Initial Consultation
This section helps patients plan for a first appointment at MFS, including:
- what happens at an initial consultation
- the ‘welfare of the child’ assessment
- interpreter requirements
- what happens after an initial consultation
Before any decision may be made about the need for, or type of, fertility treatment, each patient must attend an initial consultation - sometimes referred to as a first visit appointment - at MFS.
With the letter confirming the time and date of their first visit appointment, every MFS patient also receives a green pre-treatment questionnaire to complete before returning to MFS for the appointment. It is vital that this information is completed accurately and in advance of the initial consultation. Unless the woman is planning on being treated as a single woman only, both partners must attend this initial consultation.
At the initial consultation a MFS fertility nurse specialist, clinical midwife or doctor will refer to the pre-treatment questionnaire and:
- take a full medical history of both partners being treated
- take details of:
- any fertility tests, investigations and or treatment either partner has had
- any pregnancy the woman has had
- any children born to either partner
- discuss any relevant lifestyle issues that can affect fertility
- take details on the patients’ present family circumstances
- obtain written consent to contact the patient’s/s’ GP/s and written consent to release information to the GP about any fertility treatment the patient may have
- discuss the ‘welfare of the child‘ assessment
The first visit is also an opportunity for patients to ask any questions about MFS or possible investigations or treatments they may receive at MFS.
The nurse or doctor will also confirm a date, usually within 14 days of the initial consultation depending on the date of the woman’s next period, for the patients’ treatment assessment. Again, both partners being treated must attend the treatment assessment.
If a patient returns to MFS after more than 18 months since her last treatment, a follow-up consultation and repeat screening, similar to the initial consultation and treatment assessment, will be required.
After an initial consultation, treatment assessment and subsequent follow-up appointment, MFS will be able to recommend the best treatment, if any, for each patient.
Welfare of the child assessment
Fertility clinics offering treatments such as IVF, ICSI and egg donor or donor sperm services operate under an Act of Parliament called the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act. The Act requires clinics to consider the welfare of any child who may be born as a result of treatment and the welfare of any existing child of the family before they agree to provide treatment. It is the HFEA’s responsibility to provide clinics with guidelines on how to comply with this legal requirement. These guidelines were last updated in November 2005.
All women and their partners (if applicable) having any treatment at a clinic licensed by the HFEA must undergo a welfare of the child assessment. The assessment process is the same, whether the patient is having IVF, donor treatments, IUI or any other form of assisted conception.
MFS will repeat a welfare of the child assessment if:
- it has been two years or more since a patient last had contact with the clinic
- a patient has changed partner
- a patient has had a child, or
- there has been a significant change in a patient’s circumstances.
This is necessary because such changes in a patient’s circumstances may mean that new information needs to be taken into consideration.
Interpreter requirements
MFS must be satisfied that all patients fully understand the information given at all appointments and are able to give informed consent to treatment. If a patient does not speak fluent English, it is the patient’s responsibility to arrange for a suitable interpreter, aged 18+, to attend all visits at MFS. Some PCTs are able to provide interpreters - a patient should contact their PCT directly to arrange.
Costs
Cost of initial consultation at MFS: £145
Cost of initial consultation and treatment assessment at MFS: £170