Hi Sarah, I'm in nz too. My advice would be: most specialists including fertility associates prefer for you to have been trying to conceive for at least a year before intervening, though this does depend on age and diagnosis, but even if you aren't certain how seriously you are trying yet, I'd document with your gp that you are so you can get a speedy referral should you need one.
I'd also seek specialist help early if you aren't successful right away with trying as the system can be long and difficult to navigate

From everything I've read, there's so many factors that go into it. Your stage of endo, where it is exactly, your ovarian reserve, how well your organs were moving at surgery, and countless other things. The most important thing for fertility, per my understanding, is to have excision surgery.

This article is from an excision surgery center in Atlanta. Not sure where you're located, but I thought it had helpful information.

http://centerforendo.com/infertility?rq=inferti...

I’m 97% pain free since my two excision surgeries, so I’m a huge fan. I’m not saying it’s a cure, but it is the gold standard of treatment and helps the majority of EndoWarriors who have it. I also needed lots of pelvic floor physical therapy and diet changes. Many of us need multiple therapies for healing. I’ll leave a resource list here of stuff about endo I've found helpful over the years. Other users have said it helped too. Let me know if I can do anything. Happy to help however I can.

https://www.myendometriosisteam.com/users/5d1ab...

Thanks so much for your quick reply! I am based in New Zealand.

I should probably have elaborated a bit more than what I did.

I had excision surgery in 2015 and since then have made diet changes and have had 2 Mirena IUD's to control the symptoms (I seem to "run out" at 3 years with the Mirena, bleeding and pain returns).

Have no idea what my ovarian reserve is, my GP said that he can't do the hormonal tests until after I have had my current mirena removed, so said come back when I have had it removed.

I'm now almost 31, and my partner and I are now in a position where we could have a child, but ideally he would like to wait a bit longer if we can. I'm finding it very hard to find data on this - I just want to know how likely it will be for us to have kids if we started trying now vs in 1 year or in 2 years. I know it could take up to a year for my cycle to return to normal post IUD (although it could also return right away too)

I have booked in to see my specialist Gynaecologist, so hopefully she can share some info, but she didn't have any appointments until the end of July...

Oh awesome, well I'm glad you had excision surgery. That should have increased your chances. I'm glad you figured that out about the Mirena and that it's working for you. I made diet changes too and they helped so much. Figure that's reducing your inflammation load, so I hope that will help too. I've also read that acupuncture can help with fertility.

I think it's a great idea to see your excision surgeon again. I hope she will be able to give you answers. I am not sure what hormonal tests your GP was talking about; I'm assuming estrogen and progesterone. But I don't think AMH, the blood test for ovarian reserve, is affected by Mirena. Your excision surgeon will definitely be better able to tell you. Keep us posted if you're OK with that!

I know that everyone’s experience is different, but I also know that if you want to have children, and you can afford it, you might want to look into freezing your eggs (although the hormones you have to take to do that can REALLY do a number on healthy people, let alone we women with endo!). If you’re ready to get pregnant now, you can look forward to your endo pain going down during pregnancy. As for IUD, it’s a coin toss. Some people have great relief from Mirena. Personally, I had a horrible time with it. My doctor punctured my uterus on the first attempt, which was HELLA painful, then tried a second time and my uterus literally spat it right back out at him. Third time, he got it in, but then I had really heavy bleeding every day for 9mos until I couldn’t take it anymore and had him take it out. I went on the Depo shot after that, which completely halted my period all together. So, I prefer the Depo shot. I did have side effects from that, too, but the only thing I wish I had known before all of this (and that many doctors don’t know) is that although these things can stop your symptoms, the endometriosis is still going to grow/if you have adhesions or a lot of endo tissue, they need to surgically excise it. Unfortunately, most doctors don’t do excision because of billing codes and lack of insurance compensation. It can be really frustrating and seems very unfair because I guarantee if men had to go through all of this it would be taken much more seriously and covered by insurance! I hope you have or find good doctors to guide you through your journey. And I am sending you positive energy and healing ❤️‍🩹