At home fertility tests

[hcs204]

Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone has any experience with at home fertility tests? My entire social media feed seems to be adverts for these companies - can the blood test you do at home and post off give you the same information as a fertility MOT with a clinic? They're not cheap but they're cheaper than the clinic route. Hard to know if I'm just an easy target or if they are genuinely a cheaper and more convenient way to get an overview of your fertility...?

[BlahBlah55]

I did one recently and the problem with them is when they come back and show something you were not expecting. Mine came back with some very strange results which I don’t really know what to do with. The company (hertility) offer an expensive follow up call with a nurse, but that’s not what I need as a nurse won’t be able to answer my questions and explore any underlying conditions which may impact my results. I may ask my GP to see if I can have a referral to an endocrine / hormone specialist.

So for me it’s just caused a lot of unnecessary stress, as it’s not changed the ivf path I’m on anyway. But it’s now just made me feel really anxious and negative about it all, which isn’t helpful as I prepare for my second round. So if you do go for it I would just have a plan of what you’re going to do if it shows “bad” results and have a think about what you’re going to do with the results. In hindsight I would have preferred to pay a bit extra and do tests via a clinic where you’re working with a doctor rather than getting a bunch of automated results in your inbox!

Having said that, if my results came back all good I’d have probably told you I was happy with them!

[hcs204 in reply to BlahBlah55]

Thanks so much for replying, you're absolutely right and I hadn't really considered what I'd do if I didn't get the results I'm hoping for, it would just be more anxiety and then I'd inevitably go through a clinic anyway so I may as well suck it up and do it properly from the start. Thanks again, they definitely don't give you that added perspective on the Instagram ads 🙂

[NemoFish]

Echoing what BlahBlah has said, whilst they may be scientifically sound, I would be very mindful if they come back with something you weren’t expecting. I’ve been on the receiving end of poor results and it was bad enough when sat face to face with a consultant who could talk it through.

Also if you were to end up venturing into a fertility clinic, you could end up paying to have it all repeated anyway x

[hcs204 in reply to NemoFish]

Thank you, that's a good point, most clinics I've been in touch with previously want you to do everything through them. It's a just a bit of a bummer that having tests is so expensive and that's before you even start any treatment that might be needed 😩