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I hate how the whole medical institution is designed to make the patient feel stupid.
This is going to be a rant, I have been absent from the boards for a few days because I have been livid and not in the right mind set, but I'm a little bit better now.
I finally got my husband to schedule a SA. Our appointment was supposed to be on Tuesday. We got there, and they told us it was actually not until Wednesday. So we left and agreed to come back next day at the time our appointment was in their books for. Not a huge deal. The next day, we went back, mind you this place is almost 45 minutes from our house, and we made this trip twice, DH took time off of work both days, and I work nights so mostly I just lost a few hours sleep. We get there on Wednesday morning, they are demanding our insurance cards, which we already established we were going to pay out of pocket so why do they need it, but also they are demanding referral paperwork. I say to her, "No, we don't have referral paperwork." They say, "Oh, you need paperwork." I say "My OB/GYN gave me your number, she said I didn't need a referral, and I explicitly asked." They say "Ok, who is your doctor? We'll call her."
5 minutes later, they call DH in, they were going to leave me in the waiting room probably because I was already visibly ticked off with them, but I followed him anyway because I knew things weren't going as planned and I wanted to know what was up. The office manager says "They aren't going to give him a referral because he's not their patient." I am completely at a loss at this point, because I had no clue how this works and I asked my doctor on the phone if I would need him to see a general doctor to get a referral, or can I just call them. She told me to just call and ask for an SA, and we would be able to have it done, no big deal, people do it all the time, and she said it would be a good idea to do this before I start my first round of Clomid. I broke down in the office, told them this was all BS that they are making us look and feel like morons, and that we wanted to get this done before starting any medication. I asked if this is actually a law, and why couldn't they just take the sample, not that we wanted to at that point. "Oh, it's just our policy," she says. She offered to let us come back if we wanted to go down the street to see my doctor and try to sort it out. We agreed that we had zero interest whatsoever in coming back, they should have told us this over the phone. I said your policy is stupid, and are not giving them our business. I told her we will find somewhere else, I will find a new OB/GYN, and maybe we will just go to a sperm bank and get the same thing done, and they would actually pay HIM. And then we'll know, one way or another in the end. (Or maybe just stop at the TOY STORE on the way home and buy a $40 kid's microscope, bet we could figure out if there was any swimmers with 400X magnification)
I am at a loss for what to do at this point, I know my microscope idea won't really tell us much about quality. But, no hurry to get the SA done now because I'm already on day 2 of the Clomid. I guess we will shop around and see who we can get to do it without a referral, if we don't get a BFP this cycle. But he didn't want to do the SA anyhow, and this experience has left a bitter taste in both our mouths....
But, why should we have to spend money to see two different doctors, when what we need is an SA? He just needs to provide a sample and have a lab look at it, we don't really need a doctor involved at all, in my opinion. Yes, our insurance would cover a visit to the initial general practitioner, but that's more time out of the day and what not... to go to two different offices... Just.. UGH!!!!!
__________________ Woo, you can check out Amy's crazy temps right here.
Okay, that is really, really weird and I'm sorry for what you went through
My OB gave a referral for my husband for an SA because we were looking for physical issues before we moved forward with anything. We paid out of pocket as well, since my husband has crap insurance, but MY doctor gave the referral and MY doctor gave us the results - there was no problem with it. We did need a referral (to the specific lab they work with), but he gave it to me at my appointment, and there was no issue. That is so weird!
I'm so sorry I still think it would be a good idea to get it done at some point soon, so that you know where you stand before you continue with medication and whatever - but that's incredibly annoying
__________________ Read about Our Journey
Thanks Jaidynsmum for the siggy! My fertility blog: Only Infertile
NTNP since March 2012, TTC since August 2012, HSG = one blocked tube, SA = normal, RE referral at the end of April/beginning of May, but hoping for a BFP before then!
check out Labcorp/Personal Labs and see if you have one near you. They do SA's, in most states you don't need a doctor's anything to get one (NY and CA have weird laws). You just buy it online, go in, get the results. Voila! I used them in Ohio to get my thyroid tested when the local lab told me it would be $95 for a lab test.. that cost me $45 through Labcorp.
