Start of fertility testing

[Peonies94]

Anyone else at the start of fertility testing? I’ve had my first bloods and had husband is waiting for his SA. My bloods weren’t done on any particular day of the cycle, and I have no idea what rhey were looking for. I phoned for results and have been told the gp hasn’t looked at them yet, but there’s no ‘red’. I’m assuming they won’t be looking at ovulation, which I am pretty certain I’m not ovulating, as I’m only having around 3 periods a month. Currently 3 months since last period. If anyone else is around the same place in the process or could help me with what they may be testing, that would be really helpful! Thank you

Hi all hope you're all getting on OK? :) I remember before someone was confused about interpreting sperm analysis results, DH just got his in the post and this website was really good at breaking it down in case anyone needs it so thought I'd share! www.healthline.com/health/mens-health/normal-sperm-count#semen-analysis

@FlyOnTheWall89 I hope your phone consultation/discussion went ok.

@Loulou2202 thanks 😊

So, we had our second fertility appointment yesterday, this time with the consultant.

I’m having my bloods redone again (3rd time now) for thyroid and prolactin. Booked that for end of the month. Other than that, there’s nothing that they can find wrong with me. Finally got a diagnosis, we’re unexplained. Not that that is a particularly helpful diagnosis.

Doctor said either IUI out of our own pocket (roughly 3 grand for 3 cycles) or NHS IVF. We picked IVF because we want to save any money for potential further rounds.

We’ve picked CARE as it’s close, so will be much easier with work for scans and stuff.

Expecting a phone call from the nurse later this week, they’re sorting out the paperwork for us. Hopefully they’ll have an idea about timescales, but I’m hopeful that this year we might just get our cycle completed.

Hope everyone is ok.

@Lauralozzle it’s good news your starting IVF , i always feel unexplained is a bit of a weird one as naturally you don’t want to having anything wrong with you but equally if they found an issue then it would make more sense but I your chances must be improved if you’ve got the all clear! Is IUI not NHS funded then?

for anyone else that might be interested I have started Letrozole this month so I’m wondering if it will do the trick for me , il have to wait and see ( and hope) xx

Hi @Lauralozzle - we are having our nurse consultation in 3 weeks. I'm trying to get it moved forward a bit. What protocol have they recommended? How many rounds do you get? I didn't even know we could choose a clinic but so far I've been happy with how helpful and relatively quick everything has been. Unexplained is so hard but now you have a plan and as you say, you may well complete your successful cycle this year and that is SO exciting!
Good luck with letrozole @Loulou2202 xx

@Loulou2202 Yes, unexplained is a bit of a frustrating diagnosis. I suppose the good thing about IVF is it acts as a diagnostic tool too, I suppose we’ll find out if there is an egg problem or an implantation problem. No, IUI is not covered under NHS for us here, only covered for people have have difficulty having sex or same sex couples and I think they need to fund privately for first 6 tries or something. He gave us 30% chance over 3 rounds of IUI but I think that money is better spent on potential further IVF rounds. Plus, chances with IVF are better from what I’ve read.

I Hope you have success with the letrozole.

@FlyOnTheWall89 we’re not at the point of finding out protocols yet. Think the paperwork they’re sending from the hospital is CCG funding thing. I’m guessing that will take about 6-8 weeks, and then wait for CARE to contact us. I’m hoping by November I might be getting somewhere where I know protocol and everything. Keeping my timescale realistic and then if it’s sooner it’ll be a bonus. We were given a sheet with about 8 fertility IVF clinics on and just picked the closest one. I’m hoping I’ll know a little more when the nurse from the hospital calls me!! We get one round on the NHS which includes all frozen embryos if we are lucky enough to have them.

I'm still at the same stage I was about 2 months ago, only this time it's not due to waiting for them to do stuff.
Right after the initial phone call I had my period, but also covid (so I couldn't do the bloodtests or hycosy). And then I ram out of inositol and the brand I had at first wasn't available so I bought a different one, which was the exact same stuff and dosage, but I am now on cycle day 49 and still no sign of anything 😭 and I was so optimistic when I had that one healthy cycle, I thought I'd be having regular ovulations now and would get pregnant with just a few more attempts.

