We waited two weeks after being
referred, and then upon following up discovered Fertility Associates had been
provided incorrect contact details for us. Following this minor hiccup I managed
to get in touch to make an appointment. We had the option of waiting until
August for a publicly funded appointment available in Nelson in August, or
travelling to Christchurch or paying privately to be seen sooner. We opted to
go private to move things along again, and took an appointment in Nelson in
early July at a cost of $285. Our thinking was that if eligible for treatment,
we could perhaps get on the waiting list without further delay.
In preparation for our appointment,
we were asked to fill out a registration form, a health questionnaire each, and
were provided with laboratory order forms to get blood tests. I completely
understand the reasoning, but found it funny that my test included 18 different
parameters, while Dave’s covered only three. There was also an order form for a
semen analysis for Dave, but as I alluded to in my first post, he actually had
done one earlier in the year when we first saw our GP so wasn’t required to submit
another at this stage.
Our first meeting with Fertility Associates
We weren’t entirely sure what to
expect from our first meeting with the Fertility Associates specialist, but at
the very least we were hoping to confirm our eligibility for publicly funded
treatment, and have some idea of a timeline. We began with the specialist going
over our medical and family histories and summarising the occurrence of SCA 3
in Dave’s family. She looked over our blood test results. One of the things I
was tested for was Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH). This gives an estimate of your
ovarian reserve (i.e. how many eggs you have), and can help predict how many
you are likely to yield in an IVF cycle. Rather than an exact value, they graph
the result against your age, to show how your egg reserve compares with that of
other women of a similar age. This is genetically predetermined, so with the
exception of smoking, which can reduce your reserve, there is nothing you can
do to alter it. My result was in the 25th centile, so in the
specialist’s words is slightly below average for my age, but nothing to be too
concerned about. The main thing to take from this is that we wouldn’t want to
wait until I was 40 to try and conceive, but that is of course not ideal (and
not the plan!) for many reasons. The specialist confirmed that we qualify for
IVF and PGD through the public system, so we will go on the waiting list. She
said the waiting time generally varies from 12-15 months, but that for those
seeking genetic testing things can move a little quicker.
 |
| PGD in a nutshell |
Next up
The next step for us is a feasibility test. Sometime over the next few
months, we will be contacted by the Canterbury Health Laboratory, who will
eventually conduct the PGD. They will request a blood sample from each of us,
and perform a trial test to check that they can accurately detect SCA 3 in our
case. They need to do this trial run as when they eventually test any viable
embryos, they only sample 5-10 cells from each one, so need to be able to
accurately conduct the testing with a tiny sample size. The specialist was
confident that accurate testing shouldn’t be an issue in our case, but can be
more difficult in other cases where more than one gene can be responsible for a
particular issue.
Some months following the
feasibility test (depending on wait time), we will need to travel to
Christchurch where Fertility Associates services for Nelson are based. Here we
will have another consultation this time including another semen sample
analysis for Dave, and a pelvic ultrasound for me. We will also sign the
consent forms required for IVF treatment with Fertility Associates, and PGD
with the Canterbury Health Laboratory. A nurse will show us how to administer
the hormone injections I’ll need to have daily to begin the IVF process.
The specialist briefly outlined how
our process will work, my understanding of which is as follows:
·
Feasibility testing (Nelson)
·
Pre-IVF consultation (Christchurch)
·
Begin hormone injections (Nelson)
·
Preliminary pelvic ultrasound (Nelson)
·
Egg collection following further blood tests and
ultrasounds, fertilisation (Christchurch)
·
Embryos sampled at day 5 of growth, and then
frozen. Samples sent for PGD testing (Christchurch)
·
PGD results back, all going well a suitable
embryo is thawed and implanted (Christchurch)
