Hello!My partner and I have been trying for a baby for over 2 years, and never been pregnant. We paid for private tests last year which showed he has low sperm motility. All tests for myself came back normal, although AMH low end of normal ( quite worried it's dropped a fair bit since the test) We finally have our NHS initial consultation in Wales via a phonecall and I just wanted to ask advice on what to expect and what questions to ask if any? Also, how long did you wait from consultation to treatment?
Thank you all x
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Mystic_meg
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In my experience the NHS consultant wanted all the tests repeated that we'd done privately, though it might be different in your area. It was 3 months between first and second consultation. At the second one they reviewed the test results and made the referral for IVF. Took about a month after that for the IVF consultation, and about 2 1/2 months after that we started our first cycle.
Thank you for replying! I thought repeating the tests might be the case. It is crazy how much waiting times differ depending on area. Id be willing to pay private for tests if it made the process a bit quicker 😕 Good luck on your journey x
The waiting is such a frustrating part of infertility! If it helps though, it's felt so much quicker looking back from this point in time to our starting point than it seemed at the time looking forward. I've got a 6-8 week wait until we can do a frozen transfer and that feels like it's ages away, but it feels like we only just had our first IVF consultation and that was 3 1/2 months ago!
This sounds like it’s just the initial consultation for them to assess whether you qualify for the NHS IVF funding - is that right? It sounds like you do though, so I wouldn’t worry that much about it, but here’s the criteria just in case - fertilitynetworkuk.org/acce...
In our case, the initial consultation was purely administrative, and only once we got approved and got the NHS funding letter did we have a proper initial consultation about our medical histories and a scan. They also re-did our tests in the clinic as some ended up being 8+ months old by that point, and then we started treatment.
So in your case, if you’re just going in for the admin consultation, the only questions I would ask are about funding and clinic-specific waiting times e.g. what exactly you qualify for in Wales (funding varies by postcode and location, very fun) and from when you get the letter, how long you have to start treatment.
For a better timeline, but do remember that these vary widely, our initial GP referral was made in March, our appointment about the NHS funding was in May, the funding letter arrived in June (but we were told at the appointment we’ll get approved anyway) and because our clinic had no waiting list for our London borough, we had our first treatment consultation end of June and started the stim cycle in August.
Good luck and do let me know if you have any other questions. Happy to answer!
Thank you for your reply, it's been really helpful! Yeah that's right, it's the initial consultation. We got referred from our GP in July, the waiting game is so painful! I thought repeating the tests might be the case. I would be willing to pay private for the tests if it means it moves the process on a bit quicker...I guess this is a good question to ask too when it comes to the appointment. Good luck with your journey x
Oh my, that's a long wait! Hopefully once you're in, things will move a bit faster.
I'm sure every clinic and area has its own protocol, but in our case, we had to have all of our tests done for the GP to make the IVF referral in the first place, and the consultant from the clinic who approved us for IVF used the same test results. By that point, some of those tests were 7-8 months old, some just 3. They weren't too bothered by it, because they looked fairly normal (just like yours) and they knew they'll re-do them once we became patients of the IVF clinic. So hopefully you won't need to repeat anything just to get approved, but if you're worried about having to re-do the tests and then wait for another 9 months to get another IVF funding appointment, you might as well get ahead of it and re-do them privately.
Something I wish I knew before starting IVF is that this waiting time can be used very productively by getting yourself and your husband ready for IVF. It takes about 3 months for eggs and sperm to generate so you should use this time to get yourself in the best position for IVF. Everyone here recommends "It Starts With An Egg" (I don't follow it religiously but took lots of pointers from it), and you could also take a look at this webinar about getting yourself IVF ready: youtube.com/watch?v=oaQLqny...
At a minimum, take a high quality supplement like Proceive Max, work out, go on the Mediterranean diet, eat lots of veg, fruit and nuts, cut alcohol, sweets and processed foods and so on.
Thanks again for replying! It is such a long old wait.... really hoping my amh levels haven't dropped too drastically. Thanks so much for posting the video, I will definitely take a look! I've read the book "It Starts With The Egg" and we have done what you've suggested... Mediterranean diet, cut out processed food, added Proceive etc so hopefully it will all help....it's the only thing we can control! Good luck with your journey too xx
If you look up your CCG online you should be able to see the criteria for NHS IVF in your area what they offer and some CCG will also tell you the average waiting time. It is different for every area. For my area you have to have been trying for over 2 years or have a known fertility condition and been trying for over 1 year then you get all the test which can took a few months and then I had to say within the weight range for 6 months. Had to go to the GP every month to be weighted if I'd gone over max bmi or below min bmi the 6 month clock would of been restarted. I didn't but that's something you might need to do. We were initially refused as I had an ectopic pregnancy less than 2 years before the application was submitted so the CCG came back and said as you've been pregnant once you need to wait another 6 months even though at this point I had lost a fallopian tube had been diagnosed with endometriosis and told probably never able to get pregnant naturally again and been trying for over 4 years in total. My GP wrote them a letter pleading our case but it did nothing. So we started private treatment as we were heart-broken and just couldn't wait. We did finally get the funding 8 months later and I was sent the referral through the NHS app it gave me a list of hospitals and clinics in the area I could use and gave me average times from first appointment to starting treatment. I think the shortest waiting time was 14 months. But as we had already done 2 private rounds with our clinic we skipped the waiting list and we're able to start straight away. Some areas will refuse you NHS funding if you have already self funded a cycle so please please check your areas criteria. Our areas NHS offer 1 cycle of treatment and only cover the bare minimum amount of drugs which was just not enough for my situation so even with funding I still had to pay extra for medication. So just be aware of that. Good luck
Thank you so much for replying! Lots of handy info for us to keep in mind. I will definitely check out the CCG online. Goodness me that must have been so stressful...I'm glad you were able to go private. It's such a horrible feeling when time is against you! I never knew about extra for medication so I will keep this in mind! Thank you again and best of luck on your journey x
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