NHS Referral Wait Time

[HeatherF21]

Hello Everyone,

I live in the South East and have been tying to get pregnant for 5 years. I first informed my GP of conception issues when I was 35 and it’s been a painfully slow process for them booking me in for the routine blood tests, swabs and my husbands sperm sample. That’s all been done now & we were referred to the NHS hospital infertility clinic at Christmas for the HSG test and to finally speak to a consultant. I haven’t heard anything since so I called the hospital directly today to enquire and the receptionist was apologetic but said there is a 18 month wait time for fertility referral and to call back in March 2024!

I am absolutely floored. I will turn 38 later this year. Can anyone advise if this wait time is normal and if there is anything we can do to expedite this on the NHS. Last resort is private due to cost concerns.

Grateful for any advice

I’m based in Cheshire and after waiting a few months I rang to enquire and was told it’s a 14 month waiting list for fertility.

Unfortunately I have no options for speeding this up, I’d imagine you would be higher priority on the list because of your age? Have you asked if there’s different priority lists? Perhaps get your GP to write a letter to the fertility department in the hope you get bumped but unfortunately it is up to the fertility department.

One option may be to do the basic tests at a private clinic, some do couple testing for £400-£500 and if on the basis of these tests they recommend a certain procedure, medication or IVF, they can refer you back to NHS for treatment.

good luck on your journey, wishing you all the best xxx

What county/CCG are you in? We're also in the South but have heard that it varies between CCGs and their waiting lists.

We were expecting a really long wait but it came through much more quickly (weeks rather than months in the end) so keeping fingers crossed for you that you'll be seen sooner than you think. Myself and my partner had also had some tests done privately already so none of that needed re-doing which may have sped things up for us.

Keeping everything crossed for you!

I know some people do end up having to wait several months though so not trying to give false hope that it'll be quick!

You could try going down the route of testing and maybe ovulation induction with a private clinic while you wait for NHS treatment

Hi, we were in a similar position when we were originally referred. We are in the east midlands and were told an 18 month wait for our tests. After speaking to a friend we opted to go private, think we paid around £800-1000 in total for initial consultant appointment, HSG, ultrasound, AMH test and follow up appointment.

I am sure you can get this significantly cheaper in fertility clinics but we simply used our local private spire hospital as a friend had done the same. We saw a consultant who also worked at our nhs fertility clinic. She was able to get the tests done and refer us back to herself within the nhs for ivf. Definitely worth paying for the tests to speed up the process if you are in a position to do so. After our tests we were seen by the nhs within about 2 months for our initial consultant appointment to get started with our IUI/IVF

If this really isn’t an option it is definitely worth going back to your gp/nhs fertility provider to ask/raise your concerns.

hope this helps!

Been a nightmare getting a referral tbh with so much confusion with the doctors. However got the referral today at last from the doctor and hours later had a call to say we have first IVF appointment in 3 weeks time. This is Staffordshire district . Quite impressed to be fair as expected at least a 6 month wait.