Some beginners IVF questions

[_Nell]

Hi,
I'm fairly new to these boards, so apologies for jumping straight in with some q's.....I plan to be around a while to so hope I can return the favour in time

I've just been told I have diminished ovarian reserve, i'm 31years old. I was given the prognosis over the phone by my gynaes nurse and won't actually get to see my gynae (also a fertility specialist) until the end of May when she'll be doing an investigative hysteroscopy to check on my fibroid situation before hopefully coming up with a plan (and hopefully not a myomectomy )

I can't see my GP for 2 weeks and I'm just feeling a little in the dark about what *might* happen next really, the nurse says I will likely go straight to IVF (that's a private gynae nurse though).

So, here goes....

- Is diminished ovarian reserve considered a fertility issue on the nhs, ie will i likely be eligible for a funded cycle (i'm west essex pct)? Would that be a crazy long wait? I've read the NICE guidelines and I can see pcos gets people bumped up and unexplained infertility is a 3yr wait, but no mention of DOR

- Are clinics likely to reject me for IVF as i'd ruin their stats with failure? What requirements do they have?

- What should I be looking for in a clinic? Are there ones that are more experienced in handling poor responders? I've been reading about cancelled cycles.....do they all have similar benchmarks on when to cancel a cycle? Should this be something to look at in my choice?

- How long typically does an ivf cycle take? You think this would be easy to answer but googling is just confusing me

I have tried to search for this info but i'm just getting nowhere, really hoping you ladies can help me

 

[HuskyMomWI]

I don't know that I have the answers you are looking for but I have high FSH and my regular OB told us we would have to consider IVF with donor eggs. However.... when we went to see the FS last month I took a high dose of Femara and had 2-3 follicles so the medication worked so we went ahead with an IUI. We will probably do the IUI for a few months and then consider IVF but I wanted to let you know that the medication worked for me with producing more than one follicle.

 

[mich1]

Hi,
I'm fairly new to these boards, so apologies for jumping straight in with some q's.....I plan to be around a while to so hope I can return the favour in time

I've just been told I have diminished ovarian reserve, i'm 31years old. I was given the prognosis over the phone by my gynaes nurse and won't actually get to see my gynae (also a fertility specialist) until the end of May when she'll be doing an investigative hysteroscopy to check on my fibroid situation before hopefully coming up with a plan (and hopefully not a myomectomy )

I can't see my GP for 2 weeks and I'm just feeling a little in the dark about what *might* happen next really, the nurse says I will likely go straight to IVF (that's a private gynae nurse though).

So, here goes....

- Is diminished ovarian reserve considered a fertility issue on the nhs, ie will i likely be eligible for a funded cycle (i'm west essex pct)? Would that be a crazy long wait? I've read the NICE guidelines and I can see pcos gets people bumped up and unexplained infertility is a 3yr wait, but no mention of DOR

- Are clinics likely to reject me for IVF as i'd ruin their stats with failure? What requirements do they have?

- What should I be looking for in a clinic? Are there ones that are more experienced in handling poor responders? I've been reading about cancelled cycles.....do they all have similar benchmarks on when to cancel a cycle? Should this be something to look at in my choice?

- How long typically does an ivf cycle take? You think this would be easy to answer but googling is just confusing me

I have tried to search for this info but i'm just getting nowhere, really hoping you ladies can help me

Hi Nell - welcome! I'm afraid I don't know much about diminshed ovarian reserve but thought I could comment on a couple of your questions at least. I'm based in mid-essex so not far away and essentially I had a choice of 3 places - St Barts, Herts and Essex and Bourn Hall. I chose Herts ad Essex based on where they were (could travel by car), on their stats (v good), wait time (I didn't want to wait ages) and (even though this sounds odd) how I could get hold of them (calling St Barts and being on hold for 45 mins really didn't do it for me!). So I got to choose. I'm sure you'll have the same sort of choice. The clinics themselves declare what they do and so you will need to check that they cover what you need.

In terms of H&E - I was a slow responder (even though ended up with loads of follicles as have pcos they weren't growing quickly at all) and was so worried my cycle would be cancelled after reading about it on the internet. However, they were brilliant and so didn't want that either. I ended up taking drugs for longer than most and got there in the end.

Funding does depend though on the particular PCT. I think it's South West Essex that isn't funding (or at least wasn't recently) at the moment. Mid Essex is funding at the moment but your GP will definitely be able to confirm what the position is.

In terms of how long it takes; it depends. For me I started down regualting (closing down the system) just before and whilst I was on holiday for 3 weeks so ended up doing it for longer than others. Put that together with my slow growing follicles and for me it's taken weeks (had my egg transfer on Sunday just gone). For a standard cycle I think it would normally take approx 5-6 weeks although don't quote me! Things do change so it can alter. Certainly dates are not set in stone as it depends what happens.

Hope this helps - even if just a little!