Isolating before treatment

[ICSI]

Hi,

We have just received our online consent forms to read through, watch videos and sign and have come to the COVID section.

One of the questions is: do you have children who attend Nursery or school?

I don’t have children but I am a Nursery teacher so I’m in school in close contact everyday.

There isn’t anywhere to add extra information though.

There were also a set of statements that I had to agree I have read and understood. It said from the point of our swab we agree to self isolate. Then separately it says from the point of ovarian stimulation it is recommended to isolate.

If we have symptoms or test positive it said our treatment will be cancelled and costs for cancellation will need to be paid. Any future drugs will need to be paid for.

I just wondered if anyone else has had any experience of treatment in the pandemic and has any guidance?

I’m feeling really worried now that working in school, our bubble may need to close and that will cancel out our treatment and that will be our only free round.

I would be so grateful to hear of others experiences

Xx

@ICSI We had to sign the same consent forms as you. And we were told the same things that I have to isolate from 2 days prior to egg collection (when I'll have a covid swab) till after transfer. Also if the covid swab is positive the treatment will be cancelled. And there is no refund for treatments already carried out. I am not sure what happens about NHS rounds though as we are paying privately.

When I raised this with the clinic I was advised if we start treatment under present times we take this risk. Or can wait till covid is past!! Whenever that might be!

I work in the NHS and have a 2 year old who's at nursery. So have spoken to my line manager and between my husband and I we will do a mix of from working from home and taking leave from 10 days prior the covid swab till after egg transfer. During this time I am taking my daughter out of nursery and the 3 of us will isolate at home.

Have you spoken to work about this at all?

@ICSI
I'm in a similar situation as you. I work in a nursery and I'm really not sure what I can do.
When I had my consultation at the end of the Jan I asked what she felt I should do. She seemed to dismiss my worries of having the treatment cancelled. My concern like yours is the situation of closing a bubble and therefore having to self isolate but during those 10 days needing to attend a scan etc.
I'm due to start in the next couple of months so I'm going to speak to manager to see what I can do.
I haven't got any advice but just wanted to reach out and say I understand!

@Donimo thank you for your response! That’s good you can work it out to work from home for that period! My husband also works at my school so it would involve both of us isolating as well. Our clinic is saying that we need to isolate from ovarian stimulation point. I feel as though we just haven’t been given any information though. The last time I actually saw anyone in person was for my tubes dye test back in August. I’ve had a phone appointment with a consultant since then who was in a rush to get off the phone so I feel like they expect me to understand a lot more of the procedure and timeline than I actually do! I’m going to arrange to speak to my boss but want to have more of an idea of when and how long I need to isolate beforehand.

@Gosling33 I felt really dismissed today as well after phoning up the nurse advice line. One of the questions asked if I have a child at Nursery and I said, I don’t have a child at a nursery but I work at a Nursery. The nurse said, well it doesn’t ask about your occupation so don’t worry. Which I thought was quite dismissive, as surely the reason for that question in the COVID section is that it suggests a level of risk or that you may need to isolate your child?

I feel just like you though, I’m really worried that my bubble will close because someone catches COVID and I’ll lose my one free round.

I am going to talk to my head teacher but I’m worried about how it will be taken and the impact on how I’m viewed in school. My husband says this should be the last worry I have, which I know is true but it just weighs on me a bit.

@ICSI have you been given your treatment plan with dates for starting meds, scan appointments and egg retrieval etc yet? As when I was given these I was also given the exact dates I had to isolate from and to. The nurse also said that it was just me that officially had to isolate and not my husband and daughter... although I think that's pointless unless I the spend 2 weeks living in a separate part of the house to them! If your headteacher approves working from home could you tell colleagues that you and your husband are isolating due to a minor medical op... which is what I have said to everyone.

I haven’t had my treatment planning appointment yet so haven’t got any details about the protocol, drugs, timeline or anything like that yet. I feel so grateful that I’ve got places like this to come and find out about the process as I feel like I haven’t been told anything about the process of appointments. I can absolutely understand that the service is overran and extremely busy so may not have the patience or time to answer every little query but I think if I’d just been give a layout of the appointments I should expect and the order it would have made me less nervous!

Have you been given your dates yet?

