NHS Referred IVF

[MJOB]

Hi

I hope someone may be able to guide me in a direction of what to expect with upcoming apt following referral for Fertility support.

My partner has Cystic Fibrosis so I was tested through genetic counselling back in early 2022 - GP forgot to send off request so when I chased this up after 9 months of waiting they redid the referral. This came back Jan 2023 I am not a carrier, so were informed by his consultant that we would need to go to GP for referral to local fertility clinics. He was aware of his infertility already (97% men with CF will face infertility)

We had GP apt in May 2023, referral was not sent again (we saw locum who didn't know process) I chased in Oct 2023 to be informed it hadn't been done and gynaecology was a 43 week wait. They perhaps 'pulled strings' due to their error and we have a first apt in February.

Due to months being already 'lost' due to waiting periods - I am essentially trying to gage how long is expected between initial gynae apt and referral into local clinic?

We had initially agreed between us if we hadn't heard in Jan we would explore private option (our local fertility does 'kind ivf' cycle for £2750) but then once we had our appointment through in December we thought lets just wait.... will we lose another year waiting!?

Thank you
MJ

@MJOB honestly I hate to talk back about the NHS because we are so lucky to have it but the admin, wow, can be soo bad! I had a similar experience where they forgot to process my referral, it was just filed away!

For me, we had the first appointment July 23, OH had to have a repeat SA and I then couldn't get a follow up appointment until October, after that though things did move quick, funding was accepted the next week and the referral for our IVF clinic was done in November. We're Greater Manchester based

Hope that helps x

I know, I feel bad moaning but it’s frustrating the delay when the waiting lists are soooo long!

thats interesting- I think my OH will also have to have repeat SA - he actually had it when we were referred in May (I had bloods he had SA) but there were 0 found and requested a repeat.

did you know which method you would be referred into? Or was that what your fertility clinic discussed rather than nhs?

Hope all goes well for you ☺️

@MJOB sounds likely they will want a repeat as it's more than 3 months, if you do go ahead make sure you book your follow up appointment as soon as you can, I waited until after the SA results came back and then couldn't get another appointment for 2.5 months!

We're having ICSI due to male factor so we knew that all along from our own research. We also got our referral done to create which is a private clinic that takes NHS patients, would be worth looking at your local private clinics to that accept NHS 🙂