r/TTC_UK

Feeling alone in our journey as we don’t have much of close family and all abroad and no friends.
Looking for friendly, general advice inclusive of but not limited to below.
What apps ovulation tests do you have experience with and how did you plan sexual activity around it.
Any recommendations on dos and donts mainly diet related.
How do you get support from doctors, do you check full blood test even if you don’t ’qualify’ for fertility testing.
Basically … how do you even begin to wrap your head around all of this ….

30 yo regular periods non smoker non drinker, 6months TTC

Just had two very very faint lines on a FRER and a easy@home. I have no idea when I ovulated but I’m 2 days away from missing my period. Could this be good news? I had a chemical last month so worried it’s the same thing

Hello. My husband (37M) and I (34F) have been TTC for 2 years. Our diagnosis is unexplained fertility as all tests on both of us have come back absolutely fine and we’re both healthy with no current or prior medical issues. We’ve had 3 unsuccessful rounds of IUI this year, and I had my first IVF egg retrieval last week.

They got 20 eggs, of which 11 fertilised. We received the call yesterday (day 3) that none of the eggs had made it to the next stage of development. As I understand it, at that point they’d be looking for a certain amount of cell division (5 cells?), and all of ours only had 2, 3, or 4 cells.

Naturally we’re devastated. The embryologist we spoke to wasn’t able to offer any explanations as to what has happened just yet. The clinic are going to keep all of them in their culture system and continue to observe them for the rest of the week, and apparently they should be able to tell more in a few days (once they’ve gotten past what would have been day 5 if any of them had been viable). However, based on what she did say I’m not holding out much hope for any kind of concrete explanation as it sounds like it could be a number of factors.

It feels so incredibly dramatic that that number of eggs could all fail almost immediately. I wondered if anyone has any similar experience but also if there’s any advice on questions we should ask at our next appointments - both about the failure itself and adjustments for the next cycle. We have one more cycle available funded through the NHS, and then we’ll be on our own.

Please delete if not allowed so sorry for this post, I'm just looking advice I guess instead of driving myself mad. So I had the implant taken out may last year periods have only regulated properly this April. I've been pretty consistent 6 days periods etc and now it's August and I'm 2 weeks late I've taken pregnancy tests and they've been negative. And still no sign of my period. I have had nausea etc too. Unless Aunt flo has decided I'm gonna just not bother coming 🙈🤦🏻‍♀️

I have been given one step oluation sticks but I dont really rate them and am looking for some suggestions

TIA

Ttc 2 yrs (baby no.2 after 0 compliments with no.1) very traumatic ectopic pregnancy and surgery in the middle of that time frame. We have finally had a fertility clinic referral from the GP, but no word on what next. Does anyone have insight on;

How long to expect to wait for an appointment?

Do they contact us, do we contact them?

Will we need to repeat all the testing we have just gone through?

What happens if all our results continue to be normal?

My BMI is over 30, I am 1 stone down and have another to go. Will they rule me out until the weight is lost?

F32. In Hampshire if that helps. Thank you in advance

34F feeling desperate and not sure which private clinic in or near Manchester would be best.

I have deep infiltrating endometriosis (excision surgery six months ago) and adenomyosis. I suspect we are going to need FET. My AFC was 19 in April with no dominant follicles, 13 in July with one dominant follicle. My AMH was 19.2 in February and 15.8 in April. (All this year 2026). I am having a polyp removed next week. FBC are all normal. My BMI is 27.2 but slowly coming down. One chemical in 2024 and no positives since. 

I am entitled to one funded cycle, but my experience with St Mary’s NHS so far is demoralising for a large variety of reasons, and they are very flippant about my adenomyosis.

I’ve spoken to Manchester Fertility, but there’s an uncomfortable feeling I can’t shake about them. Looking at the price lists, it seems there are a lot of extras. I feel like all these companies are just taking advantage of desperation and don’t actually care. I feel so confused about whether MF are the best or Care or ABC… it’s just so overwhelming.  

Can anybody please share their experiences of any private IVF clinics within a 50-mile radius of Manchester, and the full cost breakdown? I had a look at Access but that just seems to be a finance option that you then use with Manchester Fertility or Care. If anyone is happy to give me as much information as possible it would be really helpful, I feel like I am drowning.

Dorset NHS IVF funding – confused about the wording
Hi! I’m trying to understand Dorset’s current NHS IVF funding rules. The website now says “no more than one previous NHS cycle” under the criteria for a non-full cycle.
I’ve previously had one NHS-funded full IVF cycle, which included a fresh transfer that ended in miscarriage, followed by a frozen embryo transfer that was unsuccessful.
Does the wording mean I could potentially qualify for a non-full NHS-funded cycle, despite having had one previous NHS cycle?
Has anyone in Dorset had experience with this or knows how they interpret this wording?

