The first clinic visit

Choosing a fertility clinic is the weirdest thing. It’s literally like choosing a restaurant to go to, only you’re picking your baby-maker instead of what to have for pudding. How far do we want to travel? How much is it? Do they offer what we want on their menu? Weird.

Our first fertility clinic was about a 45 minute drive away. I’d googled it and it had good reviews, and the costs were pretty average – around £7k per round. It was a gorgeous new building on a hospital site, and was very clinical looking, professional. Big.
We waited in the huge reception area while couples went into rooms and then after about 15 minutes came out again. A smiley doctor welcomed us into the room, and I had the torpedo of not-joy inserted to have a look at my ovaries. It’s a very weird sensation being prodded from the inside of your body. It’s like being punched in the stomach but in the reverse direction. Also, why do you have to undress behind a curtain but then you’re there with your legs in stirrups with everything more on show than it would have been when you were getting undressed?!
We got sent back out to the reception to wait for the consult, and the smiley doctor (minus her white coat now) welcomed us into a different room. It was good news, they would definitely be willing to take us on as clients, with just one condition.
Up until this point, I assumed naively that if you were paying for private treatment, you just paid and they did it. Because they want high ratings, the good clinics will only take you on if they think there’s a good chance of success.

I don’t think the NHS are as fussy once you get through their checklist of reasons why they won’t accept you. I was too old, too fat, and too problematic. In the county I’m in, you need to have a BMI of between 18 and 25, be under the age of 30, not have any long-term health conditions and have been with your partner for at least 5 years. I had been with my partner for more than 5 years at this point, although only just! But that was the only tick.
I have a condition called Classical Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. My connective tissues don’t work properly, and it causes all sorts of issues, the PCOS being one of them, as is a not-so-well-known condition called Lipedema. It used to be called Elephant Legs, my best friend calls it kebab legs, as only a best friend can! haha! Anyway, PCOS has caused a form of insulin resistance, so any sugars I eat get turned into fat. That can be sugar from a chocolate bar, or sugar from a carrot or green bean. That’s ok, you can burn fat. OH NO YOU CAN’T if you have Lipedema, just for fun, lipedema just stores the fat. Just stores it. We might need it for some unknown reason. So losing weight is an absolute mission. Oh, I forgot to mention that condition didn’t I. I needed to have a BMI of between 20 and 28.

But, I was given this mountain to overcome.

I was given this mountain to overcome.