tell me about IUIs

AustinBride06 · December 2011

I'm not giving up hope, but I'm not assuming I'll get pregnant by March (when my OB says that we should start looking into further testing, options, and when I'd like to consult an RE). I'm not really convinced that Clomid will help us... based purely on my own gut feelings I think that an IUI would be a lot more effective. But I've only barely begun to research that.

Can those of you who have done or considered IUIs tell me what your experience was? Why did you decide for/against that route? Did it work? How many tries? Medicated or unmedicated? Anything else I need to consider?

Also, if you don't mind sharing, what was the ballpark billed cost (or insurance negotiated cost)? My insurance doesn't cover it. Stupid A e t n a.

agran · December 2011

easy peasy piece of cake. The process is no big deal-- it has moments of hillarity like when you carry your husband cup-o-sperm to the doctor trying to keep it body temperature. But the procedure is painless like a pap smear.

Obviously my iui's didn't work but we had big sperm issues. We did them because it was easiest to do, cheapest, and DH was not mentally ready to admit defeat and move on to IVF. I used clomid each time-- they monitored me to make sure I had follicles developing. Then I used OPK's when I got a positive I called and did the IUI the next day. DH usually went in the morning to do his drop off first then I went in the afternoon they had washed and prepared the sperm and put it in. We were always told our sperm count then too. DH always went with me to those appointments because damn it if I was going to get knocked up he'd better at least be in the room.

The hardest part for me is mourning the loss that I wasn't going to get pregnant on a romantic tryst... it would be with my feet in stirups in a doctor's office. Oh well... end result is good.

Ours usually cost between $500 and $800. Cheapest infertillity intervention. I was only on clomid though-- injectables are more expensive.

kiarox2002 · December 2011

We elected not to have our insurance billed for our IUIs because we had a very limited amount of fertility coverage and I wanted to save it in case I was able to convince DH to do a round of IVF. We went self pay for the day and it was $250 for the wash and IUI. We may have gotten a discount for paying in full that day? I'm not sure how all of the billing worked out.

I'm a poor responder (Clomid and Femara didn't do much for me) so we did injectables + IUI. DH's count was fine, but Dr S said if we were spending upwards of $500 a month for the medication we should do the IUI just to increase our chances. At that point I was desperate to get pg so we went for it. I have since found out that the Catholic church does not approve of IUI (I thought their beef was only with IVF) so I'm not sure that we would do another one, but we probably would. I'm not very good at following rules.

As for the actual procedure, you have you husband make a deposit in a cup and bring it in to the office. (Dr S has an in-house lab, not sure how this works at other places.) You have to keep it warm on the way there- I think I put it in the waist band of my pants. Then they wash it and isolate the sperm. (I think it took an hour or two?) They insert a catheter through our cervix and put the sperm directly into your uterus. I was really worried that it would hurt, but it wasn't any worse than a bad pap.

Let me think, we did 3 full injectable cycles, but I only responded to 2 of them so we did 2 IUIs. Kate was the result of the second one. I'm more than happy to answer any other questions you have. Good luck!

abh1977 · December 2011

Ditto agran. We were successful on our first try, using only Clomid. I said the EXACT same thing to DH about he'd better at least be in the room! It was super easy. We just both had to have a pretty flexible schedule that week to be able to go in with very little notice.

Our cost was minimal, and we have A e t n a too - must be totally different plans. We even had to pay a higher fee because it was a holiday, but still it wasn't bad. We paid separately for DH's "donation" and the IUI itself. I can't remember exact costs.....total of a couple of hundred I think? I'll try to go back and look.

The one thing that surprised me a little is that I had some cramping for a few hours afterward. It wasn't that bad, I just wasn't expecting it.

I freaked myself out about it, but honestly, there was no reason for that. Lots of luck if you go that route!

amycory2008 · December 2011

We decided to do them after about a year and a half of trying for a #2, and it had been a year since my first m/c. We did a total of four, none of which were successful.

I ovulate regularly, but my OB wanted to use Femara to stimulate my cycles just so we got the "most bang for our buck" as he put it. I would go in between day 1 and 3 of my cycle for an ultrasound, take Femara days 5-8, and then use OPKs to detect the surge. When I got a positive, I went in that day for an ultrasound to check my follicles and then scheduled an IUI for the next day. The actual procedure is really no big deal at all, it's actually much more stressful for DH the day of.

Our insurance doesn't cover anything either, so we had to pay for every visit, every ultrasound, the sperm wash, and the actual procedure. My OB gives a self-pay discount, and usually they won't bill for the first ultrasound of the cycle, but a visit was about $75, an ultrasound is ~$275, the sperm stuff ~$80, and the actual IUI ~$250 I think. I believe those were all the costs, but I could be wrong.

Hope that helps and let me know if you have other questions. Good luck if that's the route you choose to go!

Mainer-in-Texas · December 2011

I did IUI because women with cystic fibrosis (which I have) often have cervical mucus that is too thick for the sperm to swim through, so IUI can help by bypassing the CM. My CM was never tested, but we started IUIs after TTC 8 cycles on our own.

The first two IUIs mostly unmedicated - nothing to stimulate follicle development, but we did do an HCG trigger because OPKs weren't working well for me, so we wanted to get the timing right. I went in on CD 14 and the RE checked my follies and then either administered the trigger or said "Ok, they aren't quite ready yet but will be in 12 hours, so trigger at home tonight." Neither IUI worked. So we added clomid to the third IUI and I got pregnant but had an early m/c. The next two cycles I took clomid, but when I went into the RE's office for an u/s on CD 14, I had already ovulated (that pissed me off!) so we missed it. So, the next cycle my RE had me come in on CD 9 and said I was ready to go and triggered, and we did the IUI the next day. I got PG with my daughter that cycle (our 4th IUI).

Some of my IUIs were actually pretty painful, but I think that's because I have a curve in my cervix (according to my RE).

As far as cost, I paid $18 for clomid, $40 for the trigger shot, and $600 for the IUI. Insurance paid for the ultrasounds.

texasbeachbride · December 2011

Everyone else has given you good info, I agree IUIs are really pretty easy. I only had one painful one out of 6. I was completely out of pocket and everything came out to about $600 a cycle. If you are taking Clomid, it can decrease your cervical mucus and an IUI is a way to bypass that. The only issue we had was that DH got nervous sometimes with his sample and we wouldn't get as good of a sperm count as I think we would have just on our own. But... the cycle that worked was actually our second lowest count of them all and it was pretty low. In fact when they did the IUI the Dr. said don't get too optimistic with this one.

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