Meeting with your prospective fertility consultant for the first time is potentially one of the more challenging healthcare appointments you are likely to experience. If it’s your first experience of fertility treatment you’ll be wondering what to expect, and what information the clinic might need from you to begin your assisted conception journey.
You may be anxious and brimming with questions, so to help you prepare, we’ve put together a list detailing some of the information your fertility team is most likely to need and the type of information to gather together to help you prepare and ensure it is as smooth and stress free as possible.
Before your first consultation:
- Collect as much information as possible relating to your personal health and family history. NOW-fertility will ensure you are matched with the clinic which best suits your needs and which can provide the care personally tailored to you. The more detailed the information you can share, the better the match. What’s more, because we pair you with the best available centres of clinical excellence, and arrange most physical investigations and tests to be carried out at outstanding satellite clinics, there will be no waiting time for IVF.
- Be sure to take any test results you may have had elsewhere and list your medical history in chronological order. Once you are under the care of a clinic arranged by NOW-fertility, our state-of-the-art technology will ensure all your relevant medical records are accessible to you and your fertility team at any time, whenever they are needed.
- Write a list of questions. Sometimes it is hard to remember everything you want to ask, so it is a good idea to jot down anything you want to clarify.
- Don’t be anxious about discussing the issues, the calmer and more open you are, the better your team will be able to assess your needs – and the more likely you are to take in all the information. However, we also understand that after your appointment, or at any time during your treatment, you may have questions or concerns. NOW-fertility will offer personalised IVF care 24-hour per day, seven days a week via a dedicated team of multi-lingual fertility physicians, nurses, counsellors, and advisors
- Be open to sharing your experience with family and close friends. Discussing your consultation, and the treatments you will experience, can help to settle your nerves. Because NOW-fertility is a digital fertility platform, many of your consultations and appointments with your clinic will be conducted either online or on the telephone, making it easier than ever for close family and friends to support you and be part of the experience.
Finally, don’t forget this is ‘your’ assisted conception journey. If at this early stage you feel you haven’t connected with your consultant, ask to speak to someone else. It is so important to have trust in your clinician and wider team.
NOW-fertility launches Spring 2022. For more information about how we will work and how NOW-fertility could help your fertility journey, please contact us.
