These are the Q's No One Will Tell You To Ask A Fertility Clinic
What Should I Ask My Fertility Doctor?
The standard internet lists are going to tell you to ask about basic stats and success rates when evaluating a new Fertility Doctor or Fertility Clinic to undergo IUI, IVF or other assisted fertility treatments (ART). (Keep in mind, those rates can be shaped ever so delicately by variables, so don't place too much emphasis on them, more on that in another post, follow our once weekly to stay current). Below are The Real Questions you need to ask formulated by women who have decades of accumulated in-the-trenches experience.
This vetting process is similar to choosing a partner. You are inviting them into a most sacred ritual of creating a child with you and your partner. It's like a modern day-threesome, just overly lit and not at all sexy.
Print This Out For Your Visit:
- Do they work weekends? Some don't, and it's essential that you get those eggs when it's right for you, not for your doctor. Timing is everything in conception.
- Who is providing your services? Some Teaching Clinics hand off smaller jobs to a Doctor in study. Ask if it's always your Doctor who does the full range of services (ultra scans, IUI insemination etc) or some newbie-boobie?
- Is there a nurse accessible 24 hours? Trust me, you'll want this. Email me if you want my stories, cause I got'em!
- Will you have e-mail access to the doctor? Things can and will go wrong (broken vials of medicine that you absolutely have to take that hour, etc) and you will need to talk to your doctor at some point during this process on a weekend or after hours.
- Does the Doctor have a Standard Protocol, i.e., one size fits all type of routine they send all couples through, or is each case taken through an entirely unique process? The answer you are trying to get at is a hard onion to peel as the doctor will not want to admit that they have one standard way they've been doing it for decades, but you will want to sniff this out and find someone who looks at you like the unique snowflake you are and analyzes your file with fresh eyes, prescribing tests and protocols unique to you and your partner. I have a friend that did 3 failed IVFs with a standard protocol type of doctor. Once they switched to a doctor who analyzes each couple like a unique snowflake, the doc immediately found a particular and rare issue with the man that no number of IVF's would have gotten them pregnant without first addressing this issue. Now when I run into them, it's with their twins tugging on their arms and a slight look of, "You could still turn back," on their faces. But that's a whole other post, and we will get to that.
With love,
The Bird and The Bee