Getting diagnosed - GP Referral

[EmyrLouNB]

My mother told me a few months ago that she had been diagnosed with endometriosis a few years ago as well as my auntie and my nanny. This came as a mild shock to me as I was already experiencing really painful periods after coming off the pill (which I’d been on for 11 years) and I had a suspicion that she had been diagnosed with endometriosis

I had a doctors appointment and she said she would refer me in June, I haven’t heard anything since then. I know the NHS is struggling and the process is going to be slow going but do I need to be going to gynaecology at the hospital and advising that my doctor has referred me to try and get an appointment to discuss the issues I’m dealing with? Or do I just need to wait for a letter? I’ve never dealt with a health condition/hospitals before so I don’t know what the process is

[Pugparent]

hello! My GP referred me to gynaecology and I had a letter after a few weeks after saying I was on the list. I contacted my surgery to see where I was on the list when I hadn’t heard anything and they said at that time is was like 50 weeks from referral to being seen. I got referred in October 22 and got seen October 23. I’m in aneurin bevan health board xx

[EmyrLouNB in reply to Pugparent]

So it’s going to be a long time 😂 Thanks for replying, I have a smear in two weeks so I might ask the nurse if she can see where the referrals at because I haven’t had any letter at all 😞

[Moon_maiden]

Give GP surgery a call to check they did the referral, if they did call Gynae department and follow up, they have a habit of going astray.

The NHS app is very good for checking if a referral has gone through the system as well.

Hope you aren’t waiting too long.

If surgery haven’t done the referral make sure they put it through as urgent

[EmyrLouNB in reply to Moon_maiden]

She said she would put it in the same day so I’m hoping it’s just slow! unfortunately I’m in wales and the nhs app isn’t as good as the one in England 😞

[FrecklesandFlowers in reply to EmyrLouNB]

I'm in Wales too! I had a letter saying I had been referred to gynae like 6 months after I saw my GP, and I had a phone appointment 1 year after I saw the GP. Haven't heard anything since🥴

[Moon_maiden in reply to EmyrLouNB]

Unfortunately what they say and what happens can be so different. During covid they did a referral for an ultrasound. I called the department and they hadn’t received it, after a bit of back and forth she rang the surgery direct and they’d sent it to a defunct email 😂 I actually had the ultrasound the same day, they had loads of appointments during covid but GPs weren’t making referrals 🙄

🤞 for you 🙂

[Stormtrooper4]

Definitely worth checking your GP has actually done the referral as I had an issue and when I called my GP surgery for an update I was advised that the referral had not even been done and they must have missed it.

[Tangoandmax]

My referral was Nov 22, and I didn’t get an appointment until the following October 23. 🙈 I would ring the gyne unit in question to a)check they have it b) get them to confirm their time frames.

[BloomingMarvellous]

On the NHS app there is a section which shows referrals , sometimes it’s labelled metabolic assessment or a variation of so not immediately obvious. On opening that section you ought to be able to view any referral ie say for MRI etc and the expected wait time. It’s not always that clear when the waiting start point is if you are mid process either - so I’ve had one set of tests for a condition, they’ve ordered more and posted 19 weeks but they don’t give the date from which the clock starts ticking. So I’ve figured the max time I can expect to wait from then and if it’s sooner I’ll be delighted.