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On the Road to IVF June 25, 2004

As promised, I will now elaborate on my attempts to get started in the IVF world. My hubby and I had already discussed our options if his surgery was not successful. We’ve decided to move on to IVF w/ICSI, as this is our only option to have biological children together.

So, this week I’ve been trying to get a consultation appointment scheduled. After doing a little more research on the two IVF clinics that my husband’s doctor recommended, (I had already looked at the various places to do IVF in Houston) I called the first one. This is also the facility that is storing the sperm retrieved from the surgery, so I thought it was logical to start with them. Well, I got the total run around treatment. I spoke to 4 different people, in as many phone calls, and got no where. In order to get the simplest questions answered, like cost, tests required, etc., I was told I would have to schedule an appointment to speak to a nurse over the phone. This, of course, was not a free service.

Well, I got frustrated with that place and decided to give the other place a call. This was the doctor that my hubby’s doctor had highly recommended. I had not considered this practice before due to the fact that it’s not one of the “biggies” in town, and it is not as convenient as some of the others. After looking at their numbers, I realized that they do plenty of cycles per year, and their success rates are actually higher than the first place I called. Plus, the whole IVF process is pretty inconvenient when you think about it, so what’s an extra 20 minute drive anyway. When I called this second clinic, I was immediately impressed. The person I spoke with was so helpful and courteous. She let me know what tests my husband and I would each need that we hadn’t already had. She let me know that the Dr. would be out of town for 3 weeks beginning July 5th and offered to schedule a consult appointment on June 30th if I could get a referral from my OBGYN before then.

I called my OBGYN’s office to try to get a referral, and that whole experience just stressed me out. I just needed to find out if it was possible to get a referral in time, but I ended up speaking to 3 different people in 2 days with no real answer to my question. My husband and I discussed it, and we decided it wasn’t worth the stress to try to get a referral and a copy of both of our medical records in a weeks time. So, I called the IVF clinic back and rescheduled my consult appt for July 28th. That will give us both time to get the required blood tests done and get the whole referral thing figured out. When I called back to reschedule, I was again impressed. I was treated so nicely, and the lady offered to put me on their email mailing list and send me a new patient information packet. We won’t know for sure if this is the place for us until after we meet the doctor, but so far I have a good feeling.

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