Infertility 1st appt.

G

grant

Registered User
Hello All!
I am new to the Geobaby forum. I have my first infertility appt. with Dr. Tang in Hong Kong for the coming week. What ?'s should I ask at the appt. I am very nervous and want to make sure that the 1st appt. goes well. My husband and I have been trying for 3 years to have a child on our own. Last year we moved to Shenzhen from the USA. Had some tests done locally in Shenzhen, but very unsatisfied with the qualilty of Doctor's here. So please if you have any good advice or ?'s that I need to discuss with my doctor on my 1st appt. I will be greatful and thankful. I am 36 years of age and hope and pray that someday soon our dreams of becoming parents will come true! Thanks for any and all advice.
 
Take all the tests you had done before and show them to the doc. I also found it useful making some notes before on my infertility history. I.e any symptoms, how long have you been trying, what treatments etc. It will help you and you doctor maximise the time you have fr the appt.
Questions to ask I suppose would be what treatment does he think is suitable and why? You might want some clarifications on drugs involved and side effects. He will probably ask some questions and will ask you to do some extra tests.
Hope this helps and good luck!
 
Thanks mela for the response. I hope things go well on the first visit. New to all this infertility, so any and all advice is welcomed. Thanks again!
 
Try the Queen Mary's Hospital but I heard the wait is quite long though....Couple of my friends have success with delivering healthy babies from their IVF.
 
I agreed with Mela, I wrote out the history from the beginnng of the time we started trying till now before I went to see my ER (Derek Lo), and it was very helpful to help him diagnose my case. They will most likely ask you and your husband to do some more tests at their clinic/lab, so be prepared for that.

Good luck!
 
How was your appointment? Did you like the doctor?
I am 31 and just recently moved to Hong Kong. My husband and I have been trying for about 1 and half years with the help of an infertility doctor in NY. Since we arrived in Hong Kong I have been experiencing trouble to ovulate again and would like to start seeing someone again. Can anyone help with suggestions on doctors and costs? I am worried about the cost as in the US it was covered by insurance. I'm not sure if HSBC premier insurance pays anything back. Does anyone know?
Thanks for your help in advance.
 
Hi sarahdcl,

you can ask your HSBC insurance agent to send you a list of the doctors and hospitals in their "network", should give you some idea what kind of expenses are covered. We are also looking into getting medical insurance in HK to help pay for our treatment and hopefully childbirth. But there is a waiting period of 8-15 months, vary from companies.
Cost wise, Dr Derek Lo's office charges about 70-75k for 1st IVF, and much less for later ones, provided that you have eggs left in the freezer.
IUI is around $15000 each cycle. His consultation/exam fees are $600 each visit. Really nice guy and attentive.
hope this helps.
 
Hi Splitting Snow,

Thanks so much for your information. I will give my insurance company a call on Monday. Oh wow I didn't know it takes 8-15 months to get approved for health insurance. Good luck. Do you have local insurance now or from somewhere else?
Do you know which hospital Dr. Derek Lo is associated with? Does the consultation fee include the sonogram? I saw on some other threads that some include it and others do not.
Also is it hard to get a first appointment? I was going to wait until my next cycle. What do you think?
Thanks so much for your help and quick reply.
 
Hi Sarahdcl,

I saw online that Dr Lo is affliated with the following hospitals:Canossa Hospital; Hong Kong Adventist Hospital; Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital. When I went for my consult, he did an vaginal ultrasound for me to check my ovulation, and didn't charge anything for it. Not sure whether a sonogram would be the same. Getting my 1st appt wasn't too hard, I called and met with him the following week. He spent over half an hour with us and was real patient with answering all our questions & concerns.
I guess you can wait till next cycle if you are not ready right now, you don't want to stress yourself too much, esp if you already have problems ovulating. I did an IUI before in China, and they couldn't get my good egg to ovulate after the insemination, eventually the egg grew to over 30mm, and was considered no good, and it past. I was real stressed out at the time because I was doing one or more ultrasounds everyday to monitor it. The more I stressed, the more it didn't want to come out!!! SOOOO frustrating...so anyways, you are still very young, so wait till you are ready then go. Another option is to go to the consult now and gather info/advice, and start the treatment whenever ur ready.
how's that sound? ^_^
SS
 
We had our 1st appt. w/Dr. Tang. She answered all our ?'s and went over our options. She wants to check my fallopian tubes, bloodwork, and check husband. If all looks good we will start with IUI. After 3 tries and not success we will try IVF. If our initial tests are not good she said we may want to consider going straight to IVF for higher success rate. Next week we check the tubes, and then 1st week in June we do the blood test. She will tell us what our best options are after all tests are done.

At inital appt. we did a vaginal ultrasound also. I have two fibroids. One small one inside and a large one on the outside of my uterous. She said these are fine for now and these shouldn't be causing my infertility. I asked if I should be checked for endometriosis. She said that is exploritorary surgery and we should try the IUI first probably before any type of surgery. What do you all think? I told her that my period is heavy first couple of days with small clots and with some discomfort. Period is pretty regular every 26 days, although it came 2.5 days early this time. Probably due to the stress. Told her also that ibuprofen usually takes the discomfort away. She said if I wasn't having severe pain that we should hold off on checking for endometriosis. Should I consider the surgery, or do the IUI (that is if all tests look good)?

Also, was any of you on any special diet/health plan? I usually jog/walk 5k every other day. Did you cut out all coffee, soda, ibuprofen, limit intake of red meats? Let me know how strict I need to be. Forgot to ask Dr. about that.

I feel kind of overwhelmed and just want to make sure that I don't overlook anything. So when did your doctors suggest to you to check for Endometriosis? Did you try IUI first? This is all out of pocket for my husband and me and I just don't want to do the IUI's and find out my infertility was caused by endometriosis.

I am thankful for any and all advice. I am a bit nervous over all this since these are our first steps in the infertility world.

Thanks again.
 
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