Referral letter has arrived

[shellybon]

I have just had my referral letter come for the fertility clinic🎉(NHS)

Does anyone know what the procedure is the first appointment? Am I likely to have any tests or just a conversation?

@shellybon it depends on what tests you've already had through the GP. If not, they'll get you booked in for Day3/21 bloods, AMH and hycosy/HSG. Good luck X

Hi @shellybon could I ask how long you had to wait for an nhs appointment? We were referred about 6 weeks ago, I’ve heard it’s 4-5 months wait here and it feels like so long to wait ☹️ hope your first appointment goes well

@dory0 between my gp telling me to go for day 3+21 bloods and having my first appointment with the clinic, it will be 4 months. I had my referral letter come about a week after my gp referred me and I was able to book an appointment for a month after that. It was quicker than I expected but I don't know how quick things will move once we hopefully start investigations.

Have you had a referral letter come through? Or have you managed to book an appointment?

@shellybon that seems really quick! We had a letter about a week after seeing the GP to say our referral was being reviewed, not able to book anything until they contact us, which from what they’ve said won’t be for a while as they’re working through referrals sent in the summer still… I’ve been told booking a private appointment will lose our space on the NHS waiting list, which I sort of understand but not doing anything makes me feel like we’re wasting time ☹️

@dory0 oh gosh that makes me feel so grateful that I had an appointment through so soon after I received my letter.

I had no idea about you losing your place on the nhs list if you went private! I don't know much about the private side of things but I had a few frantic days where I thought that was our only option but I didn't realise that.

Are you aware if you/your partner have an issue or are you in the dark atm?

@shellybon I don’t think it can be the situation everywhere as I’ve heard of many people doing private investigations while waiting for NHS.

My tests so far with the GP and a pelvic scan at the hospital have been normal, but DH semen analysis came back with low count and morphology 😢 pretty worried about it, he’s taking a lot of vitamins now…

Have you found anything with your tests so far?

@dory0 what kind of pelvic scan did you have? Was it one to check nothing was blocked etc or was a hycosy? I'm not at that stage yet so wondering if I'll have that offered to me at my first appointment.

I've had one of my tests come back with a potential prolactinoma so I'm waiting on more tests for that separate to my fertility testing but the waiting list is months for that appointment.

Fingers crossed your DH gets better results after a few months of vitamins. I've heard a lot of people on here say that it can often improve after a few months of vitamins so it sounds like he has a good chance of improvement for his next test

Just a basic internal ultrasound scan organised by the GP because of spotting between periods, all looked fine though. I think a hycosy might be the next step from what the GP said, but that’s organised by the fertility clinic.

That’s frustrating there is a long wait, but hopefully that means it’s nothing to be too concerned about.

Thank you, yes I really hope it improves.

Fingers crossed for us both 🤞