Nervously, excitedly I waited for our first appointment. I had no idea what would happen at the appointment but it wasn't what did happen.
I had my history checked by the consultant only to be told that the building next door used to be NHS but had been given to a private company, that this was a wasted appointment (he did not say this,as he was fairly pleasant). He offered to transfer us to Bradford Royal Infirmary (not a good reputation and a bit far) or send a letter back to GP to refer us to The Leeds Centre for Reproductive Medicine (LCRM) in Seacroft. He actually said to us that the latter had a very good reputation. We plumped for this, both from the consultants advice and because it is near to where we live.
Of course I was peeved off. Why had this still been an option in choose and book and why did the 'locum' GP not know that if you live where we do the LCRM is the only choice?!?
Subsequently, I did more internet research and thanks to Google found out that Leeds has no private fertility clinics. If you want to go private, it's Sheffield, Doncater, Manchester or London. I have no idea why a city as large as Leeds only has an NHS facility.
Well, then I had to chase to make sure the letter got back to my GP ahen and again to make sure that a letter was sent to LCRM for an appointment. Of course I had used my choose and book allowance already. When the appointment came through it was for August. Annoyingly if I had chosen it in the first place, I would have been seen in late June/early July.
More waiting and more frustration that I was still not pregnant but for the second time, we were starting on the fertility treatment route!
The moral of this part of the story is....you need to do a bit of research yourself, as GPs (and doctors) don't always have the best answers fo you.
Sunday, 14 August 2011
Sunday, 7 August 2011
A Trip to the GP's and another and another
So the road to looking in to our infertility problem began.
We both belong to different GP's, so my husband took the lead and got an appointment to see his. Despite his worries they did not make him feel weird being there and asked him to do a semen sample and a blood test for testosterone levels. A semen sample is relatively simple to do (even if my husband wasn't over keen) but in Leeds you have ring the andrology department and organise when to bring it in (their choice not ours). Annoyingly, this just drags out the time to get results and ultimately get to treatment. What I did not realise at this time was that this was going to be a pattern to come in this journey.
Then I made the trip to my GP, which resulted in having to coming back to see the nurse for blood tests - full blood count, progesterone, rubella, LH/Oestradiol/FSH, each done on the right day of my cycle. I also had to go back and re do the Oestradiol as well. Luckily work didn't mind that I had to have several trips to the GP. Although, I remember working from home one day and timing one blood test trip with my lunch break but it had snowed, so I walked. Took longer than I planned and I felt guilty even though it was st all with in an hour!
When all my results came back everything was normal. Great News. So what was going on?
Well my husband went for his test results, he wasn't told the result but just asked to repeat the test. Ok so I said that maybe something went wrong with the test and not to worry, after all I had to re do one blood test. Ok he said, maybe but then he was asked to do a third test. We heard nothing. After three weeks (and my husband going on a trip to Berlin) and still hearing nothing he rang up the GP's. They hadn't received the results back. Oh no. Thankfully they offer a good service at my husbands GP's and an hour later a doctor phoned back and told him there was no sperm. At last we now knew why I had not got pregnant. Then we were told that to get referred I would have to see my GP as fertility referrals have to go via the female!?!
Another trip for me to my GP's then. This time I saw a locum, who was nice and seemed to know what she was talking about. She listened to my husbands lack of sperm story and I gave her copies of the results. She said that she could refer us and that we could do this via the choose and book system. Up came a list on screen, she suggested a place in Bradford as it had the shortest wait time. Was it the best choice? I had no idea. It wasn't the nearest place - Seacroft but I'd wait longer. Well GP locum was adamant that we should choose the shortest wait as we need to be seen as soon as possible. How could I not agree with this.
I couldn't actually book my appointment date and time there and then, so this gave me a taste of how the billions of pounds spent by the Government on an NHS IT System had been wasted! any way the next day I rang up and got an appointment in June 2010. We were on our way!!!
We both belong to different GP's, so my husband took the lead and got an appointment to see his. Despite his worries they did not make him feel weird being there and asked him to do a semen sample and a blood test for testosterone levels. A semen sample is relatively simple to do (even if my husband wasn't over keen) but in Leeds you have ring the andrology department and organise when to bring it in (their choice not ours). Annoyingly, this just drags out the time to get results and ultimately get to treatment. What I did not realise at this time was that this was going to be a pattern to come in this journey.
Then I made the trip to my GP, which resulted in having to coming back to see the nurse for blood tests - full blood count, progesterone, rubella, LH/Oestradiol/FSH, each done on the right day of my cycle. I also had to go back and re do the Oestradiol as well. Luckily work didn't mind that I had to have several trips to the GP. Although, I remember working from home one day and timing one blood test trip with my lunch break but it had snowed, so I walked. Took longer than I planned and I felt guilty even though it was st all with in an hour!
When all my results came back everything was normal. Great News. So what was going on?
Well my husband went for his test results, he wasn't told the result but just asked to repeat the test. Ok so I said that maybe something went wrong with the test and not to worry, after all I had to re do one blood test. Ok he said, maybe but then he was asked to do a third test. We heard nothing. After three weeks (and my husband going on a trip to Berlin) and still hearing nothing he rang up the GP's. They hadn't received the results back. Oh no. Thankfully they offer a good service at my husbands GP's and an hour later a doctor phoned back and told him there was no sperm. At last we now knew why I had not got pregnant. Then we were told that to get referred I would have to see my GP as fertility referrals have to go via the female!?!
Another trip for me to my GP's then. This time I saw a locum, who was nice and seemed to know what she was talking about. She listened to my husbands lack of sperm story and I gave her copies of the results. She said that she could refer us and that we could do this via the choose and book system. Up came a list on screen, she suggested a place in Bradford as it had the shortest wait time. Was it the best choice? I had no idea. It wasn't the nearest place - Seacroft but I'd wait longer. Well GP locum was adamant that we should choose the shortest wait as we need to be seen as soon as possible. How could I not agree with this.
I couldn't actually book my appointment date and time there and then, so this gave me a taste of how the billions of pounds spent by the Government on an NHS IT System had been wasted! any way the next day I rang up and got an appointment in June 2010. We were on our way!!!
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