The Trials and Tribulations of Trying to Conceive when its just not happening (12m+)

Part_Mouse

Tea sorry for cd1 x

Floaty

Good morning ladies. I hopr you're all enjoying the sunshine! I have a quick question and I'm hoping someone here might be able to help

I saw my gp last week and have been referred to a FS. The gp asked me which hospital I'd like to use. There are two near me, they're in different pcts (although I think some if the organisation might have changed now anyway).

Is there a good way of choosing between them, other than the convenience of the location? From what I can see they both only offer 1 cycle of IVF of the NHS.

Any advice at all would be much appreciated! Thank you

bigzippy

Floaty wrote: »

Good morning ladies. I hopr you're all enjoying the sunshine! I have a quick question and I'm hoping someone here might be able to help

I saw my gp last week and have been referred to a FS. The gp asked me which hospital I'd like to use. There are two near me, they're in different pcts (although I think some if the organisation might have changed now anyway).

Is there a good way of choosing between them, other than the convenience of the location? From what I can see they both only offer 1 cycle of IVF of the NHS.

Any advice at all would be much appreciated! Thank you

Afaik, the ivf rounds is based on your postcode not the hospital's anyway. Ivf seems to be carried out the majority of the time at private hospital facilities, but on the nhs, anyway (or at least it is in this area). There is a webpage, on the nhs site I think, that compares your local facilities to help you decide - under Choices or something. If you can't find it I'll try to see if I have it bookmarked tomorrow. I pretty much chose mine because of how long I would be waiting for an appointment- which you can see if you get your choose and book details and do it yourself. Hth

fluffnutter

Floaty wrote: »

Good morning ladies. I hopr you're all enjoying the sunshine! I have a quick question and I'm hoping someone here might be able to help

I saw my gp last week and have been referred to a FS. The gp asked me which hospital I'd like to use. There are two near me, they're in different pcts (although I think some if the organisation might have changed now anyway).

Is there a good way of choosing between them, other than the convenience of the location? From what I can see they both only offer 1 cycle of IVF of the NHS.

Any advice at all would be much appreciated! Thank you

The number of rounds of IVF you're offered is a separate issue to which hospital you're referred to. Your GP has decided that you're eligible for NHS support, however many rounds that is. He or she is then offering you a choice between local hospitals that have IVF clinics (many don't, in fact IVF is usually carried out at private clinics, regardless of who's paying).

It's important to ask your GP how many rounds of IVF you'll be eligible for. In terms of selecting a hospital you might try to find out what their success rates are. Other than that, just go for the one that looks cleanest

One other thing: Sorry, I've not read back but have you been told you'll need IVF? Being referred to an FS doesn't automatically mean you'll need IVF.

Floaty

Thank you both so much for taking the time to reply. I appreciate it.

I don't yet know what we might need, but I'm trying to think ahead I suppose. We believe we're experiencing either male factor or unexplained infertility so I'm not sure what we'll end up trying..

When we saw the gp it wasn't our normal lovely woman (who was off sick) but a rather unfriendly chap. He asked which hospital we wanted, but didn't seem to have time to explain how we might choose. We were in there for about two minutes and I cried, which I never do at the doctor's. Bah. Still, we got the referral so that's the result we wanted.

I've already got thr booking letter from the hospital so at least it's moving swiftly

Hope everyone else is doing ok xxx

tea_lover

Hi Floaty

In addition to the good points made above, I'd say don't underestimate location and convenience. The hospital we used (massive NHS place, we got a choice of one lol) is great, and only about 30 mins away, but the parking is truly awful. It can take 30 mins just to get off the main driveway, and then another hour sometimes to find a space. It was incredibly stressful trying to factor that into appt times when taking time off work - particularly as a couple of times I got in with no problems at all and was then over an hour early!

Obviously it's not going to be the only factor to consider, but it's definitely worthwhile trying to make the practical logistics as stress-free as possible.

tea_lover

Speaking of appts, we have our follow-up on Thursday morning. I'm not really sure what the point of it is as they won't be offering us any more treatment, but hey ho.

I'd like to ask about response to drugs, egg quality, sperm quality/quantity, embryo quality, any reasons they can think of for why it didn't work.

Anything else?

I don't really get if that was the last shot, or whether they'd now consider clomid or something like that again.... or would that be considered a sort of 'backwards' step, as we'd tried that before ICSI and it didn't work?

lucyloo77

Had my official hospital test today. It was a low positive - they think it's very likely to be a chemical pregnancy.

Floaty

Oh Lucy, that must have been such a hard appointment. I suppose it isn't definite yet, so fingers still crossed for a reticent one, and huge internet hugs if this isn't your time yet xxxx

tea_lover

Oh lucy, my fingers are so tightly crossed for you. Really hope it's just a slow start, take care lovely xx