@Irecan to answer your question directly: YES.
From my experience, and that of many friends and people I’ve seen posting on Mumsnet, it’s always best to prioritise getting treatment as early as you can. Even if you are on the right side of 35 (with a statistically better chance of it working), I’d say start your treatment process now. You can choose to tell your job or not but at the end of the day, building your home life is more important than your job.
I think the days of employers intimidating people into not saying anything about their treatment/ insidiously making people think they should put it off to a more ‘convenient’ time, are numbered. More and more workplaces are finally getting fertility policies in place, and even those who don’t are often in practice much more compassionate and understanding than the media would have us believe.
Even if you’re in your 20’s/early 30s, some people experience early menopause or have other issues that make it difficult, so don’t delay.
The thing with ivf and getting started is that it can take many twists and turns. Once I had finally been referred and got funding and was ready to go in 2021, I actually found out I’d conceived naturally, so didn’t start. Unfortunately I had a miscarriage at 10 weeks, then the clinic wanted me to wait for 2 full cycles before I could start again. Somewhat unbelievably, the same thing happened when I was starting my third round in the summer this year.
And lots of people are doing ivf at the same time as starting new jobs. I was 4 weeks into my new job when I started ivf. I was scared about telling work, but I found them to be very pragmatic and didn’t pressure me to make up every lost minute I’d miss going to my appointments.
Yes, there are lots of appointments but given you’re so close to your clinic, that will make it a lot easier for you. I now live over an hour from my clinic, and trust me, it’s a mission to get to stuff!
The thing is, Not being able to conceive is a medical problem that we should be able to have treatment for when we need it. We wouldn’t say to someone who needed cancer or psychiatric treatment just to wait until it was a more convenient time for their job or career. So why should we do the same for fertility treatment? We shouldn’t.
I wish you the best with your treatment: do it now and if your employer is funny about it, then go to HR. And if they’re awful, leave them and work somewhere that is going to respect you and your needs as an individual.