Fertility clinic (TTC, PCOS)

[message me too]

Long post sorry!
Hello to anyone that reads this and Thankyou in advance if you are able to advise me. I was informed by my doctor this week that I have PCOS based on an ultrasound scan, camera scan and blood tests. He said I have over 25 (I guess he just counted up to 25 and then thought that was enough? I don’t know) cysts and because I have been TTC is referring me to a fertility clinic because he thinks I will struggle conceiving on my own (again I am guessing because I looked at my ovaries and they’re a mess? Im just learning about PCOS now really so I’m so new to all of this.) I am just wondering if anyone here has any advice what to expect from the fertility clinic initial appointment or anything that follows, including how long your appointment took to happen? I’m quite overwhelmed and upset currently as it is all so new to me and I’m so worried about my fertility and what this means for us. I am a healthy weight so that’s not something that is an issue for us in TTC, and I do have periods but my cycle lengths are always varied (between 28-48 days as long as I have been tracking but this has only been around 8 months) and I have only tracked ovulation one month and only with OPKS so I’m unsure if I do regularly ovulate so far as I know these can be unreliable with PCOS. I know about temping and it doesn’t really work with my shifts so I’m thinking of buying an ava bracelet to do it for me, I don’t know if I should wait until the clinic appointment though because I don’t want to splash out if it’s pointless and my tubes are blocked or something. I do appreciate I am not very far into my TTC journey and I am fortunate I found this out 4 months into it, I was supposed to have these tests before we started TTC due to severely heavy periods causing me to be ill, so it’s not something I’ve pushed for due to not falling pregnant 4 months in, I am not that naive. I cancelled my initial appointment in November (because I’m an idiot and decided I didn’t want it) but grew further concerned about my periods when we did start trying and realised how my irregular cycles were going to affect TTC, because I was supposed to have these investigations previously it was easy to arrange. I do have questions ready that I would like to ask when I see a specialist about this but is there anything in particular you are glad you asked, or wished that you had asked or done sooner in retrospect? I am in the UK.

 

[Inforapenny]

Hello,

Just wanted to offer some support. It is so overwhelming isn't it. I was diagnosed with endometriosis and we've been TTC for 8 months, it feels soul destroying at times we're now being referred to our local fertility clinic. I don't have any experience of going to a fertility clinic so I would also be interested in knowing what happens.

I have regular periods but I don't seem to be ovulating and apparently endometriosis doesn't help the sperm. I don't really know my gynaecologist did say that he sees women with endo or PCO and they've had loads of kids and not even realise study had issues! He told.me to reassure me.

A lot of it is the unknown, it can be utterly overwhelming. I cried quite a bit at first. I felt I'd let my husband down (of course I hadn't).

This is only from my perspective. I would advise be careful who you choose to talk to about fertility issues.
Some of my friends were unbelievably insensitive and ALOT of people just say oh just do IVF.
IVF is not a silver bullet or something you just do

How about some counselling? I haven't had it but considered it. Not because I might be infertile but to learn some coping techniques on your journey into TTC.

I don't have the answers. I'm in the same position as you but I do totally understand how emotional it can be.

 

[CNK]

Sorry I have absolutely no experience of either.
I follow the fertility detective on instagram & she has great resources on her page covering these kind of topics.

First consultation is unusual over phone, they take medical history and recommend what tests you and your partner should do. I don't think I had to wait long for the initial consultation but there was a significant wait time for hycosy and bloods results.


I have been attending a fertility clinic for the last 6 months as have been ttc for over 2 years. Finally the have diagnosed us with unexplained secondary infertility and recommend IUI or IVF which is so frustrating as having read articles by other fertility experts they say there is ALWAYS a cause of infertility! so now I'm like pay all the money for treatment as our health insurance doesn't cover it, keep trying indefinitely or go to another clinic for a second opinion.

