1st appointment - NHS infertility

[Catsnkidsistheplan]

Anyone's advice would be great. Been ttc 1st baby just over a year.
Had blood work done. Progesterone low. Apparently it was done at the wrong time for my cycle. Had an ultrasound. Came back that I had a bulky right ovary. Periods are fairly reg at 30-35. Husband had SA done and that came back with 'not enough to count' during lockdown! Which has panicked us. We are being referred to fertility clinic now. July is 1st appointment- any idea what goes on next please?

I would say numbers don’t mean anything. They are averaged and not you two. It took me one and a half years to get to consultation on NHS and now it will probably be another year delay. Why don’t you have a look at some online forums and go for a reasonably priced private clinic nearby? Many are doing offers at the moment. Although it will make your eye water prices should be about £3 for IVF and £2-4K for extras. But 2 year wait could mean more.

My husband's SA came back with 0 the first time. They will repeat to confirm, as this can change.

The next thing that happened was he was referred for a number of scans and blood tests. This will then let them know what might be causing this. There are a number of procedures to extract sperm, from less to more invasive. Thankfully they were able to find sperm with aspiration with my husband, so we are able to do IVF. From first SA to successful surgical sperm retrieval it was 15 months on the NHS. However, that did include being referred to the wrong urology clinic initially!

My experience is that once they find a 'male problem' they ignore the female side of things until they have found sperm, although I don't know if that's the same for everyone.

If money isn't an issue, definitely go private. We are going to try and stick with our 'free' NHS cycle if we can, as we are still relatively young by fertility standards.

I'm 33 so not sure if that's a dodgy age. Looked at prices for private and yes it is honestly scary! Think where we would live we would get 1 free round of ivf on nhs but then it is private - worse case.

Hi @Catsnkidsistheplan,

I'm in a similar situation have been trying for a year and a half and got to our first appointment stage with the NHS which was then cancelled because of Coronavirus!

My blood results showed high prolactin and I had to have several results to see if it was consistently high and it had dropped by the third test. I think the reason it was high was possibly about fear of needles which is great going into IVF 🙈

My DH has low sperm count , mobility and all of the other counts and was advised to give up all alcohol, caffeine and anything anti sperm! He did that for three months over Christmas and the result went down! That's not to say of course that it will be the case for everyone!

I've had scans and have been told I have 'chunky' ovaries which mean I have polycystic ovaries but I don't have any associated hormone imbalances which apparently means I should have normal fertility.

We were told IVF is the route for us but to still continue anything to try and increase sperm count and quality i.e. loose pants, good diet etc.

I'm just hoping we hear from the NHS soon so we know what's happening. It will help to feel a bit in control

@Lockdown12 yep you sound same as me. We should have asked on the phone to our GP about husbands motility and quality. She just said 'not enough to count' and I think that it just hit us in the face! This was week 1 of lockdown too so other things on my mind! I also get the feeling our GP doesn't know the answers to our questions most of the time so need a specialist. I had the same - bulky right ovary (but they have never told me straight out that it's polycystic) but my periods are fairly reg. I guess I don't ovulate every cycle. Who knows! It's v complicated. I'm like you, I don't have any control and feel like I'm in limbo! Roll on these 1st appointments!

Oh and the whole diet thing about helping sperm, sometimes I just look at overweight ppl with their own kids and think how the hell is their fine and dandy??? Anyhow got hubby on a better diet and supplements at mo to try and boost it. We are skeptical lol

Oh absolutely, same here! Me and DH have a fairly decent diet..eat a lot of veg and make most from scratch so in comparison to others who have kids it does make you think can it really make any difference?!

I think GPs tend not to have the in depth information for you. The first person we saw sent us for one lot of tests and the second person seemed a bit more switched on and said we'd had our time wasted by waiting for these tests that weren't even needed! I also found that our GPs were very vague at answering any questions although I suppose that depends on who you have and their medical experiences. I think the hard thing is that at our stage of the process your only source of info seems to be the internet and you can get yourself in a real rabbit hole there!

@Lockdown12 yep I've googled too many things. Keep thinking my next step will be the hsg thing which looks a bit scary! Unless the sperm thing becomes the no 1 problem they start looking at. We are still trying so I'm about 6 days away from AF. Trying to think positive and if she turns up don't get too despondent about it and just think of the next steps and that everyone's journey is different. I remember when I was terrified of getting preg in my 20s and now it's not so easy