This journey is a challenging one - mostly because there is so much that is missed in our high school education of how the body works.. but that’s a conversation for another time…
When you realise that making a baby is not as easy as you might have been lead to believe, its often hard to know where to turn.
For a lot of people the obvious first step is their GP… this is an excellent step, and if you’re blessed to have a great GP who takes a special interest in womens health - well, you’re likely to get some great answers and some excellent direction about where to turn next.
But unfortunately, even though infertility affects 1 in 6 Australian couples, its really not a very common thing for most GPs to deal with. Depending on your GP, it’s quite likely that you’re one of only a handful of patients asking about fertility that whole month…. Most GPs I used to visit reported seeing 2 -3 patients for fertility each month.. and on average a GP will see 500 patients each month.. so fertility is really not a high proportion of that. Mostly their spending their time seeing patients with high blood pressure, diabetes, colds and flu and a whole heap of vaccinations!
But even if you happen to have a GP who does a LOT of women's health work, most likely they are still only seeing 4 or 5 patients for fertility each month...
Most GPs allocate around 10-15 minutes per appointment …. which isn't really a lot of time. By the time you have explained what's going on, there's not much time left - it’s pretty hard to cover off what should have been taught to you at school in those 10 minutes! (in comparison, I have two masterclasses dedicated to what you should have learnt at school - almost 2 hours worth of information to help you troubleshoot your fertility!)
When you see your GP, you will likely be given a slip for a blood test, possibly a semen analysis and asked to return if you’re not pregnant after a month or two.
When you return a month or two later still not pregnant, most GPs will then give you a referral to either an Ob/Gyn or a Fertility specialist (I know this because it’s what we used to tell them to do when I was working as a Medical Liaison Officer for an IVF company).
So then you head off to a specialist.. and again, depending who you see… you might find yourself doing IVF the next month...
and somewhere in there, there is a whole lot of information you miss out on… there’s a big overwhelming gap that most often gets filled with google search upon google search, frantically joining every group you can find on facebook.. finding information that may or may not be suitable to your situation, then being retargeted by advertising from IVF companies (they track the sites you're visiting) with biased points of view (many of which are corporately owned and driven by shareholders with the exception of just a few .. but they all have enormous marketing budgets and marketing experts who know just how to get to you).
so where does the fertility coach come in?
well… I can only speak for myself… (and I don’t usually call myself a fertility coach anyway!)
I come in to help you make sense of all that information, to sort it all out. I cover all the stuff you should have learnt at school, how it’s all ‘supposed’ to work. I help you make sense of what’s going on and find a pathway through the quagmire without getting bogged.
Most Fertility Coaches have some kind of coaching certificate and have probably been through the process themselves at some point, so they offer amazing emotional support from the perspective of someone who just 'gets it'
So why don't I call myself a Fertility Coach? Because I'm an embryologist :)
I have worked INSIDE these IVF and Fertility Clinics for over 20 years, firstly as a clinical embryologist, actually manipulating sperm and eggs and embryos, and later in the sales and marketing departments for IVF clinics, I have presented at open days, given tours of IVF labs to patients and to medical specialists. I've run educational seminars for GPs to help them support and manage their fertility patients and I have supported (quite literally) hundreds of friends, friends-of-friends and friends-of-friends-of-friends through fertility treatments.
I am independent, qualified, unbiased and knowledgable. I will hold space for you to work your way through this unexpected phase of your life, help you to make sense of the information you are finding and troubleshoot your own fertility, and I will guide you to the people who are best placed to help you achieve your dreams.
Ready to chat?
Head here to book a time
xLucy