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I know the stats on IUI and how effective it is, but I'd love to hear your personal stories.
Did IUI work for you? If so, how many cycles did it take? If not, how many cycles did you try before you gave up? What meds were you taking to induce ovulation?
We are considering IUI for our next cycle, so I'm doing some info gathering. :)
Ugh. I sure hope so! Will get back to you in a few days! I'm interested to see the replies but I also think it's totally dependent on each couple's specific issues.
Bleh, I hate to be the first one with a negative, but we did three and none of them worked, and the last two IUIs were done with two follicles ready to go and everything. However, I'm pretty sure that SweetKate from the infertility board got pregnant on her second one! :)
I didn't vote because my experience doesn't count. We had one IUI, but that was before finding out that my lonely remaining tube was damaged. So I had a 0% chance of the IUI working! I will say that I took Clomid and had three follies. Had my tube not been damaged, we would have had a good shot at it!
Just wanted to chime in and say our best friends just got pregnant on their first round of IUI!
I don't want to vote because I've only had 1 IUI so far, and although it was BFN, I am on my second IUI cyle, so we're still trying to see if it works:)
I just wanted to say that injectables with IUI has a better success rate. So if you're going to do IUI and there's anyway you can do Follistim, then I think it increases your chances:)
One of my very good friends got pregnant on her third cycle of IUI. She actually was a bit resistant to it or tired from the process. They got their BFP and had a baby girl in September.
I'm sorry, I had 2 and we stopped. Our chances with IUI were only about 15% though. We will possibly do Clomid again in the future but I will not go the IUI route again.
It worked for my best friend. First try! She was mid-30s, PCOS, trying for quite awhile.
IUI didn't work for us - we did three femara + IUI (and one bravelle + IUI that was cancelled). I had good response on all cycles, and hubby had above average parameters, it just didn't work. I do think it's worth doing since it's not super cost prohibitive. But we stopped after the failed injectables, because once we got to that point, we were spending so much money that we might as well put it toward IVF. Which as you know, is what we did, and what finally worked :)
And here's my little tangent/soapbox. Honestly, I think it's all still up to chance, even with drugs. We were floored to know that even doing IVF, out of 29 follicles, we got 23 mature eggs, only 18 fertilized, 15 made it to day 2-3, and only 5 made it to day 5. And that's when the eggs and sperm are placed millimeters from each other! It was totally a real-life lesson in natural selection for us, in that it kind of condensed 2+ years of cycles into one cycle, and what very small number of actual chances for conception we had. But that also means that a huge part of the equation is getting the right bits together, and that can happen naturally, with IUI, or IVF. And they wouldn't do IUI if they didn't work for some people :)
We did IUI 2 times...did not work either time unfortunately!! I was on Clomid for these times, and know for sure one time I had three follicles. However, found out that Clomid actually thinned my uterine wall, therefore making it almost impossible for implantation. I need to try Femera next - we took almost a year off of IUI - trying it again in the next few months!!
I think it's important to know mother's age and what she used (which meds) to be able to get a good idea of everyone's expereinces.
I can't answer because we are in the TWW of our first IUI (gonal-F and Ovidrel), only one follie (and I'm 41).
I have one friend who did IUI and it wasn't sucessful. Her DH had really, really low morphology and motility. But she was sucessful after one IVF (at 39). Another friend had her first child with IUI (I think it was her 2 or 3 round) when she was 37 or 38. But with her 2nd child she had to do 6 rounds of IVF when she was 42.
@Mrs Green Grass: to be honest, I don't remember! But, I'm getting my records sent to me...so I can look and let you know! My Dr. said that only a small % of women have that adverse affect - and of course I was one of them!
@Hbhb: Actually, it's not that rare with Clomid. And it dries out your CM (making natural BDing ineffective) In fact, from what I've heard, most European Docs use Fermera for this reason. But in the US there is more experience with Clomid (=comfort) and there is a Black Box warning on Femera that it could cause this really rare Liver Cancer. But according to my Doc, all the studies have shown this not to be the case, but the warning is still there so docs are hesitant to use it.
I had a thin lining to start with and I don't think Clomid thinned mine further, but mine was on 6mm this month...they like 8mm but said it was "ok".
I've heard that the number of people who respond poorly is about 30%. I was lucky...no CM issue (but I did IUI anyway) and no extra thinned lining.
I tried it once and it didn't work. But we didn't know at the time that clomid had begun to hinder conception for me after a couple months of use.
I am lucky for a couple reasons -- Clomid doesn't thin my lining or dry up my CM, DH's counts look good, and we're only 27 (me) and 30 (him). My doctor is pushing for IUI, but since we only had two good Clomid cycles out of three (I was out of town during O for the first one), I'm wondering if we couldn't just wait and try a few more cycles with Clomid or Femara instead of going all out. The doctor seems to think that if you go that far, you might as well do IUI to have the best chances of success. What do you guys think?
