Hi Smidgen, really sorry for your losses. If you'd like to chat, there is a good recurrent miscarriage thread on here with lots of nice ladies.
There is helpful information on the Royal Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists' website:
https://www.rcog.org.uk/womens-heal...ent-miscarriage-what-rcog-guideline-means-you
I wrote down the history of losses with dates etc. before the first appointment as I didn't want to have to go through it verbally. They asked questions and did blood tests on both my partner and me and also a vaginal ultrasound, which I hated as it brought back nasty memories of the pregnancy ones.
There are various types of test and, confusingly, different hospitals and doctors have different opinions about certain ones (and what treatments should be tried). They all do the "standard" tests as outlined in the RCOG guidance, and some do additional ones. There are also some tests, to do with "natural killer cells" that are not supported by all doctors and tend to be done only privately (though there is a trial in Liverpool at the moment - info on another thread and the miscarriage association website).
It is worth asking for a list of the tests being done and writing it down - sadly, with the NHS you often have to keep tabs yourself and check that stuff comes back as the admin can go wrong. They come back in batches. For example, I got a letter saying "your test results are OK", but when I checked, only half of the results had come back. The "karyotyping" results (for both partners) take the longest to come back (4 months in our case, which was really frustrating).
Also, some tests, e.g. the "thrombophilia" ones, have to be done a certain way and processed within a certain amount of time. My (large London) hospital got these wrong twice, had to have them repeated as the lab sent them back.
Similarly, it's worth chasing up about follow-up appointments, that test results are there before appointments etc. (doctors don't like it when you're in front of them but tests / information is missing). Lots of phone calls and hassle, but can help speed the process along.
Sorry if this is alarming, but personally I've found it helpful to take charge of all this stuff. If I'd relied on the NHS and hadn't checked / followed up / read all about tests etc. I wouldn't have made the progress that I have in terms of identifying a problem and trying treatments. Guess it's part of how I cope.
Also, there are some well-known specialist centres like St Mary's in London and the Liverpool Women's Hospital - depending on where you live might be worth looking into being referred there.
Hope your first appointment is helpful.