Advice needed, starting treatment

stickybean

I have finally got my ass in gear and went to see my doctor today. Had my 3 days bloods and will be back for my 21 day bloods in a few weeks, which is about day 26/27 for me.They are going to test my OH next week, bloods and Sperm Analysis.

We have been offered a referral to the Beacon, or the Merrion (Hollow Street).

Just looking for a bit of advice! I rang my health insurance and they said they don't cover fertility treatments. However as I have suspected Endo, they will cover the procedure related to that.

Feeling a bit lost as to what to do. Any advice would be much appreciated xx

barbiegirl

Stickybean we went all the way around the world over the past 4 years, the Merrion Clinic, IUI, misses, the Coombe miscarriage clinic etc. Our answers came from a less likely source, Napro. Napro don't use a scatter gun approach. They work with you to monitor your cycle for 3 months, then you meet the consultant, you decide a route of treatment that works specifically for you, that can include laparoscopy, HSG, hormones, vitamins etc. Within 5 months of starting with them, we had our answers, severe endometriosis, and are booked to have it all, hopefully, cleared in 4 weeks time. I wish I had gone to them initially. Plus I feel a million times better and healthier under the vitamin and drug regime they have me on.

I attended the Merrion and they were great though they did decide not to investigate when I had one blocked tube, which could have saved us all the pain of misses had they. I have also attended some of the consultants in the Beacon and they are great as well and work quite closely with Napro.

There is however a caveat with them, they only treat married couples. A pain in the ass but they are a private organisation and that's how they work. They don't care what religion you are or are not, just you must be married.

On the plus side it is a lot cheaper than other fertility treatments too, €200 for consultant visits, €50 for the nurse, then blood tests, drugs etc. The expensive stuff like hsg and laparoscopy are covered by your health insurance.

Whatever way you go the very best of luck.

Neyite

Stickybean, I went on Ovulation Induction with Timed Intercourse. We were unexplained- meaning all tests came back fine but just no baby.

It worked for us, hopefully your treatment will be cheap and brief and give you the results you are looking for. If you have any questions about OI I'll do my best to answer them.

You will know more and where to focus your research when you get your referral.

bobskii

Neyite wrote: »

Stickybean, I went on Ovulation Induction with Timed Intercourse. We were unexplained- meaning all tests came back fine but just no baby.

It worked for us, hopefully your treatment will be cheap and brief and give you the results you are looking for. If you have any questions about OI I'll do my best to answer them.

You will know more and where to focus your research when you get your referral.

Hi Neyite,
just wondering how long sfter your referral did things get moving for you?we've been referred with unexplained to the hari,our appointment is not till february and im wondering roughly how long it will take to get the ball rolling once we have a consult.

stickybean

Hey Barbie girl,

Thanks for the reply, is Napro the same as the Beacon in Dundrum, trying to find some information on it now.

My doctor is leaning towards the Merrion as she has had 2 success cases from there and it is much closer to where we live and has a shortish waiting list. Also the beacon seems to be a little dearer than the rest.

We were looking at HARI (rotunda) - but they have the longest wait time.

When you go to the referral can you tell them what you want? I would like to ask them for a laparoscopy. By the time we get there we will have the sperm analysis, day 3 and day 21 bloods completed, so provided there is nothing jumping out in those results i'd rather just get straight into it

barbiegirl

Napro are in the Beacon centre but no the Beacon hospital. They do everything up to Ivf but don't do ivf. They have a different less standard approach with excellent success rates. It's not easy but none of the options are, but ultimately they listened to us properly and now we're facing 2013, after my op, with real hope :-) There's a thread on here somewhere with lots of info.

Neyite

I had a couple of gp appointments and had the bloods repeated so it was September 2010 when we got referred with the earliest appointment given in November. I was given a prescription for parlodel a week later, told to give it 6 months and a public referral to an endocrinologist which I saw in march 2011. In June 2011 we returned to the clinic and started OI. 3rd cycle on that was our lucky one so a year from first visiting the gp to that positive test. Ours was a clinic down the country though.

lollpop

I'm attending the Merrion clinic at the moment.
Very happy with the service so far.
I contacted both SIMs and the Merrion to check waiting lists and they both had a 6 week waiting list for initial appointments. It's not too bad because there are tests you have to get done in advance so it gives you time to do that.

barbiegirl - just wondering who your insurer is? I was advised that none of the insurance companies are covering these procedures any more.

barbiegirl

Hi Lollpop,
I'm with Laya and they cover the laparoscopy for endometriosis so long as it isn't a known pre-existing the policy issue.
They don't cover any fertility treatments though

stickybean

I am with Avivia, they said they will cover the laparoscopy (if needed) for endometriosis but they don't cover any fertility treatments though, they will also cover a portion of the consultations, I have to claim them back at the end of the year

stickybean

Thanks for all the help girlies, we have decided to go with the Merrion given the location and waiting list. The girl said we may even be seen before Christmas, which would be amazing!!! OH is booked in for a check up next week with our own GP, he is going to run bloods and then we have a SA booked for Friday with the rotunda.