@heathaah: When they did the SA back in April, they said everything was normal. I think there were a few that were average, maybe low side of average, but no bad results at all.
In my situtation, my RE saw no point in trying a second time. My husband's sperm count, motility, etc. was actually shockingly high (which obviously gave him a huge ego boost...ugh, men! As if he did anything "manly" to cause that!). The nurse said she had never seen numbers like his in the infertility clinic. Clearly this meant the problem was 100% completely me. As she said, his sperm know where to go and will get there. If his numbers were average or below average I am not sure what they would have recommended.
But based on his numbers and the fact that I wasn't being "dried out" by the Clomid, IUI would not solve whatever was going on for us. And it ended up being hostile eggies because of the Clomid.
ETA: It's all about just how much it increases your chances each month. For me, whether the sperm was injected by him (and having to travel) or via catheter (to the exact right spot), the egg had no greater chance of being fertilized either way.
@bunny: What is the cost for you? We decided to go straight to IUI because of increased chances and we are in a hurry. If you are not in a hurry it's not as big of an issue. Since I wanted to do monitoring either way (to see if the Clomid worked!) it was only an additional $230 or so for adding an IUI. DH doesn't have any issues that necessitate IUI either, but we figured the increased odds were worth it.
@Mrs Green Grass: That's a good point too. For me it was an extra $450. You need to weigh the price along with whatever extra chance it gives you. When I was trying, I would have paid a couple hundred for even just an extra 5% chance, or the peace of mind knowing that the sperm IS where it needs to be, eliminating one potential problem. Unfortunately, the RE didn't think IUI would increase my chances at all, so it wasn't worth it, and my cost was higher. But again, my "problem" of the Clomid making the egg hostile was unusual.
@beekiss: It was their best guess. I guess no one ever knows for sure, but it is an effect of taking Clomid too many times overall. They say you can take it for 6 cycles, but for at least 2-3 of my 45-60 day cycles, I took several doses. The RE just decided that was the most likely senario. He told me stopping the Clomid would actually give me my best chance at that point. I was also on Met and had lost 11 lbs, bringing me to a healthy weight, so I started ovulating on my own but just taking a little longer for the follicles to grow.
@heathaah: Thanks, I had no idea clomid could do that! I'm glad the metformin helped you, are you still on it during pregnancy? I know some physicians still prescribe as a way to prevent gestational diabetes. I hated metformin and could only tolerate it for a month.
@beekiss: No, they had me stop at 12 weeks. I was so nervous to stop. I thought I would either get huge, have digestive problems, or even miscarry. But I was fine! I had to taper down over the course of 2 or so weeks.
My coworker's wife got pregnant on round 2 of IUI. And then... her next two babies they had without any help at all (somehow).
@PasteMoo: Interestingly enough, for many women who have PCOS their fertility improves after giving birth. The one thing that they need to improve their fertility is the one thing they struggle to get.
@heathaah: I had heard of the hostile cervical mucus, not the egg...that's crazy!
@Mrs Green Grass: It's an extra $300. We didn't do any monitoring with the first few rounds of Clomid, so that would be an additional cost for us.
@beekiss: I'm pretty sure my mom has PCOS, as well, because she has always had problems with her cycle and I'm a Clomid baby. Both my younger siblings were concieved naturally, too.
YAY! Someone finally voted that their IUI worked! Show yourself, random voter! :)
I just got confirmation yesterday that our 3rd IUI worked. Hopefully we have a sticky baby! Ours were unmonitored, I just came in when I had a pos opk. The first two I was on 50mg of clomid and for the last 100mg. We have unexplained infertility. Good luck!!
@summerlovin: Congratulations!!!! I hope you have a very healthy 9 months!
@Mrs Green Grass: So sorry it didn't work! Sending positive thoughts and prayers your way for round 2!!
@heathaah: Is there a reason they didn't use Femera instead of Clomid?
Our second IUI worked for us. We used Follistim both times. I wish we had moved on to injectibles earlier instead of wasting cycles trying Clomid and Femara (we did 6 total on those). With the injectibles there is no time limit meaning you can take the injections for however long you need to. And the dose can be raised/lowered depending on how you respond. For my first cycle I was a slow responder and after 3 weeks finally had one mature follicle. With my second IUI the RE started me off at a higher dose but it still took almost 3 weeks. Near the end she had to cut my dose in half because I was getting too many follicles. Luckily after that I ended up having 3 mature (and maybe a 4th?) follicles and the IUI worked.
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