Screening services before referral and registration
In order to access fertility services, some individuals and couples are doing extensive screening of services before they register with a clinic. This means extra work before treatment can begin, but ultimately this saves time and effort in the long run.
This involves asking their friends, their family physician (or general practitioner) and anyone else about what they’ve heard about the clinic they might go to. They find out more about the experiences that others have had with the service before they register.
They are also calling up the service and speaking with the unit managers to make sure the service is able to provide adequate and responsive treatment before they register with the clinic. They are going to the open days or open seminars before registering to make sure they are going to be able to access quality treatment with minimal risk of prejudice.
Going solo
When a good clinic can’t be identified, some are choosing to inseminate at home. Home insemination avoids having to interact with services that are ill-equipped to provide adequate care to lesbian and gay individuals and couples.
Taking their business elsewhere
In order to avoid problematic encounters, stress and time wastage, others simply seek care from private providers or they work out solutions that help achieve their goal. For example, some end up traveling to another country for treatment.
The lucky lottery
Similar to other types of medical care, fertility care for LGBTI individuals and couples is still a bit of a lottery. Some try their luck with clinics and have great experiences.
Indeed, there are many reports of good services. But admittedly, there are still also many reports of services that offer unsatisfactory care. Individuals and couples that access these less-than-optimal services end up having problematic encounters.
In some of these cases the couples and individuals have sought help from a third party or a senior representative from the organization so that the difficulties they encountered could be resolved.
Some have sought advice from lawyers and requested a strongly worded letter to be forwarded on their behalf. This has helped some individuals and couples find solutions to this sometimes unlucky lottery.