If anyone has been in a similar position please let me know what you did x

 

[Inforapenny]

Sorry I have absolutely no experience of either.
I follow the fertility detective on instagram & she has great resources on her page covering these kind of topics.

First consultation is unusual over phone, they take medical history and recommend what tests you and your partner should do. I don't think I had to wait long for the initial consultation but there was a significant wait time for hycosy and bloods results.


I have been attending a fertility clinic for the last 6 months as have been ttc for over 2 years. Finally the have diagnosed us with unexplained secondary infertility and recommend IUI or IVF which is so frustrating as having read articles by other fertility experts they say there is ALWAYS a cause of infertility! so now I'm like pay all the money for treatment as our health insurance doesn't cover it, keep trying indefinitely or go to another clinic for a second opinion.

If anyone has been in a similar position please let me know what you did x

I think this boils down to woman's health not being important enough, but that's a whole.other story.

Thanks for giving your insight.

It's the not knowing which is so frustrating.

 

[swimming]

Long post sorry!
Hello to anyone that reads this and Thankyou in advance if you are able to advise me. I was informed by my doctor this week that I have PCOS based on an ultrasound scan, camera scan and blood tests. He said I have over 25 (I guess he just counted up to 25 and then thought that was enough? I don’t know) cysts and because I have been TTC is referring me to a fertility clinic because he thinks I will struggle conceiving on my own (again I am guessing because I looked at my ovaries and they’re a mess? Im just learning about PCOS now really so I’m so new to all of this.) I am just wondering if anyone here has any advice what to expect from the fertility clinic initial appointment or anything that follows, including how long your appointment took to happen? I’m quite overwhelmed and upset currently as it is all so new to me and I’m so worried about my fertility and what this means for us. I am a healthy weight so that’s not something that is an issue for us in TTC, and I do have periods but my cycle lengths are always varied (between 28-48 days as long as I have been tracking but this has only been around 8 months) and I have only tracked ovulation one month and only with OPKS so I’m unsure if I do regularly ovulate so far as I know these can be unreliable with PCOS. I know about temping and it doesn’t really work with my shifts so I’m thinking of buying an ava bracelet to do it for me, I don’t know if I should wait until the clinic appointment though because I don’t want to splash out if it’s pointless and my tubes are blocked or something. I do appreciate I am not very far into my TTC journey and I am fortunate I found this out 4 months into it, I was supposed to have these tests before we started TTC due to severely heavy periods causing me to be ill, so it’s not something I’ve pushed for due to not falling pregnant 4 months in, I am not that naive. I cancelled my initial appointment in November (because I’m an idiot and decided I didn’t want it) but grew further concerned about my periods when we did start trying and realised how my irregular cycles were going to affect TTC, because I was supposed to have these investigations previously it was easy to arrange. I do have questions ready that I would like to ask when I see a specialist about this but is there anything in particular you are glad you asked, or wished that you had asked or done sooner in retrospect? I am in the UK.

Hello
So my husband and I went to a clinic because cancer treatment left him infertile. I had IUI with donor sperm and it worked first go. I am now 32 weeks pregnant.

The first thing a clinic will do is test your AMH which will give you an idea of your ovarian reserve. It won’t tell you the quality of your eggs though.

You can have a HyCosy to check to see if you have blocked tubes. I had one of these to make sure we wouldn’t be wasting money on IUI. It’s painless and only lasts a couple of minutes.

As standard we had to have one counselling session over zoom because of the route we took, but it was fine.

The first thing I would suggest is maybe getting the fertility MOT. And unfortunately like most things these days, if you want to get the ball rolling ASAP, I’d just pay and go private.

Sorry if that’s not all the info you may need but I’m happy to answer questions where I can

 

[Emmas83]

I think it can depend on your area / postcode lottery! My experience was got referred from gp to fertility clinic and it only took about a month to get an appointment from there they pushed us to ivf didn’t really do much investigations other than the standard (it felt very much like a conveyor belt) I really went into it naively and very much expected it to work first time, obv it didn’t! We ended up transferring to another clinic and luckily on our 4th transfer got pregnant with twins.
I was honestly so naive the injections etc were easy but the disappointment when it didn’t work is brutal. I would say really look into the clinic you are referred to and ask as many questions as you can.

