IUI

Just had my third unsuccessful IUI and am feeling pretty fed up of the whole process. This month was particularly bad in terms of headaches and dizziness etc during the Gonal F injections which was then followed by lots of bloating after the IUI. Any advice on what I can do to help it work and also looking for some inspiration that it is worth continuing with, anyone with success on the fourth, fifth or even sixth attempt?

Sorry to hear about your news. I know how frustrated it feels. As for myself, I have tried to conceive for 2 years and have recently had 3 unsuccessful IUIs as well(2 with clomids and one with Gonal-f). Now, I am in the 4th one. I am in my early 30s and doctor said I have "time" to try a couple more if I wish, but of course I could move on to IVF right away if I don't want to wait. Luckily I didn't have much side effects, except that I was told I had cysts every time (meaning I had to wait until they were gone before I could start a new IUI cycle) I had recovered from the saddness of seeing menses. I knew a book entitled "The Infertility Cure" available at Dymock book store at IFC mall in Central, which provides tips on diet and acupressure to ease the undesirable side effects associated with fertility drugs, plus much more information also. You may want to have a look.


Anyway, I am taking 225iu gonal-f for CD2 and 3, then 150iu gonal-f onwards. Yesterday, doctor detected that I might have a premature LH surge, so I am also on Cetrotide now. I don't have much hope this cycle.


If you are frustrated with the IUI cycles, you could consider to do IVF becuase the success rate for each IUI is about 15%, the same as natural pregnancy rate. Good luck.

Thanks for your comments bb55. I will check out the book you recommend, do you know the name of the author? I am early 30s also. I have been on Gonal F for all three cycles and I was on 225iu everyday for the the last cycle, the high dose caused me to feel so much worse than previous months. I am having a break for the next two months as my husband will be out of town on the critical dates - the nurse thinks it may do me good! Not sure I am ready for the seriousness of IVF yet so may give this another couple of tries before moving on.

Hi all... After trying for about 2 years and having a miscarriage during that time, I went through quite a few unsuccessful cycles of IUI last year (Gonal F) and both my husband and I found it all very stressful especially since we had to go in to the doctors so often and both of us work and didn't want to let our colleagues know. We also both have quite stressful jobs. Every month, I would end up depressed that all those injections/scans etc didn't work and it was all costing so much. We decided to take a month's break from seeing the doctor (at his suggestion as well) and went away for a long weekend, slept loads, ate lots and hung out with friends and took it easy. We got lucky then- I'm now in my 14th week and everything seems to be going well. I am 30 and the doctors couldn't find anything wrong with me or my husband at the time despite numerous examinations, tests etc. Hope this gives you all a little bit of hope and good luck....

GinnyMc,


The book is by Dr Randine Lewis.


By the way, during your IUI cycles with Gonal-f, did you have egg white discharge very early on in the cycle, like day 5-7, earlier than it should? Well, I had a lot of egg white like discharge on day 6-7. Doctor said it might indicate premature LH surge. Is it common? Did you have similar experience?

Carmen - Thanks it does give hope and congratulations to you.


bb55 - I didn't really notice any difference in discharge so can't help with that one, sorry.

Hi GinnyMc and all

My husband and I have been TTCing for 2 years and are on the brink of getting IUI (at the doctors recommendation). It will start next month. As I am still quite foreign to the concept of IUI, can someone share their experience? Many thanks.

Thanks GinnyMc.


Expresso: To start, the dr will check whether you're close to ovulating. In my case, I had fertility drugs to help the overy follicles to mature to eggs (note: this can increase chances that there are two or more mature eggs which means potential multiple births). At the same time, I also had a lh surge supressent to ensure that the eggs were not released before the eggs were fully mature. Once the egg looked ready, I had another injuction to induce the egg to be released. My husband then had to bring a sperm sample to the lab (first thing next morning) and they collect the good ones and you have to pick this up in the afternoon, bring this to your doctor who will put the sperm right in your uterus with the help of a catheter (think of a turkey baster!). In my case, the whole thing was on an ultrascan or something, so I could see on the little screen where the sperm was going. Afterwards, I was told to stay lying down with my hips raised for about 15-20 mins. Then it's fingers crossed.


My thoughts on this was that this was all very stressful. I went into the doctor pretty much everyday for about a week every month (close to when I was ovulating) to check the progress of eggs, lh surge etc etc. There were daily injections (sometimes more than one) on thighs/buttocks or stomach. This was difficult to tie in with a full time job since I didn't want to have to explain what I was doing to my colleagues so there was a lot of running around back and forth to the doctors. Over the weekend when the drs was closed, my husband gave me the injections at home. I never thought I would have any problems, so each time we came to the "turkey basting", I felt it was such an unnatural way to have a baby, I couldn't help but cry afterwards. Then it was just waiting and wondering for a few weeks. Mentally, I didn't think that IUI would work for me because my brain and heart just didn't like the idea of getting pregnant that way. However, the dr also did checks on my husband's sperm and I had the ink test to see if there was anything wrong with my tubes and there was nothing wrong with either of us. After a few rounds of making sure I was ovulating regularly, the doctor said that he couldn't see why I wouldn't be able to get pregnant and told me to take a break for a month or two and relax. That's when we got lucky naturally. If we hadn't though, I'll probably still be doing IUIs: bearing in mind that the chances are the same as natural conception, I would have probably tried it out for at least 6 months more before looking at other options.


I just realised that that what I've written probably sounds a little negative, so to give you some hope, friends of ours had great success with IUI and have the most adorable toddler now.


Good luck!!!

Espresso, I found this website quite helpful in explaining the basics of it all. http://www.fertilityplus.org/faq/iui.html The Dr may not start you on injectibles straight away, might try clomid first which I didn't have so can't comment on side effects to this. With the Gonal F my side effects have worsened each month as the dose has increased. My husband has always done the daily injections at home for me without the need to attend the surgery but as Carmen says even getting to the Drs for the scans etc to be done throughout (and the other injections they might need to do) can be awkward if you work. I don't work so not having that stress helps. After 3 failed attempts I am still going on, so it can't be that bad! Good luck.

Yeh, I understand the pain and suffering you are going through, though I am not a woman. Want to try a surrogate mother?

Hi Ginny, we conceived our first son on our 4th IUI attempt so there is hope. Even better we conceived our 2nd son completely naturally a year later which was a big surprise to everyone including me. So hang on in there!!!!! We were on the verge of giving up too.