How to get ready and prepared for the first consultation with your fertility specialist.
Finally, the day of the first meeting with our fertility specialist! Fortunately, the waiting list was not too long, but even the 14 day wait felt like months. I couldn’t help myself from doing a bit of google research on our doctor, but I promised myself I wouldn’t make any expectations based on other’s opinions. We prepared a few questions based on what we learned about IVF in the last few weeks, and we’re hopeful to get our answers.
"Surprisingly, he didn’t have too many questions about my husband, or about my lifestyle. "
The consultation started easy and smooth; I could tell that he saw a lot in his practice. I imagined his office with new born baby photos on the wall, but there was no sign of them, although the room was very friendly and cozy.
The consultation started with some basic medical questions, such as my age, weight, any sicknesses in my family. Speaking about weight: did you know that it’s a key factor while going under IVF? Being over- or underweight can greatly affect the outcome of IVF treatment. It’s important to face, because if you have weight issues, it usually takes a few months to fix it. So, if you think this might be an issue, take it as a first step of the preparation.
We then continued with some fertility related topics, such as questions about my period, if I have been pregnant before, and my IVF history. Having all the data handy in my Period Tracker app was super helpful. Actually, if you track your period for more than a year, you can find interesting patterns in it. Knowing your period well, will help your doctor a lot. (TIP: upload all your related data or documentation to the Leeaf app.)
Surprisingly, he didn’t have too many questions about my husband, or about my lifestyle. (I was a bit disappointed, because I could proudly tell him about my positive lifestyle changes.) But anyway, based on our answers he declared us as a perfect couple for IVF. Yeah!
After, we opened the big question: which way is going to lead us to conceive and have a baby. Based on my blocked fallopian tube situation, he offered us three possible ways to go.
- He had a look at my (6 years) old tube examination result. He said “6 years is a long time”, and it would be great to have a fresh exam to see the current situation. If they are still blocked, we have the option of laparoscopy.
- If it turns out that my fallopians are not blocked anymore, we could go for IUI (intrauterine or artificial insemination), which compared to IVF, it’s a relatively simple fertility treatment, and can be done with a much smaller amount of fertility drugs.
- If my tubes are still blocked, and I don’t want to go for a laparoscopy, then we can start our IVF treatment.
So, we have to make our decision based on the result of a new fallopian tube test. I have mixed feelings about doing the test again. From one side, it would be amazing if it turned out that my tubes are not blocked anymore, but from the other side, I know, if all would be good with them, we would have already conceived.
We left his office with a list of the tests and examination we needed to get done so that he could see what will be the best way for us to move forward:
- a complete blood test for me
- a blood test for my husband
- checking on my hormone levels by the 3rd day of my period
- PAP (smear) test
- Celvix ultrasound scan (after my ovulation)
- Examination of vaginal discharge
- mammography
- semen analysis
- and the fallopian tube test
We are going to have a busy month ahead!
