IVF - IUI

NYDaisies · December 2016

Hello everyone! I'm hoping to hear other experiences and/or advice. My husband and I have been struggling with infertility for a couple of years. Over the Summer the Urologist prescribed him Clomid due to all his counts being low. After three months of being on Clomid his numbers increased. In September his test levels went from 213 to 818, Semen went from 5 mill/ml to 12 mill/ml and his motility was .8 and went to 1.6%. With his motility still that low we decided to just head straight to the fertility clinic.

We've been going to the fertility clinic for the past two months and my husband had another S/A a few days ago. Today in our follow up appointment to discuss final details on what to expect for IVF, our doctor started steering us in another direction. The doctor gave us the results of his recent S/A and his concentration is 22.5 million/ml, motility magically jumped to 68.85%!! Which is totally crazy!! and Normal morphology is only 8%

Doctor suggested IUI because he said my husbands S/A was completely normal? We had our hearts and minds set on IVF this month and the high success rates. As happy as we about all the improvement we don't really know what to think.

Has anyone had or heard of success with IUI with similar numbers? I guess I'm not familiar with what "normal" is lol. We've been nervous about IUI because this infertility journey is completely out of pocket.. We are scared to spend money on a few failed attempts of IUI when we could've put that money toward IVF.

I'd love to hear what you guys think..
Thanks in advance

HopefulLily · December 2016

I have to just say from my experience, I wish I'd never wasted time and money doing IUIs and gone straight to IVF. I had unexplained infertility and my husbands tests all came back normal so we though we would try IUIs but we did 4 and had no luck. The success rates are so low for IUIs, like 15% or something, I know it does work for some people but it doesn't seem like it works for most people. That's just my experience with it all. Tomorrow I will be 6wks pregnant from our first IVF/FET cycle (we did ICSI and PGS testing on our embryos). Best of luck to you!

NYDaisies · December 2016

Congratulations!! I'm so happy for you! I'm sorry to hear about the IUI's but I'm so glad to hear IVF worked the first time for you. This entire process is so negative. As far as IUI I feel the same way. Part of me wants to give IUI a whirl hoping to be part of that small percentage but the other half of me doesn't want to risk it. Thanks for your opinion.

2MomsHoping · December 2016

@NYDaisies the success rates for IUI is so low it hardly makes and jump in statistics over just trying the old fashioned way. I know it does work for some people but with this being out of pocket I might get a second opinion about the IVF. Or say if everything is normal ask about maybe some clomid for you to up your chances with timed intercourse. Good luck to you both.

bobby2016 · December 2016

Hey @NYDaisies -- I've done three IUI's currently in process of starting my fourth. (All BFN, so far).

My husband had a pretty poor first sample, moderately low count + motility and 1% morphology. Since we started IUIs, his counts have consistently increased and gotten way, way better.

I totally understand your dilemma, since it's almost like having a 'fresh start'. I'm always questioning whether this technically puts us back at 'Month 1' and now would I be jumping the gun to move onto IVF.

BUT, I'm also with you on the not wanting to waste more time.

FWIW, IUIs are covered for us, so we may give a few more a go. But also not really happy with the success rate.

wifeinraleigh28 · December 2016

Hey there! This is such a dilemma for sure. We ended up doing 3 IUIs because our insurance covered them (we have no IVF coverage) and they didn't work of course. We are in a similar boat with MFI as our diagnosis. My DH was put on Clomid which greatly improved his counts, but still we didn't see any success with IUI. Even in the best case scenario (meaning both partners are completely healthy), IUI only has about a 15% chance of success, which is about the same as trying on your own.

*TW* We had success with our very first IVF/FET (ICSI and PGS testing as well, just like @HopefulLily ) and I am now 14 weeks pregnant. First BFP ever! I do wish we never even wasted all that time on IUIs, but I was so hopeful back then that it would work...

I hope you are able to come to a decision that you feel comfortable with!

MMD1986 · December 2016

@NYDaisies I can't speak from a MFI standpoint, but when I first started seeing our RE I was so tempted to ask if we could skip straight to IVF instead of wasting time and money on IUIs (we are all out of pocket as well). Testing for my husband came back normal though, and mine blood work only showed hypothyroidism, which was easy to "fix" by taking levothyroxine. So the RE thought IUIs were a good option for us. We did two, and both were unsuccessful. One in March and one in June.

Long story short, the ultrasounds during my June IUI showed what my RE called kissing ovaries, so he said if that IUI didn't work he wanted to do an exploratory laparoscopy to separate my ovaries to see if that would fix the problem. During surgery he found stage IV endometriosis, which led to 4 months of Lupron Depot treatment and a larger laparotomy a few weeks ago to clean everything up. Currently, I am waiting on AF to start so my husband and I can repeat our baseline testing from one year ago to make sure everything looks normal before we get on the IVF wait list (we are hoping for March because Jan/Feb are already booked).

While the IUIs did cost money and took an emotional toll, I ended up being glad we did them even though they were unsuccessful. They did lead to finding out the cause of my infertility, and I also know how I respond to some of the different medications. I've read on here people having to cancel cycles or ovulating early during and IVF cycle due to lack of response to certain medications.

I think everyone's situation is so different that it is hard to say which is the right or wrong way to go about this journey. Whichever route you choose, I hope you are successful!

liljoy-2 · December 2016

IUIs have such a low probability if we have infertility issues to begin with and are over 35. But trying a couple doesnt hurt because it's more natural and gentle on our bodies. I did a natural IUI first just to check and to "save" the heavy artillery hormones for IVF. It was BFN. Doing a second one this month just because clinic is closed for IVFs .

hellobabyLC · December 2016

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Polythene Pam · December 2016

Not the same diagnosis but my doctor wanted to do 3 months of IUI and clomid (I have a blocked tube). It's all out of pocket so like you, I just want the fastest most successful route. I meet with my RE on Monday where we'll push to just do IVF. I know it'll be more expensive and harder on me but we've been testing and experimenting for too long, I just want success

best of luck!!

sberries · December 2016

I agree with @HopefulLily. We wasted both time and money with IUI. IVF is more expensive, but I feel like the doctors have more control and the success rates are so much higher. Just my two cents... I know others have had success with IUI, but from personal experience, I would go with IVF.

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