[londonlou]

Hiya,

Thought I'd introduce myself. I've been part of a UK buddy group on the US FF site (another organisation I know) for a year and a half.

I live in Hackney in East London with my partner. We've been together 11 years. We started TTC seriously in June 2003, but I'd been having a none co-ordinated go at it for about 9 months before that. I suffer from IBS which I treat naturally myself through diet and nutrition. I believe my fertility issues are down to my IBS rather than anything else. If I stray off the straight and narrow food wise then this can have a drastic effect on my cycle. It leads to delaying ovulation by anything up to 5 days and means I produce little or no fertile cervical mucus.

I've been at the Homerton Fertility Unit since July 2004. I've not been too convinced by the service there, although I did have a better follow up meeting this week. Issues to do with my diet and IBS were not really discussed and I've felt at times my interest in a natural approach to infertility has fallen on deaf ears.

I have been charting for a year and half, the clinic didn't seem to interested in this either. I asked them about intercourse timing being important if, like me, you don't produce fertile CM. I was told as long as I have intercourse every other day I should be ok. I asked how I'd manage to time this for my O day and I was told "oh, that's ok, sperm lives for up to 5 days". Well, only in ideal conditions I told them and not in hostile CM. Sigh.

Good news for anyone getting IVF treatment at the Homerton is that they told me their figures have improved in the last 3 months. They have new staff and have new reuslts of 35% success rate. I'm not sure if I'd go ahead and have IUI at the Homerton, though, I'd need to look into it.

My next event is having a HSG. I'm really hoping that all my issues have been down to missed opportunities through my IBS affecting my O day.

Look forward to meeting you all. 

Louise

 

[olwen]

Hi Louise,

Welcome to FF!!!  I just thought I would say hello and let you know that some of us London Girls meet up each month - the next meet is on Monday if you are interested.  Have a look at our thread - its the London Girls (and Boys) Part 8 thread which is in the Meeting Places section.  You'll be able to get to know some of the other girls there and they may be able to suggest alternative clinics in London if you do decide not to stay at Homerton for your IUI.  Best of luck for the HSG!  Maybe see you Monday.

Love Olwen x

 

[londonlou]

Hi Olwen,

Thanks for the welcome and the invite. Sounds good. I'll see how I'm fixed and try and come along.

Lou
x

 

[olwen]

Well we'd love to see you there! But dont worry if you cant make it as we meet roughly once a month. There are also a few of us based near Angel and we meet up fairly often too.

I know it can be quite daunting actually meeting people in the flesh, which is why I suggested you look at the London Girls thread first - that way you can begin to get to know people before the meet. I think you should be able to see it if you click on this...
http://www.fertilityfriends.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=23830.new;topicseen#new

Good luck with everything!!
Love Olwen xx

 

[Dydie]

Hi Louise 
Just wanted to say hello and welcome to ff, I have been feeling a bit like you towards my clinic, like they are not really interested on a personal level and just treated me like a number, if I were you I would go and speak to another clinic, just to see if you feel more comfortable with them, you would be surprised how different some of these places are, some seem to run it as a business while the good ones are just as desperate as you to give you a positive end result, anyway good luck
Dydie