Today I’m diving a bit deeper into Inter Uterine
Inseminations (IUI) - a procedure I mentioned in our fertility story post.
Now that we are further along in our infertility journey, I think
of our IUIs as our “foot in the door” to fertility treatments. An IUI requires
medical intervention, but it’s not always as involved as invitro fertilization
or some of the other procedures that might happen in a quest for a baby.
Following our fertility work up (and the HSG test), it was the first treatment
we had, and certainly the most intervention we had experienced to that point.
In all, we had eight IUIs (far more than most doctors would likely recommend),
but we never had a resulting pregnancy from them. I’ve since learned that after
three unsuccessful IUIs, your chances of achieving a pregnancy are not
increased and other treatments might be a better use of time and money. This is
one of the things I would go back and change about our journey if I could.
Looking back, I realize that we could have moved to other treatments much
sooner, but we certainly didn’t know any better. Once we moved from our Ob-Gyn
to a reproductive endocrinologist, we got the information we needed to move our
journey forward.
So, what is an IUI?
An IUI is what most people might think of as the “turkey
baster” method of getting pregnant. During an IUI, a catheter is placed through
the woman’s cervix, and sperm are inserted directly into the uterus to shorten
the distance the sperm need to swim to meet a woman’s egg in the fallopian tube.
The idea is to remove as many “road blocks” as possible for the sperm and the egg
to meet. It’s not a foolproof method – the sperm still need to swim through the
uterus, up the fallopian tubes, and fertilize the egg, but it can be helpful in
certain cases.
Why would you have an
IUI?
A doctor might order an IUI for a variety of reasons,
including sperm issues or unexplained infertility. We started with IUIs because
of that first semen analysis that came back with slightly “off” results for
sperm morphology.
How do you prepare
for an IUI?
Different treatment plans will have different preparation
for IUIs. Our treatment included oral medication for me (Clomid or Letrozole)
for several days at the start of a cycle. We would go into the doctor for a
monitoring appointment to check on the number of mature follicles sometime
around day 12 or 13 of my cycle. Ideally, you would have one or maybe two mature
follicles – if there are more, you run the risk of having multiples, and
fertility treatments are all about bringing home ONE healthy baby. If all
looked good at monitoring, I would take a trigger shot at a specific time to correlate
to the IUI procedure. The trigger shot makes you ovulate to ensure there is an
egg available for the sperm to fertilize within the time frame that sperm can
live in a woman’s body.
What does an IUI feel
like?
An IUI might cause some mild cramping, but otherwise it is
not painful. If there is cramping, it only lasts for a minute or two, and it
usually resolves once the catheter is removed.
What happens after an
IUI?
After an IUI, my doctor had me lay flat for about 10
minutes. I don’t know that there is any real scientific reason for this (the
sperm can’t fall out of you), but it was a nice excuse to lay still and quiet
for a few minutes. Other than the initial 10 minutes of rest post-procedure,
life can resume as normal. I usually acted pregnant until I was proven
otherwise (a term known as “PUPO”), so in the following two weeks I would limit
my hard workouts, drink extra water, and avoid alcohol. Two weeks after the
IUI, I was instructed to take a home pregnancy test and call the doctor with
results.
Although the IUI process did not work for us, I remember
being so grateful for the opportunity to try to build our family this way. It
was certainly less invasive and less expensive than IVF, and our IUI phase gave
us time to work through the fact that we might need some extra help to have children.
By the time we were done with our IUIs, IVF seemed like a logical next step,
and we had already prepared for that reality mentally.
Stay tuned for the next installment in the fertility
treatments portion of our story where I’ll cover pre-IVF work up and tests. In
the meantime, click HERE
or HERE
for more information about IUIs.
Please remember that I am NOT a doctor, and nothing in this post
(or any of my posts) should supercede the advice of your doctor. It is so
important to have a strong, solid relationship with your medical provider as he
or she will know your history and goals, and he or she will provide advice and
treatment personalized to YOU.
