So, my Ob/Gyn office also specializes in Infertility, so my regular Gynecologist has done my bloodwork, coordinated my husband's SA, did an ultrasound and prescribed Metformin to help regulate my PCOS cycles. So, I guess my question is should I be seeing an RE instead of my regular OB/GYN? I feel kind of silly asking since they do so much of this stuff, but I feel like an RE would be helping me do more testing rather that just trying different things to see if I get pregnant. Thoughts?
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I did my clomid cycles with my OBGYN, and he was fantastic. I was scheduled to move on to an IUI the cycle after I eventually got pregnant, and he would have done that too. Past that he'd have sent me to an RE.
I really liked him and his approach. He was pretty aggressive medically, but he didn't go for the full on battery of testing and monitoring. Like, he checked my progesterone levels on clomid to make sure it was working, but he didn't do an ultrasound to look at my folicles. He also stopped checking them after I'd ovulated a few months in a row on a specific dose. I felt really comfortable with the amount of intervention he did.
I'd say to move on to an RE if you'd like to be more aggressive than your current doctor is, but an OB is perfectly qualified to do the small time infertility stuff.
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I think it depends on how much your OB/GYN can do for you, and how far you want to go with it. My GYN wouldn't do anything for me except b/w to test if I was pg or ovulated. They told me I had to see an RE for anything else.
With my RE they did a TON of b/w to test FSH, AMH, and whole bunch of other stuff related to my fertility. Then we made a plan to start with Clomid and do monitored cycles, move to Femara if Clomid was ineffective, and then HSG and IUI if still no positive. After that we'd consider moving to IVF.
Does your doctor do monitored cycles? To me this has been extremely important because I don't ovulate and wasn't responding to the lowest dose of Clomid. And then what was awesome was instead of having to wait until the next month, they upped my dosage and continued monitoring until they saw a mature follicle.
If you would benefit from this type of monitoring, or if you want more advanced IF procedures, can your ob/gyn accommodate that?
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We're taking things slow so far, we'd like to avoid having to progress up to IUI and IVF if possible. But, I think my OB/GYN would be able to work with me on all of those things, just curious what the difference in approach would be. I think if we're still unsuccessful in a few months, I'll talk with him about potentially recommending an RE or doing some further tests.
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I think it's fair to ask your OB/GYN if there is a point at which he would refer you to an RE and what that point is. That way you have a good understanding of what the future may hold.
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Just to add another perspective on this, when I realized I was dealing with infertility issues I made some calls to my insurance to see what was covered and what the policies were. I had to go through an approved provider in order for my insurance to cover anything related to infertility. So it also might be worth making sure that any and all testing, meds, etc. are covered by insurance through your doctor of choice.
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@MamaMoose: I just wrote that down to ask at my next appointment, thanks!
@Sweetooth: I have fantastic coverage (biggest perk of my job), so anything I need done at this doctor is covered, I'd probably have to get a referral for an RE who was covered as well.
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