A visit to the fertility clinic

If you're preparing to visit a fertility clinic, you probably have hundreds of questions - they likely didn't cover this topic in health class in high school! And it may not be a topic that comes up often among your friends or at cocktail parties. Even in our tell-all society, it can still be challenging to discuss fertility issues and treatment openly.

What clinics can do

Often, the reason you are not getting pregnant is treatable. Problems conceiving may be due to a single cause or a combination of factors that may prevent a pregnancy from occurring or continuing. Your doctor may have recommended a fertility clinic to determine what the cause is.

You do have options; there are many safe and effective therapies that can help you become pregnant. And your timing couldn't be better. When your mother was trying to get pregnant, fertility conversations, if they happened at all, were confined to the family doctor. Now there are modern fertility clinics in most major cities and hospitals in Canada and around the world.

What to expect from a clinic

When you visit a fertility clinic, staff will be able to answer your questions about the steps of fertility evaluation (testing), diagnosis, and treatment. They'll provide you with information on the factors that are important when trying to conceive and show you how to maximize your chances of success. You will also have the opportunity to talk with a fertility doctor who can discuss the various treatment options available to you, the specifics of each, and their advantages and disadvantages. Many fertility clinics also recommend or require a consultation with a psychologist, who may be also be on staff at the clinic.

Testing and diagnosis

In the testing and diagnosis stage, the doctors at the clinic may need to do tests to diagnose the possible cause of your difficulty in conceiving. There may be several tests but they are all important and designed to look at four key factors in successful conception:

• the right hormone balance
• information about your ovaries and ovulation
• sperm quality and quantity
• male and female reproductive factors affecting fertilization

Treatment options

After testing and diagnosis, you will have a variety of treatments to choose from depending on your results and particular situation. You'll want to learn about a variety of factors for each treatment option, including:

• cost
• duration
• possible side effects
• chance of conception success
• support or counselling available

Asking questions

While at the clinic, ask as many questions as you like. It may be helpful to request fact sheets or literature about each of the options discussed so you can review them later. Remember, everyone at the fertility clinic is there to help you so take advantage of their knowledge, experience, and expertise - you're not in this alone.

Find a clinic

Maybe you're still in the investigation and fact-finding stage - you think you want to visit a clinic but aren't sure where to start, or how to even find a clinic. Click here to browse our clinic locator for fertility clinics near you.