I thought there was a big stigma attached to going to a fertility doctor. When my OB strongly suggested it over our disagreement over progesterone, I was upset. I kept thinking, I don't need a fertility doctor, I can do this on my own.
From previous posts you might have read that once I met with my RE I felt so much better, like we had a plan if the natural route didn't work or if I did in fact have a luteal phase defect.
Now that I am pregnant there are a couple things that truly made me appreciative of having a fertility doctor.
1) Her whole job is to get you and keep you pregnant. She has more tools at her disposal and knowledge than a regular OB/GYN whose primary function is keep you healthy and help you deliver a healthy child. OBs pretty much can offer you clomid. But many REs feel that clomid should be used with IUI because of the affects of the drug on CM. An OB can't perform IUIs.
2) The level of responsiveness is unparalleled by any doctor I have ever dealt with. You can get your doctor on the phone and in my experience she remembered me, or at least was courteous enough to review my file before calling me. You can get in the same day for blood work (betas, progesterone) or an ultrasound need be and results usually came a couple hours later for me.
3) My first month trying after surgery, my progesterone was tested 6dpo and it was high but at 10dpo I started spotting. I called her 11dpo. She personally took my call and said it was an unusual way to present but wanted me to get checked out before she put me on progesterone moving forward. I went in the next day and it showed I did have a problem. She wrote me a prescription that day to start using the next month after ovulation. It wasn't a fight about the use of progesterone. I wasn't forced to go on Clomid either.
4) Here is the biggie. Even though I conceived naturally, I was still in the care of the RE. As her patient, she insists (and I happily obliged) to do an ultrasound every week until the 9th week. At that time a healthy heartbeat has been sustained and you get released to your regular OB. Again this comes back to my theory that an RE is all about getting you and keeping you pregnant and an OB is all about your health. When you go in, there isn't a weight check, urine test, blood pressure screening. It is just an ultrasound. She would always ask me how I was feeling, but it wasn't like I came in with a big list of questions. She also did the ultrasounds herself, not a tech, which made me feel better. She was very understanding of my anxiety and my spontaneous explosion of emotion the first time I saw the baby's heart beating. Once you go to your OB, it is more about you. You get tested and checked but it isn't fun because you aren't seeing your baby. One more point, it is truly an unbelievable experience to have 4 ultrasounds in successive weeks because the sixth week it is a little blob where you can see the heartbeat. The seventh week you can see tremendous growth and hear the heartbeat. The eight week I saw legs. And at the nine week appointment, which my DH joined me for, we saw our little baby kicking. A normal OB won't allow you to have so many ultrasounds.
All in all, for me and many, it was a big psychological hurdle to go to a fertility doctor. I think it was one of the best decisions I ever made. What is the point of putting it off because of pride? Just because you go doesn't mean they are going to push you into fertility treatments. They first will check if you have an underlying problem (or you man) and then gauge how aggressive you want to be.
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