Coping with Infertility

Lesson 1: Suspecting and Diagnosing Infertility

Choosing a Doctor

After deciding that it is time to see a doctor, you must choose a doctor. Most couples will see an OB/GYN for their initial infertility exam. However, if you do not have a regular OB/GYN that you see for annual exams, you have to find one, which can be a daunting task for someone that has never had to search for a doctor before.

The first step that you should take is to contact your insurance company and find out which doctors are on the 'approved' list. If you do not have insurance, or have already decided to pay for all visits and treatment yourself, you don't have to worry about this. Once you are armed with your listing of doctors, you need to start doing a little research on each one.

The first thing you should do is talk to your friends, family, and co-workers and see if they have seen any of the doctors on your list, and what they thought of the doctor. You want to narrow down your list to a solid three to five prospective doctors, preferably those with infertility experience. Once you get to your small listing of candidates, you will need to contact each one and schedule an interview.

Why are you interviewing these doctors? Simple, you will be hiring this doctor and spending hard earned money on your dream of achieving a pregnancy. You would not hire someone to work for you without first interviewing them, so why would you hire a doctor without interviewing them? When calling the office to schedule the interview, be upfront with the person that you speak to. Explain why you are calling and that you want to interview the doctor before making a decision on whether or not to see him/her for infertility testing and/or treatment.

You should try to keep the interviews as close together as possible, as you will want to be able to compare your impressions from one doctor to the next. You will also want your partner to go with you to the interviews if at all possible, as their opinions and impressions of the doctor are just as important as yours. The interview should not take more than 20 to 30 minutes, and you should take notes during the interview, which will help you later when comparing the doctors that you have talked to.

Possible Interview Questions

• What are your office hours? What about after hour's care or emergencies?
• Do you share your practice with any other OB/GYNs? If no – What about when you go on vacation?
• Which hospitals and labs are you associated with? Do you have an in office lab to process blood tests?
• Who will I be seeing for most office visits, you or one of your nurses?
• Who will answer my questions and address my concerns? Will you explain procedures to be before they are done?
• What are your thoughts/views on charting fertility signs? What about the use of herbal remedies and vitamin and mineral supplements?
• At what point would you refer us to a Reproductive Endocrinologist? Would you do some preliminary testing/treatment before referring us?
• Would you be willing to perform a series of hCG tests to confirm that the pregnancy is developing? What about trans-vaginal ultrasounds? If not, why?

These are just suggestions, you are encouraged to create your own interview questions about what is most important to you and your partner.

Once you have conducted the interviews, it is time to choose a doctor. You and your partner should sit down with all of your notes and discuss each doctor in as much detail as you can. You should agree on which physician you want to see. If after evaluating the interviews you are still unable to make a choice, I have a suggestion. Take the names of the doctors that you like and can’t decide on and put them in a box, hat, or some other container. Shake the container up well and make sure that you cannot see the names. Do you see where I am going with this? Yep, reach in and pull a name out. If you are satisfied with the choice, this is the doctor for you. If you are not happy with the name drawn, redraw until you are.

Be sure to send a thank you note to all of the doctors that you interviewed and let them know that you were able to make a choice. You should also call the doctor that you have chosen and schedule your infertility exam, which we will discuss in the next section.

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