DING! You glance down at the notification on your phone: fertility appointment with Reproductive Medicine Associates of Northern California (RMANorCal) this afternoon at 2pm.

You take a deep breath.

You’ve known about the appointment for a while, and you’ve prepared: you and your partner have taken the time off work, you know the fastest way to get to the downtown San Francisco or Silicon Valley office, and you’ve done your homework on RMANorCal doctors Scott Morin and Jonathan Kort.

You feel excited and prepared for this next big step but also a little anxious. Because there’s just one thing you can’t predict: what will actually happen when you get there?

To help first-time patients understand exactly what to expect when they walk through the doors of our SoMa or Palo Alto offices, Dr. Morin and Dr. Kort put together a short summary of the visit.

Here’s what you can expect:

  1. Things to bring: driver’s license and insurance card and any relevant test results or medical documents from prior treatment.
  2. How long to stay: budget about an hour of your day for the visit
  3. Once you arrive, one of our Patient Liaisons will greet you with a smile, check you in, and collect any information they don’t already have from your New Patient Paperwork packet.
  4. Now you can sit back, make a cup of tea, flip through a coffee table book, and relax. You’ve done your part, and the rest is in the hands of our competent team.
  5. Morin or Dr. Kort will escort you from the waiting room back to their offices, where they’ll get to know you and your partner a little bit better.
    1. Things they’ll want to discuss are your and your partner’s medical history, how long you’ve been trying to conceive, and any other topics that might be relevant to that day’s visit.
    2. This is a safe space for you to have an open dialogue about your fertility, your expectations, and your goals – nothing should be awkward or uncomfortable and there are no silly questions.
  6. After the consultation with your doctor is the exam portion of your visit. A medical assistant will take your vitals and show you into an exam room where your doctor will visualize your uterus and ovaries through ultrasound.
  7. Next you’ll have some preliminary bloodwork done to test different hormone levels, such as Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH), to help us get a more complete picture of your fertility.
  8. If you’re ready to move forward with treatment, you’ll meet with your dedicated nurse to discuss the plan for your upcoming cycle. At that time, we’ll also get you signed up for Spruce, the secure, HIPAA-compliant messaging app we use to communicate, so that you can reach your nurse and doctor 24/7 with any questions or issues you might have.

After that, you can go home and carry on with your day. We know this can be a stressful and difficult time for you and your partner, so we want you to feel 100% comfortable with this process. The most important thing to remember is that we are here to guide and support you in achieving your goals.

If you are struggling with infertility and want to know more about treatment options, book a consultation with Dr. Kort or Dr. Morin. Call the San Francisco office at (415) 603-6999 to speak to one of our patient liaisons and get started today.