@Loulou2202 let me know how you're finding letrozole, based on the phonecall I had it sounds like they might consider that for me too depending on what my tests show

@Omgdnswv what brand are you using if you don’t mind me asking ? Sorry to hear you had covid hope your feeling better I do know covid itself can mess up cycles so maybe that’s a contributing factor. Without being a Debbie downer my cycles are fairly regular and I wasn’t ovulating despite that , sorry I can’t remember if you have pcos or not? If you do then that might be the issue same as me.

I actually got my day 21 results today , they said i ovulated ( yay) but i dont think we’ve succeeded this month, I didn’t get any positive on OPKS maybe I tested too late so I will test every day next month and keep fingers crossed. Only real side effect for me was the frequent hot flushes , mostly in the night but only really the week of the medication and the week after so it’s not too bad. I’m on 5mg not the usual 2.5 starting dose either and I’m not really sure why I just figured the doctor thinks I neeed the higher dose so I’m going with it. Best of luck to you if you do start we can be Letrozole buddies lol x

@Loulou2202
The brand I first used was BeLive, but now they're out of stock on amazon and seem to only be available as an import from the USA with over 20£ shipping. The one I'm using now is from Time Health.

Covid didn't hit me too hard, I had some sort of flue thing a month before that was much harsher. Actually enjoyed the days off work.
Yes, I do have PCO. What are you using to test ovulation? I thought ovulation tests didn't work when you have PCO as they measure hormones that are already elevated in us?
At least during the hotter days now, hot flushes won't seem too out of place with everyone else being overheated too😉
I just want to have my period done and over with so I can have the last tests and finally try some prescription level treatments

Yeah I had Covid over Christmas and luckily I didn’t suffer too badly either, at least you got a few days off out of it!

I’m using the powdered supplement from My Protein, it’s a bit tricky to understand the right dosage for PCOS so I just chuck a big spoonful into water twice a day and seems to work for me but it’s probably not the most accurate lol. Just an idea in case you get stuck again without any at all or don’t see any results from the Time Health ones.

You are right about the OPKS so I take them with a huge pinch of salt.

i had the odd positive peak for a few months before I knew I had PCOS which confused me as to why nothing was happening but now I know they were elevated LH levels and false so I actually stopped using them after my diagnosis.

My consultant said to give them a go during my treatment which I thought was odd but Il do pretty much anything I’m told at this point.

I know what you mean about the waiting it’s so frustrating but hopefully AF will turn up soon and you can get moving through those last few tests x

@Omgdnswv I hope your period came! That’s so frustrating waiting for it to arrive so you can get on with your tests!

@Loulou2202 it’s great that you ovulated!

So, update from me. Rang the fertility clinic about my blood results for thyroid and prolactin. Thyroid is 6.45 and prolactin is down a tiny amount (940) but still pretty high. Nurse asked if I had an appointment, told her I didn’t because I’ve been referred for IVF now and I’m waiting for a call from CARE. Basically, lots of well maybe CARE will sort out your thyroid.

I’m so pissed off it’s unreal. She had asked if GP was dealing with my thyroid- I said no, and she just said maybe CARE will deal with it then.

I’ve queried if I should talk to my GP about the thyroid and she then chimed that’s a good idea because for IVF they like it to be below 3.

so, appointment made with GP for Wednesday. Everything I have read says thyroid issues can cause prolactin issues. This has to be it, I’m going to try and nicely demand thyroid medication on Wednesday. I don’t want to wait until I finally have an appointment with CARE it could be months. It could take months for my thyroid to drop, it clearly isn’t doing what it should at the moment. I don’t want to wait months to fix my thyroid if it could get fixed now!

sorry for the rant. Just wish someone would take responsibility I feel like I’m being fobbed off by everyone! Urgh.