 

[MrsWolf]

Just wanted to pop onto here, I don’t have any advise unfortunately but I am in the same boat (waiting for my first fertility appointment) and would like to know a bit more about it all.

I found out I have PCOS not long ago too and know the absolute gut wrenching feeling you get, so sending love to you!

 

[CNK]

Hello
So my husband and I went to a clinic because cancer treatment left him infertile. I had IUI with donor sperm and it worked first go. I am now 32 weeks pregnant.

The first thing a clinic will do is test your AMH which will give you an idea of your ovarian reserve. It won’t tell you the quality of your eggs though.

You can have a HyCosy to check to see if you have blocked tubes. I had one of these to make sure we wouldn’t be wasting money on IUI. It’s painless and only lasts a couple of minutes.

As standard we had to have one counselling session over zoom because of the route we took, but it was fine.

The first thing I would suggest is maybe getting the fertility MOT. And unfortunately like most things these days, if you want to get the ball rolling ASAP, I’d just pay and go private.

Sorry if that’s not all the info you may need but I’m happy to answer questions where I can

Thanks, great info, how did you find the whole IUI experience? Is it similar to IVF in that you have to take hormones etc

In Ireland all fertility treatment is private, my health insurance doesn't cover fertility treatment so not only is it a physically and emotionally difficult experience but there is also the Financial side to it too. If a doctor could say to me OK take out a loan of €7k for the IVF and I can 100% guarantee it will work I would but there are no guarantees, 45% chance of working.

Was your IUI an expensive procedure?

 

[message me too]

Thankyou for all your responses, you've been so helpful! I got this news on Thursday morning and have still not been able to stop crying and my emotions are all over the place, so I have a counselling session tomorrow, I know that I've not been told I can't have children but that's seriously how it feels at the moment. I just hope my referral doesn't take too long so I don't have to wait a long time for next steps, if it does I will have to look into the costs of seeing somebody privately. I think it is making it harder I am on placement at the moment (I am a student paediatric nurse) on the Neonatal intensive care unit, which although I love and its the specliaity I want to go into, is so hard seeing the new born babies all on their own with no parents that visit, I have rang in sick today because of this but hope its something I learn to separate emotionally, especially while I don't really know what this diagnosis really does mean for me conceiving.

 

[Scottishfalpal1]

Just found this thread. I want to become a mum by choice by using a sperm donor. I am gutted I can’t get funding here in Scotland anyone know of anywhere else I can look for help

 

[Clojo92]

Hello, I have am going through the same thing so bare with the long response!

I was diagnosed with PCOS summer 2019. In Feb 2020 I had surgery to remove a rather large cyst and following this and the diagnosis, me and my partner decided to start TTC. We have been trying for 14 months currently with no success. I was told by my consultant at my diagnosis to try for a year (as you CAN get pregnant with PCOS, it will just be a little bit more difficult) and if there was no success to contact my GP. I contacted my GP last summer and we began the work up to be referred to fertility. I initially contacted my GP as I wanted to try Clomid, which is the first line of treatment for PCOS and TTC, but GP's cannot prescribe this so we have been referred to fertility.

The first appointment was done over the phone and me and my husband both needed to be on the call. They sent out a questionnaire which we had to fill out and send back and she went through that with both of us. Mainly sexual history/medical history. My husband had to do a sperm sample and I had blood tests/an ultrasound before this. She then went through our results and listed what was next for us. Nothing for my husband (his results were fine). I went on the have a further blood test and USS which came back normal, aside from the cysts on my ovaries. I recently had a HSG test (hysterosalpingogram) as that was the next step dependent on my USS/blood test results. I had the HSG on Wednesday and I am awaiting the results to see what is next for us. The HSG has to be done at a certain time in your cycle dye to the nature of the test. I'm hoping I have the all clear to try Clomid.

