For those of you who have done IUI

Carolee

How many did you do before you decided to move on to IVF?  We are dealing with MFI, and I am really not sure how much time/$ we should spend before going to IVF.  My RE says whenever we're ready, so I guess my question is - how do you know you're ready?

suntoto

Carolee:

How many did you do before you decided to move on to IVF?  We are dealing with MFI, and I am really not sure how much time/$ we should spend before going to IVF.  My RE says whenever we're ready, so I guess my question is - how do you know you're ready?

Research and most RE's say 3 tries then IVF.  We did 6 b/c I got KU on our 3rd one, but it was ectopic and insurance covered IUI, but not IVF.  Now we are on to IVF.  

GuppyAmy

I did 3, however that was how many insurance required before they would cover IVF. However, if you're paying out of pocket, I could see moving to IVF quicker since the success rate goes from like 20% with IUI to just over 50% with IVF. However, it is a big step and a lot of money so make sure you're both on board.

DoingItRight

We did 3 before moving on.  We were just going to do two because we are OOP, but did a third so the RE could see how that I responded to injectables.

butterfly843

We have unexplained infertility. I did 3 IUI's, we were lucky our insurance covered unlimited IUI's, but after the third not working my RE recommended IVF.

damabo80

The standard rule of thumb is 3. However, with MFI (assuming no female issues), I know my RE only does once or twice.

Those once or twice attempts allow you to "try out" the meds so that when you do the big she-bang, your dr will know how you react to the meds.

For me, our IF issue was me (DH's boys are rockstars), so as long as they could get me to produce a viable egg, we had a decent chance. So far, I have about 50% luck on getting KUed from IUIs (carrying to term is a different story), so that's why we've done so many IUIs.

triple_sevens

We did three clomid+IUI cycles. We had a chemical with our first and a solid (so far) BFP with our third.

We were getting ready to move on to the next step when we found out the last clomid+IUI had worked. The options we were considering were a few cycles of injectables+IUI or moving straight to IVF. My RE was more in favor of the latter course because she was worried about my risk of triplets with injects. We were favoring the prior course because our IUIs were covered while IVF would not be and we'd been encouraged by the chemical pregnancy.

mlmtgg

we did 2, but were planning on 3 before contemplating IVF. We also asked the doc for any other recommendations before IVF - so we ended up doing lap/hys prior to when we were scheduled to do the 3rd IUI.

biddy53178

We just did our first IUI- my RE said three tries and then IVF-

Court1

I did one & we're taking a break.  My RE says whatever we want to do since we're 100% OOP.