If you’re feeling anxious about a pending fertility evaluation, we’d like to share what’s involved to help put your mind at rest. There is no need to feel afraid; the tests are necessary to help you on your road to becoming a parent. Most cases of infertility can be understood after a proper evaluation of both partners. Once a diagnosis is reached, appropriate treatments can be discussed.
A typical fertility evaluation will involve a previous Semen Analysis if there is a male partner, an Ultrasound Evaluation for the female partner and both medical and sexual histories. If you have any previous investigations reports, you should bring them with you for review. You will both be asked a series of questions, such as whether or not you’ve already conceived a child in the past, how often you have sex, whether you drink or smoke, how long you’ve been trying to conceive, whether or not you have or have had a sexually transmitted disease etc. It’s important not to feel embarrassed about any of these questions, because you must be absolutely open and honest if you hope to receive an accurate diagnosis. You may be told to make certain changes to your lifestyle to improve your chances of success.
If you are not sure about the investigations, or just want to have a chat at this stage, you can have the consultation only and decide about the tests later. For men, we prefer to do the semen analysis in our own lab where we will assess, amongst other parameters, the sperm count, morphology and mobility. However, if you have a recent semen analysis elsewhere, this will often be good enough, at least for the initial consultation stages. A woman should have an ultrasound scan to assess her ovarian reserve and her womb. Alternatively she can have a tubal patency test called a HyCoSy, also performed with ultrasound guidance, if she has been advised by a medical professional or has reason to believe that her fallopian tubes may be blocked. If you are not sure, don’t worry, we will advise you at the consultation.
There are lots of reasons why you could be experiencing infertility and the evaluation will essentially seek out any abnormalities. Once the problem is found, it can be treated. At Concept Fertility, we offer a variety of introductory diagnostic packages, but an initial consultation is advised before you do a lot of testing yourself, because it is very easy to spend time and money on testing that isn’t really necessary.
