I visited a reproductive endocrinologist for nearly 3 years before having my baby, so I've got some decent first-hand experience here.
The first visit for us was mostly a consultation with the physician. She took a pretty extensive medical history for both my husband and I, asked us questions about our lifestyle, asked us questions about our TTC attempts, and then began to educate us about the various treatment options (clomid, injectables, clomid + injectables - all of these to get the eggs to grow, then adding an injectable to cause ovulation). She discussed IUI, IVF, GIFT, ZIFT, and nearly every option available to us. At the same time she was very truthful about the percentage success rates and the side effects the treatments could have.
Basically our first session was a meet and greet with intensive education. Shortly after that, I had bloodwork done, a glucose tolerance test, and a hystersalpingogram to ensure there was no blockage of the fallopian tubes. Once my doctor had all the data needed to make an assessment, we began the least complex treatment. After our first visit, we were very pleased with the time, knowledge, and patience our physician had. She also stressed to us that we had the ultimate decision over what we wanted to do, but that she would definitely guide us in a safe direction (as in, some people who take fertility medications end up developing multiple eggs and fertilize all of them, resulting in a litter of 6+ children).
The process is daunting, an emotional roller coaster, but well worth it if you need the assistance of a RE. Expect to visit your RE up to 3 times a week during a 'cycle' to have blood drawn and a transvaginal ultrasound to determine how eggs are developing. For us, it was pretty exhausting but we would not have changed a thing!
