Newbie, needing advice

Hi there, I'm starting from the very first step!


I'm 25 and my partner is 27 We have been ttc for 1 and 1/2 years now. I have been to my GP to talk about not being able to get pregnant, I have irregular periods and always have had this problem, I get mine about 3 times a year, I'm anaemic to my doctor told me to start getting my iron levels up to see if would help, it didn't, she also told me to lose some weight, i'm 72kgs at 5'2" so she said to try get down to 60kgs which i'm trying to do. Nothing is wrong on my partners end, so it's all testing on me at the moment.

I've been tracking my ovulation and bbt and keeping my sticks and info in a book and I'm going to go in to see my new GP with my partner to get this journey on it's merry way.

Is there any advice on questions I should be asking? or tests that I could ask for?

Thanks everyone any info will be greatly greatly appreciated

Hi Tara. With irregular periods like that, first thing you need testing for is PCOS - you might find you need medication such as clomid in order to ovulate. Doctors love to tell us to lose weight, which is obviously a good thing to do, but not always easy nor does it magically solve everything! (I'm slightly heavier than you atm and am also 5"2, so know what it's like)

Thank for taking the time to reply, my doctor did some blood tests at one point to check for pcos, and hypo/hyper thyroidism but said it was negative. IO had been getting nowhere with my old GP, I had only had her for two years upon moving to Hawke's Bay, So switching wasn't to much of a loss for me. I use Ovia to log all my info

Hmm, I think its probably a wee bit unusual that you haven't been given a referral since you have been TTC this long now. I'm not sure what your financial position is, but my suggestion would be to get yourself into either a gynae or ideally a fertility specialist. I don't know where you are in NZ but Fertility Associates operate around NZ and are fabulous. That is generally where you end up if you need Fertility treatment in the end.

Life with irregular cycles was really difficult, and I know that it was almost impossible for us to get pregnant in that space. Fertility associates described it to me like this - you have roughly only 2-3 days in each cycle, and only 20% chance of actually conceiving if you manage to time it right for those 2/3 days - if you are only getting your period 3 times then that is 6-9 days out of a year in which you can get pregnant. Tricky!

Not trying to freak you, sorry. But you will get many more answers and you will have confidence that you don't have to ask the right questions if you are dealing with a specialist. I would request from your GP a referral, and stand by what you want.

Good for you, you will get there :) By the way there is a Fertility Associates in Palmerston North.

But I think a good Gynae might be able to help.

GOod luck :)