IUI or IVF

[Bryterlayter1]

Hey Mumsnet!

I'm looking for some perspectives on my upcoming decision. I am a lesbian and my partner and I have made the decision to try and have a child. I will be 39 in a couple of months. I've been to a local fertility clinic to have an MOT. Uterus and ovaries look good, normal blood flow, 6 follicles in my left ovary and they couldn't get a good enough view of my right ovary to count follicles (they could see one very clearly as I was about to ovulate) but amh came back at 18.8, which DR says is good for my age and likely means right ovary has more follicles that the left. Clinic suggested that I could try IUI (as I would be under 40), but also suggested IVF lite is a possibility. I have no known fertility issues and have a mostly regular cycle.

IUI is certainly less expensive, and also less invasive, but IVF has a better chance of success. Any thoughts or advice is welcome.

[SteffieIUI]

Hi, I'm in a similar situation (except we have male factor infertility) and we are going to do a 3 cycle package of IUI for less than the price of 1 round of IVF. So the the IUI odds added together will be higher than 1 round of IVF if you see what I mean?

I'm 37, tubes clear, AMH is good, but I do have a history of PCOS.

If your tubes are clear and you are ovulating I think IUI is worth a good go as it's so much less invasive for you as well.

Good luck, be good to hear how you get on we are going for our first consultation at UCLH on 28th October

[LaniB]

Hi im in the same boat me and my partner are trying for our second child. My partner carried our first. Im 30 and had the hycosy test to make sure everything was ok they theought everything looked great. We are on our second round of iui we have our blood test for next week so fingers crossed. We went for iui because thats what we found would work for us, we have decided on 3 cycles and if it doesnt work we will go for ivf. We were told that after 3 iui cycles your chances drop significantly so best to do 3 then have a rethink about what to do next but we know it will be ivf after this.

Hope this helps and good luck :)

[itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted]

I've read before that IUI has much lower success rates so you have to factor in multiple rounds of IUI (nearing 10) before you reach the same odds of one round of IVF

[SteffieIUI]

The official stats are here and are broken down by age here www.hfea.gov.uk/treatments/explore-all-treatments/intrauterine-insemination-iui/

It's 14% success per cycle for ages 38-39 so after 3 cycles that's a 42% chance ?

Interesting the IVF success rate for the same age range is only 15% per cycle www.hfea.gov.uk/treatments/explore-all-treatments/in-vitro-fertilisation-ivf/

So cost wise IUI is a better value for money as you can have more goes ?

[Bryterlayter1]

Thank you for all of the messages, that's really helpful. Dr at the clinic told me that IUI would have about a 20-25% chance per cycle (because I have no known fertility problems, just no sperm!) and that IVF was about 45-50% chance. This is assuming i have no fertility issues (which who knows, I may and I just might not know it). Anyway I think we will go for 3 IUIs to start, if that doesn't work we can try IVF, that seems the most sensible way forward. Thank you for all your help.