@ChristmasJumpers I don't mind you asking questions at all. It's so hard when you don't know anyone who has been through it. I have 1 friend who has been to a different clinic recently and 1 who had IVF 10 years ago. Everyone else either doesn't want children, or had them easily.
I have found family and friends not very helpful, as they just spout the usual "if you stay positive IVF will definitely work" 😬 I'm quite private too, so I don't want to share everything with my family and my mum in particular has been nagging for details.
We had a phone call from the office / booking team to arrange the Skype appointment. DH thinks they also sent an email of instructions in using the Skype service. We think we received this call 4 ish weeks after the referral. The Skype appointment was approx 4 weeks later. We had Christmas in the middle of this and they do close from approx 18th December to early January, so you might find you wait less time.
Mr Haddad seems to do all of these appointments and not the procedures (we think possibly because of his age, as DH works for the NHS and believes doctors are not allowed to do procedures after a certain age), so the wait time shouldn't be extreme.
Around this time we also did legally required paperwork for the HFEA. This is all done electronically through the Care Fertility portal. They will get you logged into this. You will also need to complete "educational modules" through the portal. I found this really stressful and in hindsight we should have clicked through it all as quickly as possible. I found myself agonising over the information and what it all meant. I know that you need all of the info, but I found it too overwhelming to do so many online modules in such a short amount of time.
Mr Haddad created the treatment plan and passed it to the nurses. Once I had called to say my period had started (for the second time) the nurse arranged a phone call with us to go through the plan and dates.
You will have to go for blood tests to check for HIV and various types of hepatitis. It's legally required before starting IVF. We had to drive to their other building in Chester to collect the blood forms and then drive to the hospital to have the bloods done. A long drive just for bloods 😬
All of the CCGs across Lancashire follow the same policy for IVF. It's our understanding that the funding per month is not related to Covid. The nurses were completely clueless about this and I was really upset that they couldn't say why I needed to wait another month before starting. We only found this out afterwards.
The Covid restrictions have been changing over the year. At first I had to go for a covid test and isolate before procedures, but later on I only needed a covid test and to be "sensible". They can only arrange for you to go to Chester for a covid test, so I would book one locally and upload a screenshot of the results to my patient portal.
We decide to stay with Chester now we're self funded as although some things seem disorganised my GP was of the opinion that there is nothing to be gained by changing to a different clinic, especially not at this stage. DH and I felt the same. They often describe the first round as a starting point to learn what does or does not work. The doctors definitely listen to you at Chester and the team is quite small that you won't just see a different person each time. DH checked success rates across the NW and Chester are up there in the ratings. It's no guarantee, but it's some comfort.
Hope all of that makes sense. There were no recent threads for Care Fertility Chester when I looked in January so hopefully this will also help others!