Just an FYI for anyone looking for an SA, the rotunda only charge €30 - everywhere else i have looked was over €100

stickybean

Lollypop, what did you do on your first appointment? What did you have to bring?

barbiegirl

Stickybean the very best of luck, I'll have my fingers and toes crossed for you over the next couple of months

orchidsrpretty

stickybean wrote: »

Lollypop, what did you do on your first appointment? What did you have to bring?

I am also attending the Merrion, and so far they have been fantastic too, although they do request that you only have the SA done at their clinic which costs 150E. Also to note, we did ours "off site" for the first one and when we went for the consultation, they requested another one as the results weren't great, the second one was about 120E but we were a bit annoyed that they had not told us that doing off site may come back with incorrect results.

If you have had all you pre-consultations tests done there, you bring nothing. They may ask you to do some more blood tests after the first consult.

The first consultation is 160E and any after that is 120E.

If everything looks good they may ask you to go for some invesetigations(lap,dye,hysteropocy etc). This you will have to pay for but don't be afraid to tell them about your finacial situation if it is not feasible for you as they can be really expensive. I was looking at investigation costs of 7,000e+ but together with the clinic we were able to find a workable solution so don't be afraid to question everything they suggest you do.

Best of luck and I hope its a short journey for you and your partner:)

stickybean

I wonder would they accept an SA from the Rotunda, they are only charging €30 - I have heard a lot of places look for 2 - wonder if you could get 2 done there

lollpop

stickybean wrote: »

Lollypop, what did you do on your first appointment? What did you have to bring?

Stickybean, we had to get all the tests done in advance.
I'd already had rubella, day 3 and day 21 done with the GP. THey needed copies of those results in advance. They also wanted AMH and a couple of other hormone ones that I didn't have. I had to get an ultrasound done too, I think it was day 7 it had to be done. DH had to get the SA done. Then on the day you don't need to bring anything, they just have all the results there and they go through them. What happens after that depends on your situation.

For all the tests & the appointment, it was about 500 in total. I think it broke down roughly as 160 for appointment, 100 for ultrasound, 150 for SA, 55 for AMH and the rest on the remaining bloods.

stickybean

Did you get the ultra sound at your first appointment? My GP never mentioned it

lollpop

stickybean wrote: »

Did you get the ultra sound at your first appointment? My GP never mentioned it

There are no tests done at the appointments, they are just consultations.

The way it works is that the GP sends the referral letter to the merrion. The merrion then post you a big pack with your appointment date and a list of all the tests that you have to get done. I think the tests may be different for different people depending on what info they already have from the GP. So the pack that I got included all the info on when to get the ultrasound done as well as the other tests. You have to get the tests done before the appointment because most of them have to be done on certain dates in your cycle.

stickybean

Ah now I get it - thank you

That is actually great information. I know we haven't got our appointment yet, but I was already getting nervous about everything.

Thank you xxx

lollpop

No problem, best of luck with it!

adventurehero

Hi, I'm really interested in Napro. This may sound like a strange/ignorant question but here it goes: Is it true that after the initial consultation and during the first phase you may be asked to abstain from intercourse for 2 months while mucous/hormone levels are being monitored?

barbiegirl

Yep for the first month til you learn the difference between fertile mucus and well semen. :-) it does pass quickly though and they don't ban sex altogether :-).

graciehall

stickybean wrote: »

Thanks for all the help girlies, we have decided to go with the Merrion given the location and waiting list. The girl said we may even be seen before Christmas, which would be amazing!!! OH is booked in for a check up next week with our own GP, he is going to run bloods and then we have a SA booked for Friday with the rotunda.

Just an FYI for anyone looking for an SA, the rotunda only charge €30 - everywhere else i have looked was over €100

Hey my partner got sa done in hari rotunda 2 weeks ago we paid 120euro is this were you got it done in

stickybean

No - the HARI is a separate unit of the Rotunda, our GP referred us to the Rotunda for the SA only. We are being treated at the Merrion Clinic