@Lauralozzle
Yes, I did get my period in the end, then had to book the blood test, which was a nightmare cause I couldn't get through the phone queues so my partner ended up doing it for me, amd he really had to fight too, because of course blood tests are booked out a good 10 days in advance, which makes day 1-4 tests theoretically impossible to get. In the end, they pushed me between 2 appointments and I had to run to my boss and tell him that I had to leave work in an hour because of an unexpected doctors appointment. Thank god he was quite chill about it.
My hycosy is gonna happen on Monday, right after the bank holiday, we'll see if my partner can come with me, I've had conflicting information about whether that's allowed now. It's been really weird not trying to get pregnant this cycle, on one hand it's restful to take a break, on the other hand my brain is trying to convince me that this is obviously the one and only time it'll definitely work and I'm missing out on it

Sorry to hear you're having such a rough time with the doctors, it is definitely up there in the top 3 of worst things about life in england/uk. They just don't have the money/staff so need to safe money at every corner. Best thing to do is research what you can beforehand and then bring up the treatments or medications that might help and see if they give in. And use their own words as backup, if your GP tries to push the thyroid treatment onto a different medical team, tell them your fertility clinic said to go to the GP and get it sorted.

@Omgdnswv Oh that sounds a right pain! I’m glad you got your tests sorted though in the end. We have this online system called swift queue to book our bloods, but I had to guess when I’d likely be at day 21 or day 2-5 because the appointments are like 14 days in advance mostly. Meant booking several appointments online and then cancelling ones I didn’t need in the end! Good luck for your HSG. Mine wasn’t allowed in, but he waited around the hospital for me to finish.

My plan is to go to GP tomorrow and basically say what I’ve read and that I’m symptomatic. It’s not horrendous but I definitely have some symptoms re the thyroid they’re just not awful and I thought part of it was just me! Fingers crossed tomorrow I leave with a thyroxine prescription and probably more blood tests, to be fair!

Good luck to you all that are awaiting tests/ivf /letrazole! i haven’t been on here for a while sorry! I just had a quick read to catch up!

@Omgdnswv good luck with HSG - mine got a cab to the hospital to be there when I came out but it was all over so quickly and didn't hurt at all that I just met him at home in the end.

How are you @Peonies94 ?!

I have my nurse appointment next Tuesday! Quite excited to get a start date in place. X

@FlyOnTheWall89 I’m good! I’ve actually had a positive after 17 months of trying! It’s reallyyy early days, but hopefully it’ll last 🤞!

What’s the plan of action for you now? I’m glad the HSG wasn’t painful!

Omg amazing @Peonies94 congratulations - you must be so excited! I can't remember if you had any other issues bar irregular cycles? Urgh so desperate for a BFP before IVF too.

@FlyOnTheWall89 it was just the irregular periods and my DH morphology which was low. I do have a weird shape womb too, so I’m just 🤞🤞 that it doesn’t cause issues! 17 months and only 5 ‘try’s’ just felt like it would never happen! My periods did become more regular after taking myo Insitol and a concoction of vitamins!
i hope you do, but if not wishing you the best of luck on your ivf journey!❤️ I can’t imagine how tough it is! Sending best wishes!

Congratulations @Peonies94 , after 17 months you really deserve some good news

@Omgdnswv thank you! Good luck to you! I am so happy but just filled with so much anxiety at the moment! I’ve booked an early scan so just want to get that done now (it’s in 3 weeks)!

@Peonies94 ahh this is so lovely. Congratulations , hopefully we will see a few more on this thread soon xx

@Loulou2202 thank you! I really hope we do! Hope it becomes a lucky thread for us all!

@Peonies94 congrats! That’s so exciting!

Finally feel like I am getting somewhere after speaking to doctor this morning. I’m being put on a low dose of thyroxine, pick them up this afternoon, doctor is writing again to endocrinologist about my prolactin- possibly need to be referred to check if there’s a tumour on my pituitary gland. I’ve been worried about the prolactin for a while so I’m glad someone is doing something about it!

I think it's so shit how much leg work you have to do sometimes to get the right treatment and to advocate for what you believe needs doing @Lauralozzle. Hugs x

@Lauralozzle thank you! I’m glad your getting somewhere with your tests! All the best for you with the medication and the best of luck for the future!✨

@FlyOnTheWall89 Thank you. It’s super frustrating but at least I appear to be getting somewhere. I’ve never really been to the doctors and literally had a list of things! I’ve always just trusted them, but actually, it helped. Just need to wait for IVF clinic to get in contact now.

@Peonies94 Fingers crossed for a happy and healthy 9 months. Hopefully this becomes a lucky thread.