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The Next Step

When Is it Time to See an Infertility Specialist?

By Michele St. Martin

It didn't happen quite that way for Gail Simons. Gail, of East Hampton, New York, had been trying to conceive for 14 months before she went to see her OB/GYN. The doctor gave her contradictory advice and, even after unsuccessful treatment, did not want to refer her to an RE. "He specifically stated 'this is something we can handle here at this office.' It was not until I found online support groups that I found out what an RE was, and I immediately began looking for one," Gail says.

Without the assistance of her OB/GYN, Gail found an RE through the ASRM (American Society of Reproductive Medicine) Web site and set up her own appointment without a referral. Gail learned that the OB/GYN had performed some of the tests incorrectly and had given her incorrect advice. "My OB/GYN gave me two options: 'Keep trying and hope for a miracle' or 'go straight to IVF"... after seeing the RE, I found out that my options were much greater."

Andi McCurdy*, of Salem, Ore., had a similar experience. "We made our own referral," she says. "My OB/GYN had said that if he couldn't get us pregnant with Clomid he would refer [to a RE], but he never seemed to do it. We did seven cycles of Clomid after an SA (semen analysis), and surgery to look at fibroids, ovaries and tubes for me. His interpretation of the SA and tests were wrong." Andi and her husband tried to conceive for two years before they switched to a RE. She is awaiting the results of her second IVF (the first was unsuccessful).

Brenda Price, of Ontario, Canada, has been seeing a RE for four months, after first seeing a family doctor and then an OB/GYN. "We tried for approximately 18 months before switching to an RE," says Brenda. "In retrospect, I really wish I had insisted that our family doctor refer us to a RE as soon as it became apparent that we had a problem. I feel like we wasted a year with the OB/GYN. It was useful in that we were able to get all the basic infertility testing done, but I found that he wasn't treating us as an individual couple. He seemed to have a standard treatment that he used for every couple, regardless of their diagnosis."