~TTC #1 together 1 year and counting ~
Battling Estrogen Dominance, Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and Recurrent Miscarriage one day at a time
Awesome siggy made by Jaidynsmum
Matthew and Mark 08/24/2005 9w1d, Mattie Anne 04/07/2008 8w Mel and Dee 01/18/2010 (8 weeks) and 5 chemical pregnancies Hope 07/21/2012@4w1dKonnor 11/24/2012@3w6d"Emmy"1/15/2013@ 3w6dRonen 02/102013@3w5d
check out Labcorp/Personal Labs and see if you have one near you. They do SA's, in most states you don't need a doctor's anything to get one (NY and CA have weird laws). You just buy it online, go in, get the results. Voila! I used them in Ohio to get my thyroid tested when the local lab told me it would be $95 for a lab test.. that cost me $45 through Labcorp.
Thanks for the tip! I will look into it this week, turns out they have a few locations that are pretty close to us.
Urgh thats so frustrating. I always feel so lucky to be in the UK when you lovely ladies are havign to fight with **** insurance people. I know I have different fights but still, i feel for you all so much!
I hope that the experience hasnt put DH off having an SA at all, I know it wouldnt have helped with my DF at the time.
Hopefully ashley's recommendation can help you get one sorted without you having to deal with anymore BS.
on a side note....how are you doing with the Clomid? Hope you manage to steer clear of any side effects
__________________
Thankyou *Kiliki* for my new siggie
Thanks for the support to everyone! I am very grateful. I want to say "We'll see how things turn out this month and maybe we won't even need it" but I can remember myself saying similar lines to myself or DH over the last year and a half or so... and yeah....
Jen: Insurance seems like such a racket to me!! So far no side effects except maybe hot flashes, and that's just a maybe, because I've felt too warm a couple times yesterday and today, usually I am too cold. I've heard that the side effects can be pretty bad for some women, but I don't know when they typically start happening. I tried to not look into the side effects too much, because the power of suggestion might be enough to give me "side effects."
__________________ Woo, you can check out Amy's crazy temps right here.
Thanks for the support to everyone! I am very grateful. I want to say "We'll see how things turn out this month and maybe we won't even need it" but I can remember myself saying similar lines to myself or DH over the last year and a half or so... and yeah....
Jen: Insurance seems like such a racket to me!! So far no side effects except maybe hot flashes, and that's just a maybe, because I've felt too warm a couple times yesterday and today, usually I am too cold. I've heard that the side effects can be pretty bad for some women, but I don't know when they typically start happening. I tried to not look into the side effects too much, because the power of suggestion might be enough to give me "side effects."
__________________ Woo, you can check out Amy's crazy temps right here.
I am so sorry that you had to deal with all that. My doctor gave us the referral for DH and my doctor is the one that gave us the results. Good luck this cycle!
__________________ Thank you so much Bokkechick for the perfect siggie!!! 12-10-10 2-6-12
Getting the run around when trying to do medical stuff is one of the most frustrating things in the world!! It makes me so angry to think about - i am so sorry you guys had to go through all that.
So sorry that you had to go through that. My DH went to a male infertility specialist for his first and second SA. My ob/gyn made the referral to the urologist. I agree with Ashley, hopefully you can get SA done at labcorp or a similar location.
I'm glad that you aren't having side effects on clomid. I had my first hot flashes on clomid. Though I knew they were a side effect, I never experienced them before and woooo, they were a doozy!
GL and definitely KUP!
__________________ TTCing since August 2011
Me (33)-LP on the short side, but no other abnormalities
DH (37)-slightly subfertile morphology and motility
Natural cycles-August 2011-July 2012
August 2012-October 2012 clomid and progesterone
November 2012-IUI
December 2012, cysts from IUI, on bcp
January 2013-February 2013, long protocol IVF
15 eggs retrieved, 11 mature, 7 fertilized with ICSI
All 7 made it to 5 day transfer, 2 were transferred
Only 1 frozen snowbaby
1st IVF
Jen: Insurance seems like such a racket to me!! So far no side effects except maybe hot flashes, and that's just a maybe, because I've felt too warm a couple times yesterday and today, usually I am too cold. I've heard that the side effects can be pretty bad for some women, but I don't know when they typically start happening. I tried to not look into the side effects too much, because the power of suggestion might be enough to give me "side effects."
I think thats a sensible decision not to worry too much about potential side effects. I was pretty lucky when I did my first round before christmas, the only side effect I had was crazy mood swings. I hope you are a lucky one too!
__________________
Thankyou *Kiliki* for my new siggie
LabCorp is really good about running tests results pretty fast as well! I am sorry that you are having to deal with that. Some people are so insensitive to the situation and are very unprofessional to the point that they look like idiots.
So sorry you had to go through that --- as if you don't already have enough to worry about. I'm glad the Clomid isn't giving you too much trouble, and hope the SA results come back good!
