Erica Hoke, an infertility mentor, walks through how to take control at your REI appointment. Know your test results beforehand, ask for educational materials, and get clear on whether you'll need to decide anything during the procedure. If a doctor lectures or dismisses you, get a second opinion.
Chapters
Everybody, thank you for joining me. Today we're talking about being empowered during your infertility specialist appointment, sometimes called an REI, reproductive endocrinology of infertility is what that stands for. So we can say REI later in the video if we need to, right? So if you don't know me, I'm Erica Hoke. I am an infertility mentor and empowerment coach. And the reason that we are talking about being empowered during the conversations with your REI, your infertility specialist, is because the World Health Organization has actually identified and defined, I'll read the definition to you. So a process, being empowered in your healthcare and especially in your infertility is a process through which people gain greater control over their decisions and actions affecting their health. So this is not a situation where you are challenging your practitioner. It's not a situation where you are telling, telling your practitioner, but it is a collaborative effort between your practitioner and yourself. And it really is marrying the two things. I was talking to my kids this morning during homeschool about Venn diagrams. And so it's really marrying, you know, on one side, a holistic approach to medicine and Western medicine, and that middle ground is where you sit and you know your body best. So our first point for this video about being empowered at those meetings is don't rely on doctor knows best, okay? Please don't rely on doctor knows best. Doctors know a lot. No one knows your body better than you, period, the end. You live in your body. You know everything that has happened to your body. Doctors know a lot, but if you have the doctor's know best mentality, you might not be getting the best care that you could. So, Also, along with that is knowing your testing, which I have talked before about at length, knowing your testing, knowing what is in your chart, because doctors, some people believe that doctors go through those charts and they know all your testing and they familiarize themselves. They simply don't have time to do that. So you need to be as familiar with your chart, with your test results, with how your body reacts to things better than anybody else on this planet because it's your responsibility. Okay? I would also say, along with that, since we're talking about doctors and especially reproductive endocrinologists, is that there is no other situation that I know of that you would be willing to spend $10,000, $20,000, sometimes $30,000, sometimes upwards of that, sometimes in the $60,000s without researching the doc, researching whatever that is. No one's gonna buy a car or a house without getting an inspection, knowing the history of it. So think of this interaction as good investment of your time to help your doctor get the best possible results so that your investment into your healthcare is fruitful, literally fruitful, okay? So if the doctor's explaining something to you, this is our second point, we have three today. If your doctor's explaining something to you that you are unclear of or don't understand, please request educational material, okay? This is part of being an empowered, an empowered patient, whether it's infertility or not. And ask if you'll have to make any decisions. This is really important. You need to know if you're getting ready to have a procedure done, and part of the education process of that procedure is, will I have to make any decisions during the process? Can you imagine? You're already feeling very uncomfortable, very vulnerable. Being in the stirrups, guys, I mean, it's not a place that any, any woman likes to be. So if you're having a procedure done, will there be a point in time where we will have to make a decision? We're going to go A, this direction, or B, this direction, um, in terms of making decisions on the spur of the moment. That's very important to know. So educate yourself about the procedure and what the process looks like, okay? Not everybody is process-oriented. I am very process-oriented, and it would help you to know those things during the procedure, okay? So these are— this last point are things to run away from the doctor, from the practitioner, from the reproductive endocrinologist, and get a second opinion or start your journey with somebody else. If you feel lectured, run. If you feel like when you're asking questions that that is not well received, if you feel that the physician is not empathetic, or if you feel dismissed in any way. These conversations, you're paying for this service. I want you to feel empowered to have good communication and have a collaborative care plan that you feel like you can participate in without feeling dismissed or ridiculed or anything like that. If you feel any of those things, You are most likely paying out of pocket for these procedures. If you have the gift of infertility insurance, even better. Try to find another practitioner. Okay. Those are not, those are not people that are going to have your best interest in mind if they're not willing to have a collaborative conversation concerning your care. All right, you guys, thank you so much for joining me. If you enjoyed this content and you're looking for more, You can join me over in my group, Infertility Empowered. I'm the admin over there. We talk about these things in more depth. And also, if you happen to be watching on YouTube, hit that like and subscribe bell so that you get notified when I go live every Monday, Wednesday, Friday at noon, except when the internet crashes or like social media goes, and then I will not be there. But let's hope that doesn't happen again. Sorry I missed you Monday, and I will see you Friday. Health and blessings to you guys. Bye-bye.