Hello all,

TTC 18months, recent PCOS diagnosis. Taking metformin to hopefully help.

I am about to start my 5th medicated cycle, I’ve had a bit rocky road so far with the medicate cycles, some history below - set up so far has been letrozole, natural ovulation (no trigger shot), timed intercourse & cyclogest after ovulation for these 4 cycles.

Cycle 1: 5mg letrozole CD 3-7, produced 3 mature follicles, no pregnancies

Cycle 2: altered dose to 2.5mg letrozole (as produced too many follicles on 5mg ) taken CD3-7, produced 30mm follicle on CD11 scan, follow up scan on CD18 showed corpus luteum so it did rupture, no pregnancy.

Cycle 3: 2.5mg letrozole taken CD 3-7, no scans this month so unsure on follicle size. Positive pregnancy 8DPO onwards, test started to get lighter, eventually resulted in a chemical.

Cycle 4: 2.5mg letrozole taken CD3-7, CD14 34mm follicle (huge!), follow up scan on CD22 showed corpus luteum so it did rupture (this scan also showed another 28mm on the other ovary) on 11DPO and no sign of a positive test yet.

NHS can’t fund a trigger shot for me, and there isn’t a lower letrozole dosage so I’m going to do a private monitored cycle at my local fertility clinic (for an eye watering price 🥺).

Due to massive follicles in my prev cycle and this random 28mm follicle in my last scan, the private clinic will look at doing the following:
baseline scan CD 2-3 to see what that 28mm follicle is doing, 2.5mg letrozole (assuming CD 3-7?), scan CD 8 to check size of follicles, trigger shot when needed, timed intercourse, + any addition scans required.

Anyone else experienced this repeatedly large follicles? Did your treatment plan change at all?

Anyone had success following previous letrozole cycles with large follicles?

any words of wisdom or hope to share?

Thanks in advance ❤️

Me and my partner have been trying for a baby for near enough 2 years. The fertility clinic ended up prescribing me Letrozole, I just did 1 cycle of it and sadly got my period this morning ☹️💔

I responded well to it and all of my scans showed healthy growing follicles etc. I was prescribed 2.5mg. I also had a blood test to check my progesterone levels and they were at 37 which the clinic said was good and if I get my period to just continue with the Letrozole without further monitoring.

I feel that maybe I got my hopes up too soon thinking it would work the first time but can anyone offer advice or share your stories of your journeys with Letrozole?

I had so many symptoms that I thought were to do with early pregnancy but after researching, progesterone can also cause similar symptoms. I was spotting yesterday and I thought it may be implantation bleeding but my period decided to show up today.

I’d love to hear other people’s experiences with it to try and give me a bit of hope and help me think a bit more positively 🤞🏼

TIA

I’ve recently been referred to care fertility, can anybody share their experiences with these? Particularly as NHS patients? I have been told my referral will be reviewed by a consultant and then they can decide what tests need to be completed. How long was you waiting to hear back from a consultant?

Thanks!

Disclaimer- I have a low amh and afc for my age but have been told by multiple doctors this should not impact my ability to get pregnant as I’m ovulating consistently with very regular cycles. I do have a few of the non obvious symptoms of endo but all the ultrasounds and hormonal bloods I’ve had with my fertility clinic (privately I’m pursuing ivf) have never detected an issue so it’s never been brought up as an issue.
Saying that, I’ve seen a lot of people in my position who later find out they had silent endo and only discover it after multiple implantation failures or taking endo specific tests. I obviously don’t want to get as far as a failed transfer to find that out. There is also a link between issues like DOR and endo so I think it’s sensible to rule it out.

Are there any specialists anyone recommends ideally in London who deal with endo or infertility specifically? I’d be keen to proactively look into getting an mri/specialist tvus or similar to rule out specific causes of infertility like endo. I should be able to claim infertility investigations through my insurance fortunately.

I’ve checked davor jurkovic but his waitlist is extremely long (even if going privately).

I’ve been trying to conceive for over two years and discussed it with my GP who sent me for blood tests but did not send me for HyCoSy. My partner has yet to do his semen analysis I’m just trying to get my head around what normally happens in what order. In Scotland if that matters.

