Graduated from fertility clinic, back to my regular OB… who’s unavailable 😭
(TW: brief miscarriage mention)
EDIT, I’m in North Texas in the USA - forgot to mention this! I figure maybe that matters since it seems a lot of things are so different from place to place.
This is a bit lengthy but I’m going to condense it somewhat, hopefully… lol so please bear with me.
In Jan 2025, I (42F) switched to a new OBGYN, Dr. K, with the intention to begin TTC. My reason for switching is because I wanted a doc a little closer to where I live, and one with admitting privileges to one of the hospitals near me which have nicer facilities. My former doc has admitting privileges at only one hospital and they are not a great facility, especially their L&D dept.
Anyhoo, I got established with him last Jan, then got my IUD removed in Feb 2025 a month later, and we began immediately TTC.
June 2025 we conceived but it ended in anembryonic pregnancy (“blighted ovum”) at 10wks. My cycle came back Oct 2025 and we resumed TTC. In Mar 2026, I asked my OBGYN about medicated cycles (Clomid or letrozole) to help, and he had me do bloodwork that cycle, confirming I was ovulating. So then he sent me for a hysterosalpingogram (HSG) to see if I had any blocked tubes, none, ok next step - he referred me to a fertility clinic.
We did a round of IUI and agreed that if it wasn’t successful, we’d just go for IVF next instead of doing multiple cycles of IUI.
We were successful, yay! One round!
Prenatal care has been done via the fertility clinic, and then they “graduated” us at 9w1d to return to my regular OB, Dr. K…
I called Dr. K’s office to get scheduled so I can get the NIPT and any other necessary diagnostics & routine appts on the calendar, and he is out until end of July. 😭😭😭😭😭
As I am at “advanced maternal age” plus morbidly obese (267lbs, 5ft6in), I am considered on paper at least to be high-risk, especially for chromosomal abnormalities. So, I want to get the bloodwork done ASAP. Dr. K’s staff said I could see the other doctor at that practice in the interim (Dr. R), BUT that their system (or network?) would likely not allow me to transfer BACK to Dr. K upon his return due to their internal continuity of care policies (I figure the policy is also possibly to prevent doctors from “poaching” each others’ patients too, who knows lol).
Soooooo here I am, tomorrow I’ll be 10w, high risk, scared, and have been seeking a new OB. After scrolling through hundreds of OB’s listed in my insurance app, cross referencing patient ratings sites and looking for reviews or mentions of specific things such as experience with high risk pregnancies, overweight/obese patients, advanced maternal age, etc. and have called so many offices to see if they’re accepting new patients, I’ve come across ONE finally!!
Her office is 35 min the other direction from the docs I’ve been seeing, but she has admitting privileges in one of the 2 hospitals I prefer, and this one is even closer than the one where Dr. K delivers. I just hope we “mesh,” and that she’s the kind of doctor who doesn’t do “routine” episiotomies and also allows for “walking epidurals,” and birthing in different positions (assuming this is all even possible when it comes time for delivery, of course there are any number of things that could prevent any or all of these things and be completely out of anyone’s control!) I’ve requested an appt, soonest I could get is the 13th so I’ll be 11w by then, which is fine.
I’m also not on any of my usual medications since pregnancy began, including my ADHD med if you can’t tell 😂 I am a chronic overthinker and get very anxious about all potential outcomes of all sorts of situations even when I’m ON my meds, it’s nearly unbearable without them!
Anyhoo, rant over, I just need to breathe.
Anyone else ever run into a similar situation and feeling like they’re left hanging but it’s not anybody’s fault so ya just yell into the void and try to stay hydrated?! Let’s breathe together and calmly sip our water. 🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠 We can do this. Breathe breathe breathe. Wooooosahhh…