@ICSI yes at my consent appointment last month we booked all scans and egg retrieval and transfer dates, these are in March. (Obviously these may change slightly depending on how I respond to meds). Then I had to call on day 1 of my cycle to confirm these dates, as if my period came late or early it might of changed slightly. Even though I was 3 days late, the dates we had provisionally booked were still ok. From my experience at my clinic I don't think they plan all of these dates until you are due to start as your cycle, clinic availability and other patients cycles change each month. Also with covid at present everything is a bit more flexible. As I was due to start my previous cycle but had to be delayed due to the clinic reducing capacity due to some staff being redeployed. Prior to this appointment I was getting stressed about dates etc.

But my advice to you is don't stress yet about dates and when to isolate till you have your appointment to plan your treatment. Are you going to be on the long protocol? If so there will probably be around 2 months between when you get your treatment plan till when you get to the point of needing to isolate.

@Donimo
Our consent is all online, but will have a phone appointment soon which will hopefully make things a bit clearer! I wish they would just tell you the order I.e. fertility referral, additional testing, blood tests, initial appointment, consent signing, treatment planning...

It just feels like they expect me to know what is happening without actually telling me. I look online a lot to get an idea but a lot is very different due to COVID.

I think from what I’ve read that I’ll be on short protocol as I have PCO so a high risk of OHSS.

Have they told you what time protocol is and drugs?

@ICSI yes all the drugs are currently sat in my fridge! Due to start them a week today! . But I am on the long protocol so my first baseline scan is booked for 8th March and then egg retrieval hopefully 22nd March.

I think all clinics do things slightly differently. But if this helps my experience has been initial telephone appointment in September then tests for me and my husband in October. Followed by a telephone consultant appointment end of October to give test results and then advised needed ICSI. Then consultant telephone appointment to plan treatment at christmas. Nurses face to face appointment to book in confirmed dates and do consents, bloods, bmi and teach injections 22nd Jan. At the appointment I got my prescription for the medications and booked scans and given full timeline to include isolation dates. Although if I'm honest this felt a bit rushed even though the appointment was over 2 hours. But I think all clinics are different slightly and we are paying privately so that's not NHS (not sure if your NHS or private or if indeed that makes a difference).

I also know at my clinic they said there was a wait list for the short protocol as this was harder to plan dates

@ICSI
I completely understand with worrying about work. Up until this point no one knows at my work. I've made a decision to explain the situation though to colleagues because I'm hoping it will take the pressure off the reason why I'm suddenly going to need leave.
@Donimo Thanks for your advice, it's helpful reading someone's experience who is a little further ahead. Although as you say everyone and all clinics do operate differently.

I'm a teacher. Because of covid I've had to tell work far too much about my personal life. I had a FET in September and missed the first week of school, back to work day after transfer. For my egg collection round I worked from home for just over a week (just the 1 week leading up). My clinic didn't say I needed to but I couldn't sleep at night worrying about my treatment being cancelled because of a kid in my class getting covid. If I'd had an office type job I'd have used annual leave to take a big chunk of time off each time. I feel lucky that I've been allowed those two weeks of working like that, but there's a limit so don't want to have to ask again!

My clinic sounds less strict about it than yours. They don't ask to isolate at all and it's optional to test. Although in the last few weeks they have new questions before they let you in the building including "has anyone in your household been asked to isolate". My dd is in reception and my dh is still going out working in people's houses. I asked if that would mean my treatment would be cancelled if say my daughters school bubble burst but they said no it shouldn't. It's so hard to know what to do isn't it. I think an egg collection round is worth fighting for time off as there's more at stake. Good luck

@Donimo thank you it is really good to hear a bit more detail! We are NHS, we were referred to the clinic last February, should have had initial appointment at the start of April but all was pushed back! So far I’ve had a ton of blood tests, AMH blood test, antral follicle scan, the dye scan and my husband has had two semen analyses. We ended up having our initial appointment as a phone appointment in September then another one in October with a consultant. We had a letter after that to say our funding had been allocated and the consultant said the next thing was treatment planning. The nurse yesterday said there might be more blood tests but I don’t know what for. Will have to wait and see!

@seven201 how did your head teacher take it, were they understanding? The nurse said yesterday it would be both me and my husband who would need to isolate and we both work at the same school so it would be really inconvenient for them but I don’t know what else we can do!

@Gosling33 I decided to tell my colleagues I work closely with, we get on really well and it helps explain why I am so emotional at times! They’ve been really supportive so I feel lucky with that.

@ICSI we had to have bloods done last month prior to starting... I think it was just to screen for Hep B, rubella, HIV and alike- conditions which would affect a baby during pregnancy. So guessing that's what your bloods might be for!