This is the way it usually goes . . . .
You go to your GP to discuss your fertility concerns. They make sympathetic noises, and suggest you keep trying.
If you are lucky, they agree to refer you for further fertility tests - and they you wait months for that appointment, only to find that they simply advise you to keep trying or consider IVF.
You decide to go to a private Fertility Clinic for a Fertility Assessment, hoping that they will be able to help you work out why you don't have your baby yet. They probably ran an AMH test, and told you that you needed IVF (I know that some clinics do these assessments better than others, but that is the way it normally goes).
You start to feel as though you are totally on your own with this - it's just you and Dr Google against the world, no-one is really helping and it's starting to look more and more likely that you will head into IVF without having any real idea why.
Then you come across me, and my 360` Fertility Review, and wonder whether that would be any different? And the short answer is, YES. When we have a 360` Fertility Review, it will be eye opening, and totally different from anything you have done before (unless you have already had a deep dive into your fertility with another holistic fertility expert).
The 360` Fertility Review
How does it start . . .
For a start, it takes hours to prepare for the consultation, before we even speak. This is not a half-baked, 30 minute whizz through, this will be an in-depth, convoluted consultation that goes through so many different aspects of your health and fertility. Before we meet, I send out a long questionnaire, and ask you to send in all the information you have to date. I spend time going through your questionnaire answers, going through everything, your history, previous test results, scan reports etc. I'm looking for patterns in signs, symptoms and test results that might give me a clue about where to focus my energy. I look at test results and scan reports to determine what is really known and what potentially critical information is still unknown.
I have a pretty unique perspective on all of it:
I'm a holistic fertility practitioner with extensive training and experience of working with complex fertility cases.
My Advanced Fertility Support training has given me a broad, integrated approach to unravelling unexplained infertility cases.
My personal experience of struggling with both primary and secondary infertility has given me an enormous amount of compassion, and a strong drive to solve things for my clients.
My life-long fascination with puzzles and mental challenges means that each new case gets my full attention and presents a delicious opportunity for me to solve another puzzle.
What happens next . . .
We talk. We talk for a long 90 minutes, and after that initial consultation I have an open door for email support for a further two weeks. This means that if you walk out the door and suddenly remember something, the lines of communication are still open and it can go into the mix along with all the other information. After the consultation, I will know everything I need to know about so many aspects of your health and wellness, I will usually have a pretty good idea about where the issues are - and I say issues, not issue, as so often there are multiple factors in play. You will know what further tests and investigations I recommend, and why (and it is really important to me that people understand why). You will have a clearer understanding of what to focus on, whether that is information that you will take away and run with, or whether you want to continue to work with me in clinic or for guidance and support.
And then . . .
If you are going to start working with me in clinic for acupuncture, we hit the ground running - and that can make a huge difference for how quickly we can start to turn things around. If you are not able to come to me in clinic, I can still offer support and guidance for you, as much or as little as you need. Once we have been through the Review process, it is relatively easy to pick up a case again, even if a year or two has passed before you come back to me.
If you want to work with me in clinic, do you NEEEEEEED to do a Review??
If you decide not to go through a Review, and opt to work with me in clinic for Fertility Support & Acupuncture, you will still get Fertility Support. You don't get a second rate service in terms of my advice, guidance and puzzle solving, just a slower one! We will cover the same ground . . . eventually. But we only have 30 minutes Fertility Support time each week (and part of that time will be taken up with checking in about current cycle symptoms etc). When you consider that a Review equates to around 4 hours of dedicated time, you will see that it takes many weeks of regular sessions before we have any hope of getting to the same place in terms of understanding the bigger picture, knowing what tests are appropriate, what other experts to involve in the case etc.
Many of the tests and investigations that I recommend also take time - either because they can only be run at certain phases of the cycle, or because the results can take several weeks to come back. So if it takes time to work out what we need, it will often take even longer to get the information we are looking for. This can mean the difference between identifying a significant fertility issue within a few weeks, and it taking 2-3 months to work that out.
If you want me to be bringing my ‘A-Game’ in terms of fertility detective work and puzzle solving - let me see the whole puzzle before we start working together so I can figure out the best way to tackle it. If this sounds like something you would like to dive into, email me on alex@essexfertility.co.uk and let's get started.
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