Episode 4 : Are We Nearly There Yet?
After melting down and very nearly calling an end to the whole thing, I managed, with much gentle encouragement from my partner, to pick myself up enough to think logically about what to do next. We arranged a call with a private fertility clinic to discuss what our treatment options would be, and most importantly how much it would all cost. We talked to an amazing lady called Jan, the clinic manager and patient liaison. She was so compassionate and knowledgeable and helped us get all our ducks in a row.
Her advice was for my partner to make some lifestyle changes to improve his fragmentation, particularly, in his case, avoiding hot baths and too much cycling! She suggested multiple supplements for both of us, including probiotics and specific conception multivitamins and also strongly recommended we wait for NHS treatment rather than financially crippling ourselves straight off the bat. She explained that if we used the NHS treatment first, we could then go on to have private treatment if we wanted/needed to, but that the reverse was not true, so if we paid for even one cycle of private treatment, we would no longer be eligible for any NHS treatment.
So we swallowed that somewhat bitter pill and steeled ourselves to wait for the local hospital to complete our repeat tests and get a referral sent to a fertility clinic. Navigating health care always feels like a bit of an uphill struggle, certainly in the UK, and particularly post-covid, and getting the tests we needed in this instance was not straightforward. My partner had to go to the GP to request a semen analysis, and this time round he had to produce his sample at home then drive it to the local hospital to drop off at the lab; not quite the precious cargo we had envisaged at the start of all this! Availability of ultrasound appointments for me was poor, so I had to wait about two months from speaking to the doctor to getting this done. Blood test appointments were much more readily available and this was done within a couple of weeks. A review was booked with a different consultant, ostensibly to discuss these results and make the onward referral to the fertility clinic.
However, on speaking to the new doctor, she stated that the previous consultant had missed some information off of my blood test referral, so the lab did not test for everything required, and a repeat test needed to be scheduled. To complete the onward referral, both AMH and LH (luteinising hormone) levels were needed, and my consultant had only requested AMH. LH is an indicator of whether a woman is ovulating or not, as a surge in LH is what triggers the release of an egg from the ovary.
By the time all the tests had been correctly completed, it was August 2021. And still the referral to the fertility clinic was not sent, and the consultant clinics were now fully booked for the next three months. I began to spiral again, angry and upset that if the blood test had been completed correctly in the first place, we would probably have been referred by now. I was feeling desperate, as I so often have throughout this process. So in an uncharacteristic moment of bravery, I said as much to the consultant’s secretary, and was very fortunate to get a phone consultation tagged on to the end of a clinic session at the end of August.
I’m glad I didn’t wait until November for this consultation, as all it consisted of was, ‘yes we have all the relevant results’, ‘yes they are normal’ and ‘yes I will send a referral to the clinic now’. It was all of five minutes, and finally I felt we were getting somewhere, the next level had been unlocked. It took another six weeks for the clinic to receive our referral and make contact and finally, in December 2021, having been trying to conceive for two years and seven months, we had a video call with a fertility specialist about starting IVF.
