24th June 2010

I recieved my free 'Pregnant Pause' booklet from Stonewall today, it's a very informative and has case studies of other lesbians and their methods of getting pregnant.
Armed with this me & C went to our appointment with the nurse at my local GP clinic.
I'd chosen to have our first appointment with a nurse rather than my doctor, as I felt it was more of an information gathering session and a 'chat' so I didn't want to waste the doctors time when he could be seeing patients.
The nurse was very friendly and easy to talk to, and didn't seem fazed by our sexuality. She admitted she wasn't too sure of the next step we had to take, as she hadn't been asked before. She asked me basic questions "Are my periods regular?" (Yes) "Do I smoke?"(No), that sort of thing, nothing too intrusive or uncomfortable. Apart from advice to increase my folic acid intake she had no real information, but promised she would ring the local fertility clinic and find out from them.

We left the doctors with good feelings, although we didn't really know much more than before, we had started the ball rolling! Within the hour she had rung me back.
Luckily our local clinic would be able to help us, however we would not be able to do it on the NHS, but the costs for the private clinic were surprisingly low.
*For the initial consultion and blood tests etc ~ £150
*IVF if needed ~ £3000 (as far as I know I am healthy, so hopefully will get pregnant without fertility drugs etc)
*Each 'course' of insemination ~ £350. We might have to have more than one course, as sometimes it just doesn't work, but fingers crossed!

I was expecting anything from £3000 to £10'000! These costs are for our local clinic, so might differ from area to area.

We do need to be refered by my GP however, and as we're away this weekend I'll make and appointment on our return, hopefully for sometime next week.