First appointment at fertility clinic - any advice?

[Quiptic]

Hi all,

I’ve just made a first appointment at my local fertility clinic after being referred by my GP.

I wondered if those of you further along in the process might be able to share your experience - what I should expect and any questions to make sure I ask?

I’ve already had day 3 and day 21 blood tests plus an ultrasound which apparently all came back as ‘normal’. And my husband had a SA which showed low morphology but good count and motility.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

How low was his morphology score?

Just try to relax. You're at the start of the assessment process, which will take a while. Not everyone needs IVF. I was able to get pregnant my first time with medication alone. My second pregnancy happened the old fashioned way, no medical help needed.

Good luck.

Thanks @MissConductUS. I definitely need to try to relax!

I guess I just feel like the NHS process is quite opaque. Difficult to know what’s supposed to happen and when and what the next step will be.

Morphology was 3%. The GP didn’t think it would be a problem in the context of the other results but I realise GPs aren’t always experts on this.

I did my treatment in the US (I'm a Yank) so can't help you with the NHS bit of it.

3% isn't terrible. They'll probably want to do IUI once they're confident you're ovulating. We did that too and I'm sure it helped. My husband had good count and morphology and okay but not great mobility.

My oldest is in uni now and his sister is off to uni this fall, so my experience was a while ago.

Hi OP, it seems to vary depending on where you live. In my case the first consultation was to go through our existing tests and history. The outcome was further tests. Have in mind what you would like from it as you may be asked to make some decisions (I know I was). Reading around on here is a good place to see people's experiences to prepare you. They will likely want to check the patency of your tubes with either a hsg or hycosy. (In my case I had a laparoscopy instead but that was because we rightfully suspected endo).

My DH had a similar morphology and it was all fine. They will likely do a second test any way as sperm can vary over time plus clinics seem to like their own labs to do the test.

As for questions I remember I asked google and read a few articles. I wrote down my questions to take in with me. I strongly recommend this as if you are anything like me your head is likely to go a bit! The written questions help to keep you on track

This was NHS funded. Good luck and try not to worry. Xx

Thanks @SpyroC that’s really helpful. I’ll make sure to write down the points I want to cover. Last time I spoke to the GP there were a couple of questions I forgot to ask and was kicking myself afterwards.

I do think we should have another semen analysis as I know the results can vary so I will ask for that. I also wonder about endo due to painful periods and a couple of other symptoms. I’d be nervous about having a laparoscopy but will mention it as well.

Part of me is wondering whether we should just go privately now as I’m anticipating there being a long wait on the NHS for IVF, which I expect is where we will end up. But it’s obviously a big financial commitment so it probably makes sense to see how far we can go with tests via the NHS route first.

Even with being super well prepared I still always think of something afterwards-it's so annoying! But at least the biggest things get covered.

I was really scared about the laparoscopy but I knew it was needed. I thought addressing that would help avoid ivf but sadly it didn't. That was the big decision I had to make on the day, I was expecting more of a faf and having to battle. The wait for that was quite long (3 months) but after that everything moved much more quickly. When it was clear the laparoscopy and a few other things hadn't worked I was referred for ivf and there was no waiting list! I was expecting at least 6 months. So it is definitely worth seeing what they say before going private straight away. My clinic was actually private but also takes nhs funded patients, I think that helped.