First Visit to SG, what to expect

[Anonymous]

My husband and I are finally headed to SG. Can anyone please tell me what we can expect during our first visit and how long it should take before we begin treatment. Are there any tests that we can do beforehand so we can speed up this process?

[Anonymous]

You will meet with the doctor for a brief consultation and they will review your medical history and paperwork that they ask you to fill out ahead of time. You will have a nurse assigned to your case, who will review all the testing that they would like you to undergo:

- blood test for both partners to screen for infectious diseases (i.e. HIV, Hepatitis, etc.)
- blood work to test your hormone levels, i.e. FSH, LH, thyroid
- vaginal ultrasound to look for cysts, abnormalities, and as a measure of ovarian reserve/resting follicles
-HSG to see if your tubes are open
- sperm analysis- to check your partner's sperm morphology, motility and total count.

They will have you schedule a follow-up appointment for about 6 weeks later, to review all the test results and plan what course of action to take.
They will most likely make you repeat all tests, even if you've had some procedures done before, as they like to analyze their own results (and
probably make an extra buck as well)

Anyway, I found them to be very helpful, efficient, and professional on my first appointment...and was very impressed overall!

I was so ready to get started with the treatments, that I did all the testing within three weeks and had my follow-up appointment on the fourth week.

[Anonymous]

I found them very professional and helpful. I had the IVF cycle completed, and embryos frozen, within about 5 weeks (depends on where you are in your cycle, though).

It is not difficult- it just requires giving yourself lots of injections, which is pretty easy. I'd go to their K Street office for the ultrasounds in the mornings before work.

Best of luck to you!

[Anonymous]

If you schedule everything right away, you can get it all out of the way in a month and be ready to start a treatment cycle the next month.

Bloodwork and ultrasound is done on day 3 of your cycle (really, days 2-4 are ok).
HSG is done by day 10 of your cycle.
Hubby's s/a can be done anytime, but the turnaround is not as fast as most other labwork; they get most components of the s/a result right away, but the morphology takes several days.
Both of your infectious disease b/w can be done at any time. That one is not done at SG's lab, so you'll go to whatever lab your insurance sends you to (mine is Lab Corp.)

The only thing I think you could do "in advance" is the infectious disease b/w. If you have had it ordered by your regular physician and it's less than a year old (like, for example, if it was done at your annual physical exam or something), I'm pretty sure SG will accept it if your doctor's office sends it over.

[Anonymous]

Went today for my first appt too! Happened to be on day 2 of my cycle so in addition to the consultation w/ the doctor they went ahead and did the "day 3" bloodwork and ultrasound (as pp said, can be done days 2-4). Then had consult w/ nurse and financial counselor. The whole thing took about 1.5 hours.

I too was impressed by how nice and professional everyone in the office was. A HUGE change from most DC doctor's offices I've been to, (esp. places like Reiter, Hill, Johnson). The doctor actually came over to us at our appointment time, explained that he was just finishing something up and would be with us in a few minutes. By the time I got back from the bathroom he was back! Usually doctors run 30 min late and you can't even get an apology from the office staff!

[Anonymous]

Make sure you like your nurse - you'll be working with her the most over the coming months, so if you don't feel that she is paying enough attention to your cycles or otherwise causing you stress or other problems, ask for a new one.

This is from personal experience - my first nurse at SG wasn't responsive and caused me headaches, while my second was always on tops of things and a dream to work with. With SG being so big, you need to have at least one person on top of your case and pulling for you.