Fertility & IVF

By the time most people book a fertility appointment, they've already been waiting a long while. Months of hoping, counting days, and being told to relax.

We start with answers. Investigations come first, so that whatever we recommend is based on your body rather than an average.

Then we talk through the options in order, from the simplest thing that might work to the most involved, and we're honest about what each one is likely to do for you.

Answers before options

A fertility plan built without information is guesswork. The first phase is investigation, and it moves faster than most people expect.

For you, that generally means hormone bloods timed to your cycle, including AMH as a measure of ovarian reserve, along with thyroid function and vitamin D. It means a pelvic ultrasound to look at your uterus, your ovaries and your antral follicle count, and an assessment of whether your fallopian tubes are open. For your partner, it means a semen analysis of volume, concentration, movement and shape, and sometimes a repeat, because these results vary from one sample to the next.

Then we sit down with all of it in front of us and tell you what we think is going on. Sometimes there's a clear cause: irregular ovulation, endometriosis, blocked tubes, low sperm count. Sometimes everything looks normal and you still aren't pregnant. Unexplained infertility is a real diagnosis, not a shrug, and it has its own treatment logic.

The options, in order

We start with the least invasive approach that fits your diagnosis and your age. We don't move straight to IVF simply because IVF exists.

• Timed cycles and ovulation induction: tracking your cycle, or prompting ovulation with tablets or injections when you ovulate irregularly or not at all
• Intrauterine insemination (IUI): prepared sperm placed directly into the uterus around ovulation
• IVF: eggs collected under sedation, fertilised in the laboratory, and embryos grown for several days before one is transferred
• ICSI: a single sperm injected into each egg, used mainly where there is male-factor difficulty
• Frozen embryo transfer: transferring an embryo from an earlier cycle, often in a simpler and gentler cycle
• Donor egg, sperm and embryo pathways, including the counselling and legal steps required in Victoria
• Fertility preservation: egg or embryo freezing, including urgent freezing before cancer treatment

Egg collection and embryo transfer take place in a day-surgery setting through your specialist's hospital appointments. Everything else, from consultations and tracking to results and decisions, happens here in Collingwood, with the same team each time.

Being honest about the odds

Success rates in IVF are quoted per cycle, not per patient, and they decline with age. Many people need more than one cycle. Some need a change of approach after the first. We'll tell you what the evidence suggests for someone with your age and diagnosis, revise it as we see how you respond, and we will never promise you a baby. What we can promise is that you'll always know why we're recommending something, what we're watching for, and where the next decision point sits.

Care for the rest of you

Fertility treatment is hard in ways that have nothing to do with medicine. Cath Corcoran is a psychologist who works specifically in infertility and perinatal mental health, and she consults from these rooms. Dr Miranda Myles offers naturopathic and acupuncture support down the same corridor. You aren't handed a list and told to find someone. They're here, and they talk to your specialist.

This is what we mean by a village of care. It doesn't make treatment easy. It does mean you aren't carrying it alone.