
Fingers crossed you don't have to wait too long for yours 🙂

@Honey1989 How did your appointment go on Friday?

@nextweek really positive. Met with the consultant who ran through what we could expect and explained our funding, allowed uS to ask some questions and booked me in for an internal scan tomorrow. Looks like the real information and timescales will come from the appointment with the nurses we have tomorrow. They will tell us if we can start this month and schedule in all medication and scans etc. I’ll fill you in tomorrow evening x

@Honey1989 that all sounds great, lots of luck for your nurses appointment!

Hey all!

Welcome newbies 👋👋
I'd love to see a happy ending in this thread soon - I think we're due one, but having said that, it's nice to know we're not on this struggle alone and yet more 2lines flashed in front of our nose!

So I went back to GP this morning - explained that fertility clinic weren't calling be until Novemberish, even though I was referred in March! And that they downgraded my referral to routine. So she has put in an urgent referral to the Royal fertility clinic in Belfast (the big one in N.Ireland) and that I should hear from them pretty soon. That their waiting list isn't that long.
She also said that in the event that I have to go for IVF, N.ireland is only given ONE free round on NHS! I feel so gutted about this even though I don't know that I need IVF, but something's telling me I will!
She even went j to detail about checking out foreign ivf centres in the mean time in case the waiting list for IVF in NHS over here is long....
Do I do this or what?!

I have to book in for rubella bloods and AMH bloods next week but apart from that she said throw all ovulation sticks in the bin, only record periods from now on and have regular sex every week. That psychologically I'm wrecking myself and that isn't helping things!

@Broodyaf can’t believe they only do one round. That’s so frustrating. I really don’t know much about going abroad but I’ve seen loads of chats on here about it. Maybe start another thread just to see what other people’s advice is? We’ve been told have sex every 2-3 days but when you work full time and it’s baby making rather than spontaneous it becomes a bit knackering! It’s so hard to switch off and “relax” as people all tell you to do :(

Couple of weeks to go until my first appointment. Nervous but glad it’s happening. My mood has been so up and down. One minute I’m accepting of it then I feel totally annoyed, worried and upset. Doesn’t help that there’s a baby scan pic on Facebook at least once a week!

@Broodyaf That's good that she's putting in another referral for you, hopefully you'll not have to wait too long. It's such a shame you only get one free round of ivf though. I don't know anything about centres overseas, but no harm in looking in to it just in case. Maybe some of the other treads on here would help with that.
@Scotgirl1 I know what you mean about it becoming a bit knackering. Some nights its the last thing I want to be doing, but don't want to potentially miss the opportunity! I've really been limiting my time on Facebook and Instagram recently for that reason, despite being happy for others it's still hard to see when you're in our situation :-(

@nextweek I rang the new referral centre - 12weeks waiting list for 1st appt!!! And after all their appts if I do need ivf there's another 12 months waiting list 😭😭

At 37 I have no choice but to go private

@Broodyaf that's horrible, such a long wait, I'm sorry to hear that! We've got about a 12 week wait for our first appointment, not sure what the wait time is for actual treatment after that, fingers crossed it's not a year!
Would it be possible for you to continue with the NHS and go on the waiting list but also look at private treatment in the meantime so that if it doesn't work you could still potentially get the NHS funded round? We're so early in the process that I have no idea really of how these things work, but maybe someone else on here has experience of that?