experience with clomid and no iui?

Tiko99

Hello everyone,

I usually post on trouble ttc, but wanted some info on success with clomid (if it is ok I post on this board).

I went for my first appointment with an re today and luckily I'm on day three of my cycle so the doctor was able to conduct an ultrasound. He stated I have a tilted uterus (apparently this is not an issue in regards to fertility, but I can't believe a gyno has never mentioned this), and my ovaries looked good (9 follicles on right side, 6 follicles with a large one on the left side). He said for my age (32) this was really good news. So the next step is to have blood testing for myself and my fiancé and then an SA test for him and an HSG for me (ahhh can't wait uggg). If the HSG comes back normal he wants to start Clomid with an IUI. I was wondering if Clomid is always prescribed with an IUI. My insurance covers infertility testing and surgery, but not treatment, so all treatment will be out of pocket including the $1,200.00 IUI. From what I understand clomid itself is not expensive, out of pocket, so I wanted to look into only taking clomid first, and then adding the IUI if the clomid itself does not work. Is this a path any of you have followed? Has anyone had success with just clomid? <?

jezebel57

Is there a reason for the IUI?
Was your husband tested? It all depends what the reason for your struggles are. You could ask to try clomid with times intercourse with am ovidrel injection at home for a month or two before trying IUIs, assuming the dr still monitors you during. Would be much cheaper. Clomid never made me ovulate and I only tried it for two months before switching to a different med. Good luck!

jeannaqueena

We did clomid and TI and conceived our first son. The cycle only cost us $9, but now I know the dangers of clomid or any fertility drug without u/s monitoring. Make sure they do u/s to monitor the number of follicles so you don't ovulate too many eggs especially if you use ovidrel which runs about $100. We were 100% OOP too. Good luck!

xladybassx

Like Jez said, it really depends on your diagnosis whether IUI makes sense, and without all of your testing done its hard to say. If there is MFI an IUI would make a lot of sense, but it depends how severe the MFI is too. If its not too bad, I can (as someone who also did not have insurance coverage for ART therapies) definitely understand why you might want to try just clomid, or a similar drug, prior to IUI. You could also try adding ovidrel to trigger ovulation at a specific time. The ovidrel was about $100 OOP for me, but still much less than an IUI!

We tried 3 cycles of clomid with timed intercourse, and 1 cycle of letrozole with TI. My body produced plenty of mature follicles with both clomid and letrozole (between 3 and 7 each time) but we did not get pregnant. We also were dealing with one blocked tube and mild MFI however. If you don't have any other issues clomid on its own can work, but you will find that most of the ladies on this board had to move on to more invasive treatments. We ended up trying 4 cycles of IUI and eventually had to move on to IVF. Best of luck with your testing and future cycles!

FutureMrsW9

I don't have experience with IUI, but I did try clomid.  I was completely unresponsive to it (I have PCOS and am annovulatory), but I do think it does work for many women.  Unless YH has MFI issues, I don't see why you couldn't ask your RE to try a monitored Clomid cycle first before doing IUI.

Rachnan

As several of the PP said, it all depends on the diagnosis of you and DH.  We did 3 cycles of clomid and TI and were unsuccessful.  We later learned that I had hostile CM and we really needed to do an IUI to be successful.  We conceived on our 4th (and probably last) IUI.  But note that we didn't have any MFI associated which I think helped our cause.

lizardknitter

I conceived DD with just Clomid and TI.  Age related infertility was my only diagnosis.  My RE felt like it was a waste of time to use any method more than 3 times.  So with this pregnancy, we did 3 rounds of Clomid and then moved on to injectibles and IUI (and eventually IVF).  I would wait to see what your testing reveals.  Good luck!

SweetTea420

I got pregnant on my first round of Clomid and TI. Our diagnosis was mild MFI and possibly a blocked left tube. Your RE will start you with the treatment most appropriate for your diagnosis. Good luck!

whoberry

I agree with others who have said it really depends on your diagnosis.  We are unexplained which pretty much leaves you with all treatment options available. That is both a blessing and a curse as you can see from my long siggy. 

 So we started with the least invasive and cheapest option- Clomid only.  Like you, I have been totally out of pocket for this whole experience. Clomid was around $10 plus the cost of office visits. We did not have success with that route, but did get one pregnancy using Femara only (similar to Clomid).  Unfortunately that pregnancy did not stick.

Best of luck to you as you head down this path.  I hope it's a very quick journey for you!

Tiko99

Thanks everyone for your replies. Once my fiancé gets his SA back his results will determine if we go straight for the IUI or just clomid. I have my HSG scheduled for next week, so I know that also brings up a lot of possibilities if there is a blockage. Thank you so much for all your responses I really appreciate it!

IBackBevo

I had so many side effects with Clomid that personally I would want to get the most possible out of it...so I would personally do the IUI.

xladybassx

You know I was thinking the same thing as Talon, $1200 sounds really high for an IUI. For us the actual IUI was $380, and ultrasounds were about $250. How many ultrasounds you need just depends how your cycle is going. I would ask your RE for a more detailed breakdown of the cost. Keep in mind that if you do a clomid + TI cycle you will still need the ultrasounds. My insurance stated that they would not cover ultrasounds if they were part of an ART cycle, but here's the thing...if you don't try to claim the actual IUI to the insurance company they would have no way of knowing! I just asked my hospital to bill the IUI portion directly to me, and my insurance ended up covering the rest because of how they coded the ultrasounds. I'm not sure how your insurance policy reads, but it is definitely worth looking into to see if there are any loopholes you could work with. If your RE's office has an insurance coordinator see if you can sit down with them to talk about options. They are very experienced in working with people who have limited or no coverage.