What To Expect At Your First Fertility Appointment

You have your first appointment booked with a new doctor who specializes in fertility. Yay! It is exciting but also nerve-wracking. Depending on how long you have been trying to conceive, this also may be something you have been dreading. It is an emotional rollercoaster, for sure! Fertility care is likely brand new for you (and your partner, if you have one) and if you have more questions than answers at this point, hopefully this article can be helpful to prepare some of your expectations for the initial doctor visit.

Nowadays, in 2023, these initial consults are often done via telehealth but some are still in person depending on the clinic you pick. Doctor will usually ask how long you have been trying to conceive (#TTC), date of first day of your last menstrual period and if your menstrual cycles are regular or not, health history including any surgeries you or your partner may have had, any family history, any prior fertility treatments? If you do have a partner, it is helpful for your partner to attend this initial consult so that you can go into this together and both understand all your options.

With those few questions out of the way, usually the doctor will then come up with an action plan or plan of care. This will always start with some diagnostic testing including blood work for both you and your partner to rule out any sexually transmitted infections. The patient will also need basic labs to check complete blood count, metabolic panel, thyroid level, blood type, AMH level, to name a few. These labs will also need to be updated every 6 months to make sure they are staying within normal limits during the fertility treatment process. Additionally, patient will need a transvaginal ultrasound to view and assess your uterine cavity, cervix, ovaries, the number of follicles present- and doctor will take some measurements of everything on the sonogram/ultrasound. If you have a male partner, they will need a semen analysis to assess sperm count and motility. Additional recommendations can include an HSG test (Hysterosalpingography) which is used to assess if both your Fallopian tubes are open/functional. As well as a saline sonogram (SIS) to determine if your uterine cavity is clear to make sure there are no polyps present that may interfere with implantation of a healthy embryo. The timeline of the diagnostic tests can be dependent on your cycle. For example, the HSG and SIS are done between cycle days 6-10. So that is also something to keep in mind.

You are usually assigned a nurse coordinator in the fertility clinic who will help you through all the diagnostic testing and scheduling of these tests- if not, you can reach out to Texas Rose Concierge Nurse and we can help you through this process! Once the testing is completed, you will often then have a follow up with the doctor again to review the results and then determine the best treatment plan to achieve a healthy pregnancy which may include timed intercourse (TIC), intrauterine insemination (IUI), or in vitro fertilization (IVF).

I hope this article gave you a better idea of what to expect at your initial fertility consult appointment. I recommend to make a list (write them down so you don’t forget any of them!) of all your questions you may have for the doctor prior to your appointment so that you make sure you get everything answered.

Let me know if you have any questions for me and what you want my next blog post to be about! I look forward to connecting with everyone here.

I am always here for you in your fertility journey…

Normalize Miracles…