Going to a GP

[Lou98]

Hi, this is my first time posting in this topic and I'm just looking for some advice.

For background, me and my DP have been TTC for 2 years now. After a couple of chemicals I found out I was pregnant at the end of Feb, unfortunately, this ended with a MC mid March. We were both devastated after trying for so long but decided to start trying again straight away.

With the 2 year mark coming up in a months time it's really got me thinking about everything that could be wrong. We had planned to make an appt with the GP at the start of the year but then with the MC and COVID we never. I am wondering if anyone knows if GP's are taking appointments for fertility just now (I'm in Scotland if this makes a difference), and what I can expect at an appointment if they are.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Any positive stories? I'm feeling really deflated and like it's never going to happen

It’s normal to get deflated. I had 3 MC due to endometriosis & PCOS. I’ve recently given birth to twins via 2nd try at IVF.
I’d keep hassling the GP for a referral to fertility clinic.
We had 2 referrals. First time I was overweight & horrible fertility nurse told me to lose 5 stone which was impossible with PCOS & other medical issues but managed to lose just under 2 stone By not eating and exercising like crazy (made me so ill!) but GP agreed to refer us again.
Saw another nurse who said I didn’t qualify for Clomid as I needed to lose another 3 stone - I already looked ill as I have muscly legs which account for a fair bit of weight!
I was distraught and told my DH he could have a divorce as I couldn’t give him children. He said no, let’s go private.
We sold our house and rented instead so we could afford 3 lots of IVF if we needed them.
The first lot didn’t work. The second, I discovered I was pregnant and kept it quiet from everyone until 4 months as I was massive as it was twins.
We’ve had a lot of heartache, spent a lot of money and lost our financial security but now We have our son and daughter, we don’t care!

You'd need to check with your local NHS but many would say the clock resets if you have a miscarriage/ectopic - this happened to my friend so the 2 years would start from the date of your last miscarriage? Just so you can be prepared in case they say this

Getting appointments with GPs is nigh on impossible at the moment for non urgent appointments but it's always worth ringing and seeing what they say?

@Danniiaddy congrats on eventually getting your healthy twins!
We've not been to the GP yet as we decided we would go in March when it hit the 18month mark but obviously we then found out we were pregnant and with the lockdown we haven't been yet and I wasn't sure if they were doing investigations or referrals yet.

If we were to go private we would have to go along the same lines as you and sell the house we own. Although similar to you, if it meant we managed to have a healthy babe, we would happily do that!

@ivfdreaming my partner had said that he thought it would mean we would have to 'start over' in terms of whether a GP would help or not as he thought it showed we could get pregnant whereas I'd assumed that with it ending in MC it could still be a sign something was wrong so I wasn't really sure how that worked. I'll be devastated if that is the case though as the thought of another 2 years of no baby is unbearable😔

Luckily, endometriosis is ruled out (for now at least, not sure if it can develop later) as I had a laparoscopy right at the start of us TTC for unrelated tests, I was having a lot of pain and they thought it might be that, at that point it wasn't for fertility reasons.

I’m from Scotland also, I actually phoned up just yesterday and I’m being referred just from a telephone call, been told it could be 8-12 weeks but she’s expecting quicker than that. We’re Glasgow.

Myself and my partner are both under 30, TTC just under 2 years.

Hi op, just to say that I relate strongly as we were also ttc for two years when we got pregnant in April. That ended in a missed miscarriage in May and was really devastating for us as well. If you can, my advice would be to look up your local CCG and see what their fertility clinic referral criteria is (I'm in England so it may work differently in Scotland?). I was very worried that we would also not be able to access anything fertility wise for two years because we conceived but we have been able to at least get an initial fertility clinic appointment which is in mid Sept. I am still very unclear as to whether we will be eligible for ivf now though- such a ridiculous rule as if conceiving rather than having a baby is the goal and also ridiculous that it doesn't take into account how long you were trying before. But we are prepared to go private as we have some savings and having a family is so important to us as it is for everyone with fertility issues. Good luck!

@PaisleyJade ah that sounds promising, I'll give the GP a phone this week and see what's what.
Me and my DP are registered at different GP's, does this matter or is it a case of your individual GP needs to refer you?

Sorry if that seems like a silly question, this is all new to me, when we started TTC 2 years ago I never thought it would take this long, we're also both under 30 and I stupidly assumed it wouldn't be too difficult🤦‍♀️

@goldflakepaint thank you for taking the time to reply. It is devastating when you've been trying for so long, I feel like I can't think about anything else.

Fingers crossed everything goes well for you!

So with going direct to a CCG clinic, can you still be eligible for investigations etc through the NHS even without a GP referral?
For us to go private, depending where we go, we would most likely need to sell our house and rent or take out a loan as all our savings went in to buying the house and with it having been a slow year with COVID etc any we managed to build back up since buying the house have been spent unfortunately. While we are prepared to look in to selling or taking a loan, if the option to be referred first is there we would ideally like to try that first

@Lou98 no I don’t think so! Me and my partner are also registered at different GP’s but my step mum who eventually had IVF just got referred to her GP and they took my dad as part of the package deal lol.

I know, thought it’d be fine as we’re both relatively young (I’m 24 he’s 28) and in good shape! Just so frustrating now!