# Long wait ahead but already full of questions



## Ky (May 10, 2012)

Hello,

It's been quite a while since I posted anything on this forum. My partner and I have been talking about IUI for over a year now,  But we finally have made our appointment for the initial consultation on the 16th of May at the LWC 
Last Saturday we had an Inseminar there with so much info I'm going nuts hehe.

Now I am going to have an appointment at GP on Friday for the blood tests and hopefully the AMH test ( I know this needs to be done only a week before the consultation). Can anyone tell me if it would be better to have the AMH test done at the London women's clinic? I'm afraid of getting results back too late from GP.

Also I'm having my cervical screening done in two weeks (after my next AF). And again the question if this is better done at the clinic then the GP?

We have discussed everything and probably won't  start the IUI treatment until august to give us time to choose donor and get our heads around everything but still this consultation is scary stuff. 

Any one with experience is free to comment about all this it would be very helpful.


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## mrsww (Sep 1, 2013)

Hi,

My wife and I just had our first IUI on Saturday at LWC.  It was a great experience, now just have to wait two weeks and hope we get a positive.

NHS will not do AMH tests so I got mine done at the LWC the day of consultation.  All others tests were done at my GPs including my smear.  You don't need the results on the day, I sent mine along after the initial consultation.  Also look into your Primary Care Trusts rules and see if you're eligible for NHS funding.

On our initial consultation my wife and I signed a lot of paperwork and answered a lot of questions, saw the consultant and I also had an internal scan to check follicles and lining.  I also was recommended to have a HyCoSy which checks the tubes are clear which I had the next month.  Oh and we also had a counselling session on a separate day which was included with the initial consult price, this is for anyone using donor eggs or sperm.  The counsellor was lovely and it was good to have the opportunity to talk to someone.

Regarding sperm I'd join the sperm bank site and favourite some sperm however don't order until closer to treatment as the sperm is only held for three months before they cancel order.  I think ordering the day one of you period for the cycle you want to try is best bet.  We started out with 20 favs, knocked it down to 10, five and then three.  On ordering day our top two favs were out of stock so we were glad we got number three.  I say to leave it until at least two weeks before treatment as I had issues in Jan/Feb with not ovulating and hence if we'd not being able to go ahead this month our sperm order would have been canceled.

Hope it all goes well.  It hasn't been a quick process for us but its mostly been relaxed.  I'm taking pregnacare conception and trying to eat healthy with plenty of protein and drink plenty of water.  Happy to answer any other questions you have as well.


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## Ky (May 10, 2012)

Fingers crossed for you on the 2ww

Thank you for your reply, 
During the Inseminar we booked this consultation, but they haven't said anything up about counselling, I might give them a call to see if we can do this the same day, as my partner tires to keep the days off work to minimum  

I have already looked around for the donor sperm and seen a few fav, but partner wants to wait till after the whole consultation and blood tests. 
I really want to know my own and my partners blood group before choosing a donor. For some reason this is important to me  
But as it read and heard every where we have plenty of time for that yet.

Now it's waiting for blood and urine tests and then a long wait till the 16th, can't wait!!!


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## mrsww (Sep 1, 2013)

Its exciting.

I also wanted counselling on same day but was glad we didn't.  The consultation is a lot of information to take in and process and the counselling is good another day to get even more information.

Definitely wait until after consultation and when you are closer to treatment before buying sperm although it doesn't hurt to look now.

Good luck with the work.


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## Ky (May 10, 2012)

Sorry for more questions,

I have started to BBT this month and I am going to start with opk's next month to get a better idea of my ovulation.
And even tho I only started a few weeks ago, I can already feel more "stress" coming with it. I do not want to become too obsessed with all the BBT charting, CM and opk's 

I saw in your story that you had no positive opk for two months. Is that quite normal or is this different for every person? It's ok if you don't wish to include the reason or even answer if it is too personal


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## mrsww (Sep 1, 2013)

Argh, just wrote out a long reply and computer crashed so this is a shortened version.

I didn't do BBT as it doesn't work with my job (I do mixes of days, nights and 24 hour shifts) and the clinic didn't say anything about doing it I expect because you've to do it for many months before seeing a pattern.

I did get positives on OPKs in Oct and Nov just on internet cheapies and then no positives for Dec/Jan/Feb not sure why and clinic didn't seem too concerned but it stressed me no end especially as it meant treatment was delayed.  I'm not sure what was going on but when we went for scan on Friday I was so sure they were going to say no follicles but there was so my body was just not playing the game right.  I did get a positive on Friday morning on a cheap OPK but nothing on the clear blue - my wife got positives on both the cheapie and clear blue which was annoying!  I would recommend doing the OPKs and hope you get positives so can find a pattern.  Even for the two months that I did get positives it did help as it meant I knew when ovulation was meant to occur so easier for clinic to book me in for scan.  Any future treatments I'm just going to rely on scans and use OPK's as back up.


