What happens at 1st app with GP?

ByPoisedTurtle · 2026-01-14T13:56:55+00:00

Hope this is the best thread for this. I'm in my 2-week wait and if i get my period at the end of the month then that will have been a year of ttc with no luck, except for one miscarriage. I know my first step is to call my gp and get referred, but can anyone advise me what will my gp all do/ say / look at initially? i.e. will they start blood tests immediately, or does everything have to go through a clinic? Any timescale indicators? I'm a little nervous my bmi is 32, and i know it needs to be sub 30 for treatment, but hoping the gp will still review mine and my partners case while i work on that? Thanks all in advance.

Waitingforday6 · 14/01/2026 14:12

Hi, this was a couple of years ago now but I had a telephone appointment within 2 weeks, I was asked questions around how long we have been trying, if either of us had children/I had been pregnant, any family members on my side with fertility issues, maybe a couple of other things then she ordered a day 3 test which came with a full blood count, as well as a day 21 test, and a urine test for chlamydia and/or gonorrhea. Those tests were done quickly and then I got an appointment for a pelvic ultrasound through, the appointment was 2 months later. My husband had a call as well and was sent to get a semen analysis done. They did not actually ask me for my height and weight until the last test was done, and they referred despite my BMI being above 30, from memory I got an appointment through within a month or two from referral, with the appointment 4-8 months later, we ended up going private so didn't use the appointment so can't remember the exact timelines. Good luck!!! :)

Orangewillow · 14/01/2026 14:36

I would ask the GP to do basic day 3 hormones and a progesterone test, but also ask them to refer you for an ultrasound and semen analysis for your partner asap - and see if they'll just refer you straight to a fertility clinic.

My experience was my GP was useless, didn't refer me straight away or suggest anything useful and it would have sped things up to go to the clinic who would know what to do!

I actually ended up going private as was told I'd be waiting 4-5 months just for a pelvic ultrasound scan in my area and we wanted to get the ball rolling as we'd had a loss previously and I felt there was something preventing us conceiving again (turned out I had adhesions and scarring)

HM2024 · 14/01/2026 20:55

My experience was to be fobbed off by my GP telling me to keep trying and that it takes a while for most couples. If I was to do it again, I'd go in armed with the NICE guidelines about what she should have done.

problematicpenguin · 16/01/2026 19:38

I think it might be different in different places but for us our first fertility clinic appointment was just a nurse telling us to do one more blood test that the GP hadn't already done. Then we had to wait again to see the consultant. So I'd say push for the referral to be sent in now and ask if the GP can do a day 3 blood test and semen analysis so you've got those ready to go once the fertility appointment comes.

Original poster

ByPoisedTurtle · 19/01/2026 09:40

Waitingforday6 · 14/01/2026 14:12

Hi, this was a couple of years ago now but I had a telephone appointment within 2 weeks, I was asked questions around how long we have been trying, if either of us had children/I had been pregnant, any family members on my side with fertility issues, maybe a couple of other things then she ordered a day 3 test which came with a full blood count, as well as a day 21 test, and a urine test for chlamydia and/or gonorrhea. Those tests were done quickly and then I got an appointment for a pelvic ultrasound through, the appointment was 2 months later. My husband had a call as well and was sent to get a semen analysis done. They did not actually ask me for my height and weight until the last test was done, and they referred despite my BMI being above 30, from memory I got an appointment through within a month or two from referral, with the appointment 4-8 months later, we ended up going private so didn't use the appointment so can't remember the exact timelines. Good luck!!! :)

Thanks for that! That's really good to hear that you got tests underway pretty swiftly. Be going private did you find things progressed quicker? Did you stay on private treatment for all of your treatment? This is something we're certainly considering depending on timescales.

OP posts:

Original poster

ByPoisedTurtle · 19/01/2026 09:41

Orangewillow · 14/01/2026 14:36

I would ask the GP to do basic day 3 hormones and a progesterone test, but also ask them to refer you for an ultrasound and semen analysis for your partner asap - and see if they'll just refer you straight to a fertility clinic.

My experience was my GP was useless, didn't refer me straight away or suggest anything useful and it would have sped things up to go to the clinic who would know what to do!

I actually ended up going private as was told I'd be waiting 4-5 months just for a pelvic ultrasound scan in my area and we wanted to get the ball rolling as we'd had a loss previously and I felt there was something preventing us conceiving again (turned out I had adhesions and scarring)

Thank you, i'll ask for that straight away! I'm really sorry to hear that's how your GP visit went, that's what i'm afraid of from researching seems to be the case quite alot.
Did you then go private for all of the rest of your treatment?

OP posts:

Original poster

ByPoisedTurtle · 19/01/2026 09:42

HM2024 · 14/01/2026 20:55

My experience was to be fobbed off by my GP telling me to keep trying and that it takes a while for most couples. If I was to do it again, I'd go in armed with the NICE guidelines about what she should have done.

Thank you! That's great advice i'm going to read up on. I'm so sorry to hear about how you were treated. Did you eventually get progress with your gp or go private?

OP posts:

Orangewillow · 19/01/2026 09:47

ByPoisedTurtle · 19/01/2026 09:41

Thank you, i'll ask for that straight away! I'm really sorry to hear that's how your GP visit went, that's what i'm afraid of from researching seems to be the case quite alot.
Did you then go private for all of the rest of your treatment?

Show quote history

Yeah I did go private for everything in the end, I did get referred to an NHS fertility clinic, about 6 months after initial GP appointment, by this time I'd done quote a bit privately and was considering IVF and as the NHS clinic was vague about how long we'd have had to be trying before we'd qualify for IVF (and I knew we wanted to do PGT-A testing which isn't available on NHS) we stayed with the private clinic we'd been getting help with immunology concerns for ivf, the Lister Chelsea, who I found great, but not cheap!

I definitely could have been more patient and got more help via NHS but I felt very short on time, and didn't want to wait. I have private health insurance which luckily covered the first 2 hysteroscopies I had (insurance usually won't cover anything fertility related, but it was affecting my periods so they agreed, otherwise it would have been £10k private!)

Waitingforday6 · 19/01/2026 11:27

Yes we went private for everything. Thérapie Fertility in Dublin which I can recommend as a very good and more affordable option compared to a lot of the private clinics in the UK. My GP also didn't understand the results and I had to explain them to her 😂 I am also pretty sure they missed a polyp ☹️