Upcoming "Family Planning" appointment.

jenfarm3

I have a "Family Planning" appointment with my Obgyn on Monday. I wasn't planning on making an appointment like this and I was just gonna start taking prenatals and be good with it but my friend, who is also around the same stage as I am with gearing up to start trying, mentioned she went and had some different tests done and found it to be worth it. (We happen to have the same doctor too. Haha. She's also a few years older than me and, I guess, could be considered "high risk" so she said she had a bunch of questions about that.)

I don't have too many questions that I can think of right now other than just asking what I could be doing now to prepare. I was wondering if anyone had any other ideas for questions I should ask that I haven't thought of? 

Bigboobsmcgee

I'm not sure why people would have an appointment like this, unless they were older or had a medical condition that might hinder getting pregnant. Seems like a waste. What tests would they do???

I'd just start the prenatals and go from there.

jenfarm3

I thought the same thing, but my friend seemed to find some value with hers. My insurance covers it, so I figured why not. 

They tested her for a type of measles and something else to see if she had the immunity. She said they test you for those because you can't get vaccinated for those two things while pregnant. So, if you're test comes back that you don't have the immunity, they can vaccinate you before you get pregnant. I found this online:

We're often vaccinated against as children in the measles, mumps, and rubella [MMR] vaccine, but over time, our immunity can fade.

I guess it's just an extra precaution. 

If they're going to run some blood tests on me, I'd also like to find out what my blood type is (if they aren't going to test for that already, I plan to ask them to add this test.)

Idk. I figured it couldn't hurt. I don't know what all I'm expecting to get out of the visit but was just wondering if anyone else happened to go to one of these appointments and if they could share ideas or experience. It'd be nice.

Knottie1442268460

I had some unknown cysts & fibroids. Not even in areas that would stop implantation. I am over 35. The obgyn said to come in before trying to check. Then if they'd grown they could be removed first.

I think it's a valuable visit. I can't imagine why everyone wouldn't do this! Especially if it's covered by insurance!

Bigboobsmcgee

Knottie1442268460 said:

I had some unknown cysts & fibroids. Not even in areas that would stop implantation. I am over 35. The obgyn said to come in before trying to check. Then if they'd grown they could be removed first. I think it's a valuable visit. I can't imagine why everyone wouldn't do this! Especially if it's covered by insurance!

Just because it's covered by insurance doesn't mean you should do it. That's a silly reason. Unnecessary visits like this hike up insurance for everyone but that's a whole other discussion.

SaphireSweetie88

jenfarm3 said:

I have a "Family Planning" appointment with my Obgyn on Monday. I wasn't planning on making an appointment like this and I was just gonna start taking prenatals and be good with it but my friend, who is also around the same stage as I am with gearing up to start trying, mentioned she went and had some different tests done and found it to be worth it. (We happen to have the same doctor too. Haha. She's also a few years older than me and, I guess, could be considered "high risk" so she said she had a bunch of questions about that.)

I don't have too many questions that I can think of right now other than just asking what I could be doing now to prepare. I was wondering if anyone had any other ideas for questions I should ask that I haven't thought of? 

QFP

Also, I think it is necessary and a waste of time at this point unless a medical condition legitimately required it.

bmo88

Eh, doesn't seem like you have too many real concerns to need the visit, I wouldn't do it. We aren't TTC until next January, but I asked some questions at my annual exam a few weeks ago. Figured I was there, so I might as well ask. But I wouldn't make a specific appointment for it. I will probably ask more in the future though at my appointment when I have my Mirena IUD taken out, but yet, again, that appointment has to be held.

Sirius37

I also happened to discuss DH and I TTC within the next year at my last annual appointment and my OB gave me a breakdown on the basics of what she felt I should know. She never suggested any tests though....maybe they do it only for high-risk/geriatric potentials? FWIW, everything my OB told me I already knew from researching on my own. Maybe ask the doc if there is a specific prenatal they would suggest?

Xstatic3333

I agree that these sorts of appointments aren't super necessary unless you have a diagnosis/circumstance that means you'll likely be high risk or have trouble TTC.  If you do, of course, go for it.  For me, extra doctor's appointments are never something I enjoy so it's not something I'd like to seek out.  

I saw my midwife for an annual a few months before we started TTC, and she asked me if I saw any signs of ovulation.  We were temping to TTA, and she was happy I saw a temp shift.  She also told me to stop eating swordfish and mahi mahi since mercury can persist in the system for a long time and those fish are frequently high mercury.  I've already broken this directive twice in circumstances where declining a fish dish would have been pretty rude, but I don't eat any high mercury fish frequently so I won't lose sleep over it.  Surprisingly, she wasn't that hung up on prenatals.  I started them a few months before TTC, but she said as long as I was on them once I became pregnant that was all that mattered.  They're good for overall health though, so no reason not to start early.  

Dilynne

*Lurker Posting*

I went to my doctor to ask what I needed to know about coming off birth control and starting to TTC. She gave me a lot of good information and ran a blood test to ensure my vaccines were up to date, that my sugar levels were good (my mom had gestational diabetes) and gave me some advice about prenatal vitamins. I'm in Canada so the health insurance thing is out of my scope, but I think it was a valuable appointment to have. 

Kaytee1087

My insurance covers appointments that are considered "preventive" and encourage you to get seen once a year for checkups to hopefully catch things before they become a big medical concern and cost even more money, so I think a family planning visit that is covered by insurance is a great idea. Even an easy blood test a head of time could catch something you didn't even know about and prevent heartache or a serious medical condition before it becomes an issue.

I was thinking about the same thing, except I sort of did an unplanned version at my annual when I got my IUD removed, so I decided against it.

jenfarm3

My appointment was yesterday afternoon. I thought I'd come back here and post a little follow up in case y'all were curious.

It was a quick appointment and some may think unnecessary, but I'm glad I went. I do have annual well woman exams as normal and also do an annual physical with my family practice physician. My last well woman was last March and I was still very much on BCP and we hadn't even made plans for when to start trying so I didn't discuss it much with my obgyn at that time. I could have waited until my next well woman exam visit because it was going to be closer to when we actually started trying, but it literally would have been the month we planned on so I figured going in for a visit like this a couple months before couldn't hurt. At least I could find out if there was anything I needed to do before starting to try and discuss prenatals. I just had my last annual physical back in November where I had a full blood work up and everything. 

Anyway, at the appointment yesterday, she basically just asked me a few questions about mine and my husband's health history and our family's health history. We don't have anything abnormal to worry about. We both are pretty healthy and have never had any health issues. I do have a couple neurological issues on my mother's side that are genetic so I mentioned that. She mentioned the possibility of doing genetic testing to see if my husband or I had any carrier traits that could cause issues, but DH and I actually just sent off samples to 23andme.com for genetic testing that included that info. She was happy about that and told me to follow up with her if anything came back that we should be worried about. I did a couple blood tests to make sure my immunizations were up to date and to check immunity for chicken pox (I'm not sure I've ever been sick with them as a child.) She also wanted to check on something else, but annual blood work I'd had a couple months ago already included it and I remembered to bring a printed copy of my results so she was fine with not testing that again. I also had my blood type tested because we know DH's blood type but not mine. 

Again, some may think unnecessary but I'm glad I went. She told me the prenatals I bought were exactly what she tells her patients to get and I'll get my blood work results back later this week and find out if I need to go in for any vaccinations. Other than that, I'm just happy we have a green light to start trying and as a new, future mother, I'm doing everything to prepare and give my baby the best start I can. Even if it wasn't a huge deal visit, I feel like it was worth it. 

emilie250

Thanks for the update!