TTC is a really difficult and lonely. I suggest speaking out the someone you trust to get support. I was already having therapy for something different but my TTC journey has recently started to seep in to our conversations and it feels so good to speak to someone who doesn't offer the typical advice of "you have plenty of time", "you'll get pregnant just wait and see", "maybe you need to relax" etc.

I wish you lots of luck and baby dust!

 

[Scottishfalpal1]

In talks with a sperm donor to start next month. Any advice on home semination?

 

[CNK]

Sorry no experience of this at all, fertility treatment is expensive, none of it is publicly funded in Ireland either

 

[Helloimgems]

Sending love and luck to all on a TTC journey. I came off the pill in July 2020, not actively TTC but certainly not preventing, basically ‘going with the flow’. 10 months later and I’ve still not had a single period (even a withdrawal bleed) or any sign of ovulation. GP has done bloods and an internal scan which both came back normal. OH’s sperm count was normal. We’ve got an appt with a fertility specialist in May, bit different to most of you as it doesn’t seem to be a problem with TTC (as far as we are aware) but I’m just a bit nervous. I didn’t have a single period for all 8 years of me taking the pill and I have bowel issues which have completely ruined my digestive system so hoping they can prescribe something to kick start my system and I will start ovulating and we can actually start ‘trying’. I’m 33 in a month and I know that’s not ‘old’ but I know it’s harder post 30. Sorry for the long essay!

 

[swimming]

In talks with a sperm donor to start next month. Any advice on home semination?

All I can say about that is please be careful. By using a donor at home and doing home insemination you’re not protected at all by the HFEA and the donor can legally have rights to the child.

My husband and I had to use a donor due to him having issues after cancer treatment and yes whilst it was expensive going via a clinic, for us there was no other option when it came to protecting us and the baby.

We had to have 2 mandatory counselling sessions via zoom to give off the right vibes we were ready to do this and understood the implications of the donor and how the child will be able to have access or find out out who the donor is/was once they turn 18.

We are fully protected with the HFEA and so it the donor.

I know there are loads of online websites and forums with donors offering their services but these men aren’t always 100% checked against any STI’s including HIV and also HPV which could have effects on the foetus of course. And like I said above there is nothing stopping this man claiming parental access as technically he is a “father” and not just a “donor” as it’s been done outside of legal regulations.

Its tit that funding is so badly lacking in these departments and the price is stupid when you break down the costs but you can’t put a price on something so important.

Have You been to a clinic and had a fertility MOT or were you just planning to meet with a donor and see how things go?

x

 

[Scottishfalpal1]

I’m in talks with the donor who wants no contact with baby and has told me he had had all checks done and has the certification to prove it

 

[gashycrash]

Hi all. Im sorry i didnt know where to go as everyone in my life has a baby, and i dont actually know anyone who didnt conceive naturally in my life. (sorry if there are lots of errors- i am rapidly typing and feel like im going to stop breathing)

Im 31 and i have no children of my own, my partner is 42 and he has children from a previous relationship. We have been trying to conceive for 2/3 years (due to covid, i felt like i couldnt go to the doctors re fertility until recently)
in the past i have had 7 miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy; and just have the 1 fallopian tube. I got my fertility bloods done and they came back all normal.
I always thought I may have issues as I thought the amount of medication I’ve been on through the years and currently; it was something I always worried about. I’m currently on a butec morphine patch, gabapentin, carbamazepine, amitrypyline (these are the drugs I’m taking for peripheral neuropathy issues and got issues with my nerves but am taking other short term pain medication) so yes always worried about whether my baby would be born as a druggy.l etc. So I never considered that my partner would have any fertility issue, I thought I would be the only problem. And I never considered living my life without having a child of my own.