Had a miscarriage at 10 weeks exactly one year ago and have been having difficulty conceiving and irregular periods since. We’ve been referred to the fertility GP and I’ve had an AMH test done which came back as 3.4 and have been told by the secretary that I won’t be eligible for NHS funded treatment because I’m 40 but no other explanation as to why. Was told that the fertility doctor will ring me in 3 weeks time to discuss other options but nothing was specified really and I feel left in the dark as I was also told my AMH is within normal range for my age but is not acceptable? Would anyone who has experienced this be able to help shed some light please?

We’re finally in our first IVF cycle after waiting years for this. I’ve started my medication and I should be feeling excited that we’re finally here, but instead I feel completely overwhelmed and honestly questioning whether we should even be doing this.

I know IVF is stressful in itself. There are medications, appointments, scans, hormones, waiting, anxiety and just the emotional weight of everything. I’ve waited so long for this, and I know how much this means to us, but I’m struggling more than I expected.

I also work in probation, so my job can be quite stressful and emotionally demanding. My husband has recently started a new job where he works 6am–3pm, and honestly, he clearly seems to be struggling with the hours. I don’t understand why he keeps picking up overtime when he’s already exhausted. I feel like instead of taking some pressure off, we’re both constantly running on empty (you wouldn’t think we had a holiday a few weeks ago!).

Then yesterday happened.

My husband accidentally locked me out of the house for three hours while he was asleep inside. I was outside from around 9pm until midnight, ringing the bell, banging on doors and windows and calling him over and over again. He was completely asleep and didn’t hear anything.
I eventually snapped at him when he woke up. He was really upset and crying, and I felt awful, so I consoled him and made him coffee before he went to work. But I barely slept afterwards and I’ve woken up today feeling completely drained, stressed and like my head is full.

I know it sounds like such a stupid everyday thing compared to IVF, but I think it was just the final straw. I already feel like I have so much on my plate and I don’t have much left in me for additional stress.

On top of everything, I feel like I don’t really have any friends left. I feel incredibly lonely. Things have also felt really strange with my husband’s family recently. I used to feel quite close to his sisters, but their demeanour towards me has changed a lot. He’s the only married sibling, and his youngest sister has recently been liking reels about things along the lines of a sibling getting married and their partner being “boring” and not wanting to hang out anymore because of said partner. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but when you’re already feeling vulnerable, things like that really get to you.

I just feel like I’ve lost a lot of the people around me at the exact time when I need support the most.

And now I can’t stop thinking, maybe this just isn’t meant for us.

We’ve waited years for this. I’ve finally started the medication and we’re actually doing it, but instead of feeling hopeful, I feel exhausted and scared and like I don’t know if I can keep putting myself through everything.

I know logically that yesterday has nothing to do with whether IVF will work. I know one horrible weekend doesn’t mean anything. I know my husband’s tiredness, my job, family stuff and feeling lonely aren’t signs that IVF isn’t meant for us.

But emotionally, it doesn’t feel that simple right now.
I feel so overwhelmed and honestly quite depressed. I just want a break from everything. I don’t want to have to be strong or keep pushing through another stressful thing.
I think I just need to hear from people who have been through IVF, did anyone else have moments during their first cycle where they genuinely thought, I don’t know if I can do this anymore?

Did it get better once you got further into the cycle? How did you cope when everything outside of IVF was already feeling like too much?

I don’t think I want to give up. I think I’m just exhausted from having to keep fighting for things I desperately want.

***STILL AVAILABLE***

I accidentally ordered ovulation tests instead of pregnancy tests. They’re completely unopened and in date until May 2028. It’s a sealed box of 10 Clearblue Digital ovulation tests.

Free to someone who will use them — happy to post within the UK if needed.

Hey everyone, quick question. After IVF, once you graduate from the fertility clinic around nine or ten weeks, you switch to an OB/GYN. A lot of women in Atlanta seem to choose smaller private clinics instead of seeing the hospital-based doctors directly. Why is that? Is it the more personal attention, longer visits, better continuity, or something else? Would love to hear your experiences. Thanks!

Also need good recommendations of Obgyn for patients graduations from ivf , near Johns creek area/ alpheretta / Suvanee pls thanks !

After a recent progesterone test, my GP is referring us on for fertility support. He basically said “youre not always ovulating, it’s an easy fix” and suggested I need Clomid.

I put a question in here around wait times for my local fertility, and it seems to be quite a wait.

Is there any other way of getting Clomid without going through NHS? If I was to find a private clinic, could I be prescribed, but continue with the NHS referral just in case it doesn’t work or there’s wider factors at play (I get a lot of per period spotting so I’m convinced there’s other factors at play, too).

I’m not trying to “jump” any queues, but if all I’m being told is I need certain medication, I want to get my hands on that as quickly as I can!!