question about back-to-back IUI

twobrooklynmoms · December 2013

My wife and I are doing our first IUI in 2 weeks or so. There are two doctors in the practice we've been going to. One of them says he likes to do 2 IUI's per cycle and the other doctor says there's no proof that's more effective.

It does seem to make sense that 2 tries gives us a better chance of BFP, but I'm afraid he's just recommending that because he can bill the insurance company twice as much. We have limited insurance coverage for TTC so if its not really going to help, I don't want to burn through our coverage amount in half the time.

Have any of you been recommended back-to-back IUI? Any advice would be really appreciated. Thanks!

trisholio · December 2013

We have previously done insemination at home, but we are doing an IUI this month. We would do at least two insemination and one month we did three. I do not think it is uncommon to do two IUI back to back.

c&jei · December 2013

Hi there!

We did back to back IUI's several times and had no luck. This time we used two vials at one time and it worked. Our friends used one vial and only had one egg and got pregnant.. In my experience I think it just comes down to timing..

Good Luck!!!

GoaliesWife123 · December 2013

I don't think that there are any guarantees. More sperm gives you more of a shot, statistically speaking, but I think it is more of a personal preference when it comes to how many you want to do.

twobrooklynmoms · December 2013

Thanks guys, we're doing Ovidrel to trigger so I should ask exactly when he recommends doing each IUI. Also, we're using donor sperm so its not only 2x doctors fees, its also an additional vial per cycle which costs about $750. I just don't want to blow through our savings if its not proven to be beneficial.

Jazibel · December 2013

Disclaimer - I forgot the exact % but our midwife told us it was only a small % increase (maybe 3-5% for using 2 vials instead of 1. When we were doing IUI's we chose to use 1 vial per IUI and focused on timing.

Good luck whichever you chose!

ATXmommas · December 2013

My RE also said there is no evidence that back-to-back IUIs increases your chances - especially if you don't have any known fertility problems. We just had 1 IUI per cycle. 2 IUIs/cycle would have cost us almost $1000 more per cycle. GL!

KH826 · December 2013

I agree that back-to-back IUIs seem appealing b/c it gives you more than one shot per cycle to "get it right"... and we almost did back-to-back IUIs one month, but our RE recommended against it due to the additional cost and no proven evidence that it would increase our chances. I agree with PP that with IUIs it really comes down to timing (and a little bit of luck) if there are no other issues going on.

One other thing that I will note is that if you are planning on triggering with Ovidrel, then you will know pretty much exactly when you will ovulate. With that mind, it takes the guess work out almost entirely, and doing 2 IUIs really wouldn't be necessary. I think the idea of doing two is to cover more time during your fertile window, but if you are triggering ovulation and can pinpoint when it is occuring, more than one insemination is not really needed. Just a thought...

Good luck & keep us posted!

healz413 · December 2013

Our RE also says there is no evidence to support two IUIs when you are doing a timed insemknation at the RE's office. This is even more so the case when you are using the ovidrel trigger which, as KH826 says, will narrow down the ovulation window significantly.

Everything that I've read and heard leads me to believe that in your case where costs would be almost double and you're using IUI that it would be significantly better to spread the sperm and insurance coverage over two months, which will truly give you twice the shot of getting pregnant. (ie doing one insemination per cycle means you can try for twice as many cycles and this significantly increases the chances of getting "a good egg" as our RE puts it)

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