Fertility referral story – part 1

“Oh, you won’t get pregnant with that!”

The kind words said to me by my GP during a telephone consultation. Obviously a very empathetic Doctor….

I had phoned up for us to be referred to the fertility clinic and after loads of questions, me telling him to look through my notes and his bold statement, he put the referral through.

A mix of emotions were felt, fear, excitement, hopes and dreams for the future. This was the start of a four year journey that is still ongoing.

I think it was about six months after that I had a call from the fertility doctor, she spoke about how many tests they could do and what our options were.

First of all, we needed to replace missed hormones that I should’ve had and I needed a full body scan to find out my bone density, the same one that menopausal women get. Despite this,the focus kept coming back to our BMI’s and if we met criteria more than anything else. Luckily, we are healthy, fitness enthusiastic, non smokers and non drinkers. I have still never met this consultant face to face, or even seen a photo of her, it is a little uneasy having such delicate conversations over the phone. Is everybody working from home since covid? Is she even a real person or is she AI?

I can’t remember whether the hormone treatment or the scans came first, but I do know that after two days I had the worst stomach pain I’d ever had and had to come off this medication. My GP was unable to help, referring me back to the fertility team and the start of another several months long wait. In my mind, we’d have had a baby within the year, I have definitely learnt patience.