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## Little_Pea (Feb 3, 2014)

My DP and I are currently under LWC for intra partner egg share, we attended the inseminar at the alternative family how last autumn and today we have our baseline scans for IVF. DP is starting stimms today.

We cancelled our order with LSB and changed to Xytex. We paid £95 to see photos and get full family medical history and its worked out the same
PRice. We ordered two vials incase of BFPS so we have sibling sperm.

Our GP did nearly all our blood tests for free. But AMH and five others they refused so we went through LWC

Good luck xx


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## Ky (May 10, 2012)

Ok so. This afternoon we had our initial consultation with the lwc. WoW! 
I am completely out of my brain right now. The internal scan was fun! Not really, right side is good, had ten follicles. But left side she couldn't find, pfft.

Ah well, the talk: Where do I start.
The nurse was nice, helpfull and calm. But then de Dr. Awful  
Let me try to explain in short, if that's possible.

We started with telling me to lose 5 kg. yeah knew that was coming, already started.
Then we moved on to the blood result. My gp was so nice to not only do the normal ones(HIV and so) but also include extras. One of wich included some kind of serum B12 something. That was according to the Dr at the lwc too high, telling her signs of PCO   
Then she asked what CD this was done, where I just looked at her, one second ago hearing PCO, completely out of this world and I try to find the answer. She doesn't let me and continues. She says that test should be done on day 1 to day 3 only. So after was seemed like hours I finally could tell het it was CD 15.

Ok long story short:
From then on for 40 min all she could talk about was the PCO and the (inaccurate bloodtest, may I add HER words) 
Then quickly she asks if I ovulate, where ( still not 100% there) I show her my last three cycles BBT and OPK. yes, she says, that's good. But you still show signs of PCO. O.M.G!!!!  

So that was 50 min, no explanations, no questions, just the 3letters P.C.O.
Ok back to nurse to sign rest of papers and that was it, our initial consultation.
All I wanted to do when I stepped out of that clinic was burst out crying, but busy london, not a good idea. 

Lying in bed now feeling like my brain is on fire and tears rolling I still don't really know what happened today and I don't feel like going back to that clinic! My girlfriend says I'm too negative, but do I not need to feel comfortable with and the clinic And the Staff/Dr? 
Now she wants me to call the patient support person on Monday so I can tell her how I feel, but wouldn't that be so rude and weird? Or would it just be best to cut our losses and go to another clinic and start again?
Oh I don't know anymore! I need sleep!

Sorry for the long story,  just had to put it in words and I know, even though I'm not very active on this site, I can do it here.

Thank you for letting me rant


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## mrsww (Sep 1, 2013)

That doesbt soubd good at all.  I've struggled with LWC in the past as really have to push for information but overall I thought them good.  We had a male consultant and he was very nice.  I agree that you need to feel comfortable and I also looked into other clinics but decided to stay with LWC as changing clinics means more expense.  I would contact patient coordinators they are lovely and maybe their response can help you decide what to do.


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## Ky (May 10, 2012)

I feel angry, most of all, today. I paid a lot of money to get this far into the journey and to have something like this happen during the first real meeting with the staff is just making me angry. All I would want to ask for is a bit of understanding and being heard.

But I promised my gf to think about things this weekend and then see what I want on Monday, but I'm really starting to focus on going to another clinic. I had my AMH. Test done there and it felt good in those 5 min, if that could mean something. And it's closer to home and a little cheaper too  

But let's get thru this weekend first and then we will see


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## Pinktink (Dec 17, 2008)

Hello,

Haven't posted on here for a while. Sorry to hear you had a negative experience - we had two cycles with the lwc and they were not positive experiences unfortunately. We transferred to Lister and they were amazing. I can highly recommend Dr Wren there if you decide LWC isn't for you.

Hope it gets better

Xx


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## Ky (May 10, 2012)

First of all: hope all is well with your two babies, pinktink  

We have decided to go for a different clinic after speaking to the support coordinator at the lwc. 

I had send them a long email about our experience because I didn't think I could handle a phone call without tears. It was a polite but honest email and the responds we got back was cold. Although they did offer us a second free consultation with another specialist we don't feel comfortable to respond to this.

We now have a consultation booked at the sefc in tunbridge. I had my AMH done there before and it felt good, so hopefully we will have a better experience there.

I wonder if anyone can tell me if I need to email or call the LWC about this decision or if I just leave it with this? They do have some paperwork from me there that I would like back but this is not very important as I can get new copies from the GP.


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