I have just collected my partners sperm infertility test results. Could someone please help me think clearer right now; i feel like im going to have a panic attack and i dont really understand it.

"Asthenoteratozoospermia- percentages of both progressive motility and morphologically normal spermatozoa below the lower reference limits.
Progressive- 20
Non progressive- 20%
Immotile- 59%
Normal Morphology- 0%
Abnormal Morphology- 100%
Head Defects 100%
Mid piece defects 23%
Tail defects 5%

Could someone help me understand please. I am just trying to google the resutls; but my mind is everywhere and i just cant get it together at the moment. I am really sorry; i dont know who else to ask.
Thank you so much to anyone who replies.

 

[Happy35]

I think it means that the heads of all the sperm are misshapen as are some of the bodies and tails,the motility I think is how many are moving

 

[Swipeuplikeandshare]

Hi all. Im sorry i didnt know where to go as everyone in my life has a baby, and i dont actually know anyone who didnt conceive naturally in my life. (sorry if there are lots of errors- i am rapidly typing and feel like im going to stop breathing)

Im 31 and i have no children of my own, my partner is 42 and he has children from a previous relationship. We have been trying to conceive for 2/3 years (due to covid, i felt like i couldnt go to the doctors re fertility until recently)
in the past i have had 7 miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy; and just have the 1 fallopian tube. I got my fertility bloods done and they came back all normal.
I always thought I may have issues as I thought the amount of medication I’ve been on through the years and currently; it was something I always worried about. I’m currently on a butec morphine patch, gabapentin, carbamazepine, amitrypyline (these are the drugs I’m taking for peripheral neuropathy issues and got issues with my nerves but am taking other short term pain medication) so yes always worried about whether my baby would be born as a druggy.l etc. So I never considered that my partner would have any fertility issue, I thought I would be the only problem. And I never considered living my life without having a child of my own.

I have just collected my partners sperm infertility test results. Could someone please help me think clearer right now; i feel like im going to have a panic attack and i dont really understand it.

"Asthenoteratozoospermia- percentages of both progressive motility and morphologically normal spermatozoa below the lower reference limits.
Progressive- 20
Non progressive- 20%
Immotile- 59%
Normal Morphology- 0%
Abnormal Morphology- 100%
Head Defects 100%
Mid piece defects 23%
Tail defects 5%

Could someone help me understand please. I am just trying to google the resutls; but my mind is everywhere and i just cant get it together at the moment. I am really sorry; i dont know who else to ask.
Thank you so much to anyone who replies.

My husband had poor morphology it’s to do with the shape of the sperm
If you think of it like an arrow hitting the egg - it can make it harder
First thing vitamin wise is to get some iron and men’s health vitamins for him and COQ10

we were recommended ICSI as a fertility treated as the embryologist basically takes the sperm and joins It to the egg
Sadly fertility treatment (2xIVF then 1XICSI) didn’t work for us
BUT my beautiful three year old is currently snuggling beside me after a natural conception - we both removed inflammation from our diet such as red meat etc - basically done plant based, vitamins, water and exercises for a couple of months before conception and then on the month of conception done the reverse ate crap and drunk too much!! What I’m trying to say is please don’t despair. I know I kept reading it will happen and it’s so hard when you’re in it. It was over 5y and 30k with theee operations for me. Just keep yourself healthy, get support and take each milestone as it comes.

 

[Mums84]

I have PCOS, have conceived naturally (hate that term, is it non assisted?) and have children. My ovaries are a mess, just covered in cysts on the ultrasound. I have more regular periods when my weight is at a healthy level. Before my last baby I was overweight, had about 1 period in 9 months and heard lots of positive things about myo inositol. So I got a month's sachets and boom. Pregnant after 18 months of no luck. My blood work is always mad, I would have a beard and chest hair if I let it grow so I think my ovaries are pretty terrible. But it shows there is hope. Good luck in your journey x