IVF - how many appointments?

[SquishyBean]

We've had NHS funding approved for IVF and I have another appointment booked with the subfertility clinic in a few weeks where I expect the outcome will be a referral for IVF. We were told at the last appointment that it usually takes about 2 months for the referral to go through, so we're likely looking at Feb/March for our first appointment. Thinking about work, they're very supportive and know the situation as I've had to have time off for various appointments for about the last year, but I'm wondering how frequent the appointments will be for IVF and how much notice I'm likely to get? I work in healthcare, so taking last minute time off often relies on finding someone to cover or rearranging patient appointments, so is quite a faff - I'm wondering if I should plan for a big block of time off. How have other people navigated it?

[Keepondreaming]

Hi,

I think every where is different and in my experience nhs and private are very different. In nhs when I started treatment I went for one apppiintment on day 10 to see if ready for collection. Private I go a minimum of three times while doing treatment.

When in treatment you don’t know when you need to go back again until the result of that scan so u wud be told on scan day you need to come back in 2 days for example. As it all depends how u respond to treatment.

For initial nhs appointments before starting treatment we went to three appointments. They spread them out over about 6 months, before we then started treatment.

In my experience it is hard to predict which days off you will need as it depends on your cycle. If you are able to book a chunk of time off then it would be a bonus. Check if your work has a fertility policy xx

[SquishyBean in reply to Keepondreaming]

Thanks for the info! The 3 appointments over 6 months before starting treatment, were they all related to IVF? We've already been under the subfertility clinic for 3 months having tests done - I was hoping it would be fairly soon after our first appointment with the IVF clinic that we'd get started, as we have the funding approved. Do you remember what those appointments were for?

[Keepondreaming in reply to SquishyBean]

Yes I remember I had a base line scan in the feb, we then had a consultant app and signed consent forms in the June then I went for a covid swab just as we were about to start treatment in the July. Unfortunately we were add to the list just before covid and had a long wait and I do wonder if sending me for the scan in feb was a way of stopping the clock ticking on a waiting list. Hopefully it won’t be as long for you. We hadn’t been to a sub fertility clinic before that.

Good luck xx

[Whooper]

Hi,

It depends on a clinic and it doesn’t matter you are NHS or private.

I went through NHS, took them 6 months to refer me… also they gave me the choice of clinics so I had to pick one. Once I got referral I had to book an appointment with that clinic to discuss the plan of the treatment. Second app - scan, third - bloods, 4th. - scan, 5th - met nurse who then explained how to use all of the medication, 6th - egg collection, 7th - embryo transfer. And then it depends on the outcome, mine wasn’t successful with fresh embryo this time. Luckily got one frozen so will try my luck again in January.

Wishing you best of luck!

[-Cupcake]

Hello, I work in healthcare too, and one of my worries was how I would manage with patient appointments, etc. (especially as I haven't told my employer!) Thankfully it's been OK - you'll probably find the clinic opens quite early, so you may be able to request appointments before work (or after if you work shifts). I took 2 weeks of leave for my egg collection/transfer, and I had to take an educated guess about when that would be, but I manage my own diary so could be flexible to a point.

I'm self-funding but at a clinic that also sees NHS patients. I needed a consultant appointment & scan, followed by a planning appointment with another doctor. I then needed a consent and medication planning appointment (2 back-to-back appointments) and then I started my medication at the right time in my menstrual cycle. I picked a local satellite clinic so there wasn't too much travelling for me apart from the egg collection/transfer part.

Once treatment starts, as it's based on your cycle start date, you then get a couple of weeks notice of when your first scan would be (which for me was a down-regulation scan as I was doing a long protocol - not everyone does), but then it all very much depends on how things are progressing as to how many more scans you'll need before egg collection - after my down regulation scan I then had about 10 days before the next one to check how my ovaries were responding to stimulation meds, and then they were every couple of days until I had enough follicles to progress to egg collection (my clinic want at least 3) - egg collection was 2 days after the last scan, and my embryo transfer was 5 days after collection. It's also worth bearing in mind you get morning phonecalls during this time to let you know the number of eggs collected/how many were mature/how many fertilised/how may made it to day 3/day 5, so it's a bit stressful! Then, if you get that far, it's a pregnancy test approx 2 weeks later. (Sadly mine had a faint line but this faded, so it was classed as a chemical pregnancy - and as I didn't have any embryos to freeze, I'm about to start cycle number 2!).

Best of luck!