For OH teams and GPs
The Parts of Fertility Treatment You Don't See in the Consult.
Context for the complex cases: what patients carry between cycles that doesn't fit a 10-minute consult or a standard OH framework.
Written by Dr Divpreet Sacha (MBChB MRCGP DOccMed).
Companion to the iOH toolkit "Supporting Employees Through Fertility Treatment", authored by Dr Sacha and published by iOH, the Association of Occupational Health and Wellbeing Professionals.
For Occupational Health
What OccuFertility Adds to OH Workflows
Fertility treatment is a fast-evolving area and rarely sits centrally in OH training.
OccuFertility gives OH teams a structured, patient-completed brief covering the physical and emotional load of a cycle, so the consult starts with shared language and the team can focus on adjustments rather than back-filling clinical context.
The Functional Impact of Stimulation
Two weeks of daily injections, rising hormones and scans in working hours.
- Daily injections for 8–14 days, with oestradiol rising into the thousands
- Ovaries enlarge during stimulation: heaviness, bloating and tenderness
- Hot flushes, brain fog and emotional lability, plus scans every 2–3 days
Egg Collection & the Hidden Recovery
Billed as a day case. Most patients need 2–5 days to recover.
- A transvaginal procedure under sedation
- Cramping, ovarian tenderness and post-anaesthetic fatigue for 2–5 days
- OHSS can start in the first week after the trigger, or later if pregnant
The Two-Week Wait & Cumulative Toll
Progesterone mimics depression while patients are told to carry on as normal.
- Pessaries 2–3 times a day drive anxiety, low mood and broken sleep
- The wait may end in pregnancy, biochemical loss or another negative test
- Many are on cycle 2, 3 or 4+: the grief is invisible in one consult
OH Case Assessment Tool
OH Assessment Checklist
OH Management Report Template
OH Phase Reference Sheet
Further Reading
Read Next
Supporting Employees Through Fertility Treatment
Featured, published by iOH
The full iOH-published toolkit by Dr Divpreet Sacha. Practical guidance for OH practitioners and HR on supporting staff through fertility care.