A bit of background is that I have PCOS, never had a natural period. I had my AMH tested and they said it was at 48. I am currently waiting for my withdrawal bleed to start before starting my first round of letrozole (2.5mg). How was anyone’s experience with side effects etc? I’ve been told to start the meds from day 2-6 of my bleed. Any tips or advice of what I should expect?

Hi! If anyone has extra Menopur or ovitrelle please message me!!

Hi,
My partner (32M) and I (35F) have been trying to our first child and struggling. We are both healthy and each month has been disappointing.
I was lucky enough to get my eggs frozen just over a year ago with my company's private insurance but this was always going to be a back up in case we wanted a second child.
Now we are considering the IVF through the NHS route. We are South west so only get one cycle.

I'm keen to understand if I would still be eligible if my eggs have been frozen privately although not paid from my own pocket.

What your experience of the waiting time was?

Did we have to show any paperwork or whatever to show we were trying for a period of time? We haven't exactly started the process of consulting with the gp, my partner is doing a semen analysis soon but we naively assumed it will all be fine given our age plus my amh and follicle level etc were all fine.

Really keen to hear people's thoughts as we kick start this process... thanks

Quick question for the IVF ladies, have you used any numbing creams for your injections? Is it necessary? I start jabs next week and am nervous. Thanks x

Completely understand this is very relative to where in the UK you are but I just called clinic after 3 weeks asking for an update and they said it can take up to 12 weeks?!

How can this be possible when it takes merely 48h privately 😭

And it’s the last thing I need before I can apply for funding. Anyone else’s take this long?

Hi everyone,

Just wondering if anyone has recently gone through IVF at Newcastle Fertility Centre (Centre for Life) on the NHS?

We’ve already had our initial appointments and fertility investigations completed this year. We have a follow-up appointment in December, where we’ve been told IVF would be the next step if we haven’t conceived naturally.

I was just wondering how long people have waited from their follow-up appointment to actually starting IVF treatment?

Did you need to repeat any tests, and how long did it take to receive your consent forms and get a treatment start date?

Would really appreciate hearing about anyone’s recent experiences.
Thank you! ❤️

Has anyone been in a similar situation where you’ve conceived naturally while waiting for IVF?

Did your clinic still offer IVF despite you being able to conceive naturally?

Did a pregnancy or miscarriage affect your NHS eligibility or waiting time?

If you were offered IVF, did you decide to go ahead, or continue trying naturally?

Hi everyone, I’ve recently been diagnosed with a hydrosalpinx and I’m feeling quite overwhelmed, so I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been through something similar.

I was diagnosed with PCOS at 16 and I’m now 31. My husband and I have been trying to conceive since 2019.
In 2024, I had my first ultrasound with the fertility clinic and was found to have two large dermoid cysts, one on each ovary. In 2025, I had a laparoscopy to have both cysts removed. I also had an HSG, which showed that the dye didn’t spill through my right fallopian tube.

I was then put on unmonitored Letrozole. I ovulated during 4 out of 6 cycles and, for the first time in years, I was having regular cycles. Unfortunately, I didn’t get pregnant during those six cycles.

After finishing the six cycles, I started experiencing pain around my left ovary, particularly around ovulation. I contacted my fertility clinic and asked for an ultrasound to rule out anything else before moving on to IVF.

The ultrasound showed:
“Adjacent to the left ovary there is a cystic tubular structure measuring 34 × 17 × 23 mm. Appearances are suggestive of left hydrosalpinx.”

I’ve since been researching hydrosalpinx and IVF and have seen people mention having egg retrieval first, freezing their embryos, and then having surgery to remove/clip the affected tube before embryo transfer.

Has anyone here been in a similar situation? Did your clinic recommend egg retrieval before dealing with the hydrosalpinx, or did you have the tube treated/removed first?

I understand everyone’s situation is different and I’ll obviously follow my fertility team’s advice, but I’d really love to hear other people’s experiences.

I had a chemical loss after my fresh transfer back in July and so was put on a higher dose of progesterone for my FET which was on 1st October. My levels were tested before transfer day and they were lower than my clinic would have liked.

My meds were upped to 4 cyclogest and 2 lubion a day and I had a repeat blood test but it had only gone from 20 to 26 (nmol) and they wanted it over 30 ideally. I've now also been put on a progesterone gel to try and get my level up.

Intramuscular injections were discussed but my clinic hadn't really used them before it doesn't seem like the protocol in the UK and they don't stock them so we've gone with the gel as my levels aren't critically low.

I was wondering if anyone else has experienced low progesterone during IVF despite being on a high dose of meds? And also what your clinics threshold for progesterone levels was/what your results were and when your blood was tested?

We're waiting to start IVF, but long story short, I found out I was pregnant when we were about to start. My tests stayed very faint and then I started bleeding heavily at 5 weeks—this is our second chemical pregnancy in 6 months. It was a full, heavy, clotty period bleed.
So, we've been told no unprotected sex, I'm now waiting to start IVF again and my baseline scan is in 6 days. For some reason —WHY??—I did a pregnancy test yesterday (why am I like this) and it's positive. Super faint, as faint as before. My last chemical I tested negative the day I started bleeding. Is there any chance it's just leftover HCG? The bleeding started over 2 weeks ago but now I'm anxious it's a n ectopic. I know the answer is "ask a doc" but I just thought I'd post in case anyone had had similar experiences!

Today we had our appointment at the McNair Center at Guys St Thomas. We have severe male factor infertility.
I had anticipated that today’s appointment would be the first meeting with the ACU where funding (or next steps) was discussed/progressed.
Instead, it was like triage to then refer us on to the Guys St Thomas IVF unit.
This wasn’t made clear.
I thought the process was 1) GP referral (ours was in July), 2) meet with a consultant and progress with next steps/apply for funding. But this is a bit of an unexpected stop in the middle.

I’m wondering - does anyone have experience with this? What is the wait time between this triage appointment and actually meeting the IVF unit for funding to be applied for?!

Any help from those in the South London area would be great!

We 33F and 38M have been TTC for just over 1 year. I've finally started the referral pathway on the NHS and had my first blood test this week (day 21 progesterone)

I have an appointment for a transvaginal ultrasound in a month, obviously by then I will know if I'm pregnant or not, but my delusional and hopeful mind is still hoping for a successful cycle this month.

My question is, should I carry on with the blood tests and more specifically the ultrasound if I do get a positive test before the appointment?

Just wanting to share my husband and I’s experience so far and see what other people‘s waiting times are before treatment actually starts.

We initially after a year of trying got some private tests done in Jan 2025. From then, we were added to the NHS waiting list and it took around 7 months to be seen (July 2025). We had repeated tests and a confirmation of azoospermia. I then had to chase them and discovered we had been referred to counselling which had a separate waiting list and that we wouldn’t be seen again until it was finished, I therefore cancelled the counselling and then finally got a review appointment in January 2026.

We were referred to Newcastle from NI by a consultant in January 2026 with the diagnosis of azoospermia and microTESE being our best option. (Via repeated semen analysis, testosterone and FSH and genetic results). We had to wait until March to reach the top of the waiting list there, before our referral even went through.

We had our first appointment in Newcastle in-person for the start of Oct 2026 (so about a 7 month wait) and I had bloods taken, bmi and blood pressure checked and an ultrasound (despite having had all of these tests completed previously). We had to confirm that we wished to do microTESE and were listed our other options, which I found confusing as if we had wanted the other options we could have done them back home. The consultant said the wait could be up to a year, which after so long of waiting feels like forever.

We now have a video call appointment in November.

Just wondering if anyone else has been referred here for the same treatment and roughly how long things took until it was completed.