IUI

[serendipity730]

Hi all,

My husband and I are considering trying IUI soon. We've been TTC for 9 mos. We've had a fertility work-up which shows that my cervical mucus is definitely an issue. I have been taking Mucinex for the two cycles, and if we don't conceive this cycle (the 3rd w/Mucinex), I think we will move on to IUI.

I have done some research on it and know that the cost varies greatly, primarily due to the amount of drugs used/needed. I am fortunate in that I ovulate normally & my husband has a normal sperm count. I was wondering if anyone was able to conceive with "natural" IUI (no drugs). Our preference would be not to have multiples (but of course we'd be overjoyed just to be pregnant!).

Anyway, if anyone could share their experience with me, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks,

 

[Tombliboo]

Hi thereI'm in the UK so things may work slightly differently here. However my fertility team told me I HAD to have hormone-stimulated IUI as the success rates for natural cycles was too low to make it cost-effective for them to fund (we have a national health service here which is different to the private care in the USA).However I felt the consultant didn't understand the risks that having a multiple pregnancy would make me have to face (I was told that I would have to terminate down to one foetus as I would be unlikely to survive a multiple pregnancy). Because of this, I really fought to be allowed to have 3 natural IUI treatment cycles, with the backing on my CF consultant and finally I won. I figured that since the only problem with conceiving was the fact tht I had a physical barrier to it (the very sticky cervical mucus), there was no reason why natural cycles didn't hold a good chance of working.Unfortunately I didn't conceive on any of the 3 natural cycles, HOWEVER they were very poorly managed and personally I think they missed doing the IUI on the optimum days for my cycle (they only did treatments 3 days a week!) so that may well have played a big part. I finally conceived on my 3rd cycle using hormone stimulation. By then the doctor had begun to understood how risky it would be for me to have a multiple pregnancy and they made sure I only had enough hormones to get me to produce one egg. One time I produced 4 and they cancelled the cycle.Good luck! x

 

[point]

Hi Mary,

My husband and I were able to get pregnant with our son William after our 5th IUI. He is 8 1/2 months now. All 5 cycles involved using femara (oral drug) and an HCG shot along with the insemination. So I do not have any experience with drug free IUI. I was ovulating normally, but it was recommended to take medication as well so they could better control the process since we were going through extra measures to get pregnant. Our 4th & 5th cycles included progesterone supplements post-ovulation and potentially helped to acheive a pregnancy. I was also fortunate at that time to have my medical insurance cover fertility treatments to the point that I paid 20% of the cost.

My husband & I tried for around 9 mo as well before we started going through fertility evaluations to make sure there wasn't anything else contributing to our infertility. We fell into the category of 'unexplained infertility'.

I know this isn't directly answering your question but I wanted to respond so you could see some others' experiences.

Best of luck to you-

 

[ep1713]

Hi Mary,

You know my history so I'm not going to go into that again. I was very determined to only do natural cycles when I first started my IUI experience. My fertility doctor let me come to terms with doing medicated ones slowly. He explained to me medicated IUIs are much more effective not just because the multiple eggs but that typically the eggs fertilize easier. The timing can sometimes be better too (especially when I was on injectibles) because you are monitored much more closely. He knew I was really against the increased odds of multiples, so he started me on low doses and gradually worked up my doses. I was also monitored closesly for the number of follicles and 4 or more the cycle would be cancelled (never happened though).

It's a really hard decision so you have to do whatever makes you feel comfortable. There were a couple of us on here when I was going through this who all started on natural cycles and wanted to keep it that way, but I know they both eventually used Clomid and got pregnant soon after.

Good luck!