Through an IVF Cycle in Freshwater: Phases, Timing and Travel

A programme that runs with the cycle rather than a single appointment. Here is the shape of it, and then the travel question, which on the Northern Beaches decides everything.

Preparation, two to three months out. Weekly or fortnightly. Sleep, the physical side of stress, cycle symptoms, and making sure the preconception checks are done with your GP: folate and iodine, iron and thyroid, vitamin D, cervical screening, medication review. Herbal medicine, if appropriate, belongs in this window rather than later.

Down-regulation and stimulation. Gentler, shorter appointments. The abdomen is tender and the ovaries enlarged during stimulation, so positioning changes and we ask where you are in the cycle every time. Herbs stop unless your specialist has cleared them in writing.

Transfer day. Two sessions, before and after, with slots held provisionally because times are confirmed late.

The two-week wait. One or two appointments. Most people find this the hardest part, and it is not a clinical problem so much as a fortnight to be got through.

The travel question. Most fertility units are in the city or on the north shore. Preparation appointments here are easy — they are on your own schedule. Monitoring and transfer days mean crossing the Spit or the bridge, and on transfer day that happens twice. Tell us which clinic you are with and we will be straight about whether it works.

Appointment lengths. The first one is long, around two hours, and includes both partners where that applies. The rest are shorter, and the two on transfer day are about forty-five minutes each — with plenty of slack around them, because IVF clinics run late.

We will not tell you this improves your chance of a pregnancy: the evidence is mixed. Your clinic leads and must know you are attending. We are in Freshwater, ten streets from Balgowlah and about twenty from Manly.