First of
all, I do apologise if I offend any of you (if you or your family members are
NHS staff), this is my experience which I felt that I need to share with the
world.
If you remember my post preparing for a pregnancy I have
shared with you that I was planning to visit my GP to discuss the matter.
Before visiting my GP
I wanted to be a little bit prepared even though I had a feeling that we can’t
really discuss all issues within 15 minutes and more importantly will we even
discuss things I thought we should discuss?! I have prepared a list of
most all my health problems I had throughout my life and prepared a blood
pressure log.
I have to
say straight away that on many occasions I have been disappointed with NHS
services and before seeing nurse I wasn’t expecting a miracle! On the day of my
appointment with a nurse from family planning clinic I showed her my blood
pressure log, mentioned previous health issues I had. She did not show any
signs of concern at all or did not even suggest that I can have any issues with
me planning a pregnancy.
From the website of
my GP: “Services include pill checks, Depo-Provera plus reviews, high vaginal
swabs and chlamydia screens. She also issues Levonelle for emergency
contraception and carries out coil checks (six weeks post insertion and annual
reviews)”.
To my
disappointment none of the checks were offered, none of them took place. The
only useful advice was that I need to take out coil 3 months prior to trying
for a baby as my period needs to go back to normal and that I should take folic
acid for 3 months as well (which I already knew).
After I came home and
briefly spoke about this experience with my husband we decided to go to a local
sexual health clinic/ family planning clinic (I am still wondering how come it
is called family planning) where I had my coil removed. I wanted them to take
other tests as well, but unfortunately they could not perform tests. So i
had to go to a different hospital for that.
I have
decide to give another go with my GP and booked another visit to GP this
time with a male doctor. What I liked is that he was reassuring, went through
many questions I had, but said that “why to treat something which does not
exist” (can’t agree with that, to be honest with you).
On the way home I was
thinking but what if something is wrong with my ovary etc etc.?! I guess the
whole medical system is different from my motherland that’s why it takes me
some time to adjust to it. But overall he was much better than doctors and
nurses I visited before, he referred me to do ECG and cholesterol blood test,
which is very useful as well.
