Should you just sit and wait? NHS waiting times

[Ldpr]

Hi Everyone,

Wanted to ask if people would be willing to share their experience of fertility investigations on the road to NHS IVF.

I started fertility investigations in Manchester in March 20, and was put on 6 months of Clomid (went private clinic due to covid) in Sept/Oct 20 (made my cycles regular but no BFP). Since then I've had a further ultrasound and HSG via NHS and all clear, hubby had SA and all clear apart from slightly low morphology but Drs didn't see that as an issue.

So my question is my HSG was in Jan and was all clear and I finished Clomid end of Feb. I was supposed to have a follow up appointment in June (which I already felt was a bit late), which got put back to July and now September. Is everyone else experiencing delays? I feel like I've lost six months of waiting.

We've been TTC 2 and a half years and I'm turning 33 soon.

What has everyone's else's experience been in the last year? I know covid will have had a massive impact on wait times, and fertility obviously isn't a medical priority, but feel a bit lost at the moment.

Thanks in advance, sorry for the essay!

I'm my experience, I seriously wish I hadn't waited for nhs @Ldpr

We've been TTC over 3 1/2 years; went to drs feb 2019, tests took til sept 2018 to complete, and which point we were referred for nhs IVF. They missed my PCOS (later diagnosed) and put me through as unexplained. I was due to be contacted by the clinic fir treatment in March 2020 but covid hit. I only last week had my first transfer. I tried to go private in that time, but they spotted a fibroid I needed to get investigated before progressing, which put me back to nhs waiting times. Why the nhs didn't spot this, I don't know.

I was 32 when I started ttc, I'm now nearly 36 going into my first treatment and feel I've lost my last good years waiting fir the nhs as my egg quality reduces.

If you are able to afford private and they quote good wait times - I'd try to go down that route; I wish I was able to x

*sept 2019

@MotherOfShihTzus thanks so much for sharing your experience.

I'm so sorry you've had to go through that all, it really makes you feel helpless doesn't it. Wishing you good luck on your first treatment.

I've contacted the PALS team at my hosp to see if there's anything that can be done about wait times but think I'll get back in contact with the private clinic that prescribed me Clomid and discuss next steps.

I also felt like I might have had PCOS as I have a lot of the classic symptoms (irregular cycles, acne, more prevalent facial hair) but tests showed nothing so I was just classed as having ovulation issues. Will maybe ask for further investigation again.

You have a similar story to me. The nhs had been shocking and I’m also in manchester. I started my nhs tests and the only way I was given appointments was by constantly phoning up the consultants secretary and chasing and also trying to get last minute cancellations.

I was also waiting for nhs recurrent miscarriage tests with st marys but Im still waiting for my final consultation which won’t be until end of July. The initial referral was in September 2020. It should Not take 10 months to get blood and give the advice.

Im having ivf now anyway with care manchester.

Due to the nhs delays I actually paid privately for the recurrent miscarriage bloods and they found two issues. Interestingly st marys said my results were normal!

Also the private clinic found my husbands sperm to be highly dna fragmented while the nhs just say it’s normal.

The best thing I did was pay for some private tests as the nhs have not picked up my two issues and they haven’t considered the sperm fragmentation.

If it weren’t for the private tests we would not have been allowed to do icsi with care manchester.

Which hospital are you at?

Also the only reason I waited for so long was st marys kept saying the delay is only a couple of months which I was happy to wait for. Had they have said right from the start that the delay would have been 10 months then I would have paid for the private tests sooner.

Also paying privately for tests we were seen within a week with the results shortly after.

It varies so much depending on which area you live in unfortunately. I saw my GP January 2020 and had my first fertility consultation just as covid hit in March 2020. From the first SA in February we knew we had bad sperm issues but it took until November to complete further tests on me due to covid delays and waiting for the next follow up. We were then referred for IVF with Care and had our initial appointment in December 2020. We had our first round in March 2021 which failed and have just had our FET which failed as well.
Privately you will get a lot more tests done than on NHS that could find further issues, however you may not need them. Private is also a lot quicker. However most NHS CCGs will not let you have NHS funding once you have gone private so it really depends how long you are prepared to wait and if you can afford it.
Personally I would still have waited as we have basically had a free dummy run at IVF and now I know we need further testing as we haven't been successful.