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| Patient Treatment Guide - New and Investigative Cycle Patients |
| Prepare for First Visit to Astra |
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Welcome and thank you for trusting us with your fertility care, it is indeed our privilege!
We believe that most individuals are naturally born capable of reproducing! In other words we all have the tools and biological software to reproduce. Our goal is to identify the specific cause or gap causing sub-fertility and offer you the safest most effective directed correction to bridge that gap. The art of fertility management is to restore your natural fertility rather than completely replacing it. Same analogy when a good obstetrician will correct the problem you are facing during pregnancy and labour allowing you to have a normal vaginal delivery rather than doing an elective planned caesarean delivery. A good obstetrician generally speaking does more safe vaginal deliveries and less caesarean section for his patients. Same applies to a good fertility specialist! He or she will assist their patients to conceive without resorting to IVF or IUI unless it is truly necessary.
The most important step in your care and management is to accurately and clearly identify the causes of your difficulty conceiving. Without a diagnosis any fertility treatment option can be implemented without being able to judge it as appropriate or inappropriate. In other words anything goes!!!
The diagnostic work up starts with accurate detailed history and information gathering. Please take the time to fill our history form accurately. It is also important to get any info related to previous imaging, testing, treatments or surgeries.
Definitely both partners are encouraged to attend for the first consult. Please arrive 10-15 min before your scheduled appointment. Likely you would have been already contacted by our receptionist who would have already reminded you of bringing your health cards and sign an information release form to obtain needed information from previous health care providers.
Directions to the clinic are readily available on our website.
If you are not able to attend your appointment please inform us at least 24 hours before so we can utilize the allotted time for your appointment for another patient .Most of fertility investigations and treatments are OHIP covered with the exception of certain laboratory procedures which do not have OHIP billing codes. To be specific, sperm wash and IVF procedures are not covered since they are mainly lab procedures. There are also fees for certain devices used for specific procedures like Essure device to block diseased irreversibly damaged tubes before doing IVF.
To continue providing quality services to our fertility patients we will charge annual block fees to cover much needed services that OHIP would not compensate for. The Block fees include orientation, continuous ongoing support and teaching information and materials. It also includes letters to employers or insurance companies, calling in prescriptions, e-mail advice and Phone service for after hours urgent medical need and timely meeting with your doctor should urgent need arise especially during your early pregnancy. Please see Price lists for details since you may want to pay for those services as a block or individually.
Once again, we welcome you to Astra Fertility Group and wish you a pleasant peaceful land fruitful experience!
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