IUI, anyone else going through this or have had treatment in the past?

[Jemimapuddleduk]

Hello,
To say I am excited is an under statement!
After nearly 2 years off ttc and 2 miscarriages we have been offered 3 cycles of medicated (via injectables) IUI by our fab NHS trust. It feels like we are finally getting there on our torrid ttc journey!
Me and DH seem to be suffering from infertility with no diagnosable reason (all hormone tests normal, last 2 sperm tests normal, miscarriage testing showed no reason for losses). Still to have the tube test but having that Friday before starting IUI on my next cycle.
Would be lovely to hear from people going through the same at the moment or from you who have had it in the past.

Hi Jemima, I am very sorry to hear of what you are going through. I have also been trying for our first For nearly 2 years (I can't believe it) and I have one miscarriage behind me about 20 months ago now. No reasons can really be found. I did 2 x IUi before Xmas and had gonalF injections with this. Sadly it didn't work but I hope you have much better luck. My 3rd IuI was cancelled as I produced too many eggs.
If you have any questions please do ask away. IuI is acTually ok just undignified but it's not painful. I had a melt down with the self injecting but I finally got to grips with it. I also had an hsg last year and was put on clomid although I ovulated. It's frustrating, perplexing, worrying and miserable all at the same time! How are you coping and when was your last m/c?

Hello joycep thank you for getting in touch so quickly. That's rubbish news that you were not successful with your attempts at IUI, what is the next step for you?
I have been really down about the whole ttc business, I feel as though it has really dented my confidence, made me a bit bitter, affected my friendships as I don't feel so sociable and generally made my life less fun! It had been our first 2 years of marriage-dom too and i feel it has put a massive downer on things! I want the old me back! Having said that, being offered this treatment feels like a real turning point and I am starting to feel excited about the whole ttc business again. How are you coping?
We have been trying for nearly 2 years, we fell pg after 11 months of ttc then had a mc at 7 weeks, we then fell pg immediately after but had a mmc at 11 weeks. I then assumed it would happen again easily but here we are 10 cycles on (last 2 were clomid too) with no bfp! Tests have not revealed any problems, which is re assuring but also annoying as I want to 'fix' it!
I may well be asking you some more IUI questions once I begin, I am relieved to hear it's not too painful.

Hi ladies

I had unstimulated IUI August 2010 after 2 3/4 years ttc. It wasn't the most successful think medically as they couldn't get the tube inside my cervix :( We bd that evening too and I'm sitting feeding my 8 month old baby daughter to sleep.

I found the whole process of conceiving VERY stressful, disrupting all areas of my life,as you described above, jemima. but I'm happy to answer questions or just be a giver of hope XXX

Oooh soandso that was just the sort of story I wanted to hear! You have brightened my day and made me well up a bit too.
I am so glad you had a happy ending.
Thank you for sharing and I may take up your offer of firing questions at you once I have had my app.

Hi Jemima - everything you said rings true with me too. I'm sorry you are experiencing the same thing. Last year in particular was one of the most difficult for me. I have also become bitter and I find i ignore social events now and avoid friends. I am often on edge when I do have to go to big dinners because I dread someone announcing a pregnancy. I feel like I have changed and I just want to go back to the old , jolly, carefree me.
I'm sorry about your miscarriages. You know I have talked to other people who have had miscarriages and some of them took ages to conceive again. One person took 2 years. Another woman who has 4 kids and conceived quickly with all of them except after she had a miscarriage where it took her 10 months. So you mustn't give up hope and to conceive twice is a very good sign - although extremely bad luck they didn't work out.
For me, I have taken a step back from all of the treatment. We were going private and it just wasn't financially sustainable. I'm giving it a rest for the next 3-6months and am seeing some natural kind of witch doctor guy who says i need to change my diet and sort out my hypoglycaemia. I'm also just using natural progesterone cream as i think my levels are a little low. Well you never know! And then I guess IVF after the summer if that doesn't work.
soandsomum - lovely, lovely story - it's so nice to hear of success stories of the long term ttc'ers.

Hi Joycep, I wish you all the best over the next few months. The natural doctor idea sounds very interesting and I think alternative therapies can play a bigger role than some believe.
It definitely helps to know that others are going through the same range of awful feelings, I just hope it doesn't affect me forever and that I go back to my old self once we finally get pg! On a positive the last 2 years has made me a lot more empathetic and understanding towards other peoples feelings though too.
I think with the mc's you hear a lot about people falling pg again so quickly (and they seemed to on the mc support group I was on here) but that doesn't paint the full picture.
Anyhow, had my tubes tested this morning and they are all clear so we are ready to go on the IUI front next cycle!
Best of luck with everything and thanks for sharing your experience.

Hi jemima
Glad your tubes are good. Did you get to see them? I did and was amazed as of course most ladies don't see theirs.

I can vouch for the crazy feelings going as soon as I was pg. It took me a while to transition from feeling like a ttc-er to pregnant though.

Hope your iui road is smooth, short and successful x

We had unexplained infertility and after two and a half years trying we fell pregnant the month I was due to start iui. I was meant to take the clomid on day 3 of the cycle but af didn't come. And no, I wasn't bloody relaxed about it because treatment was starting.
Good luck.

I had been looking at this as an option for us.

My consultant has told me I cannot have IVF on the NHS as my DH has a child, but would we be eligible for IUI?

Anyone know?

soandso, sadly I didn't get to see my tubes, the screen was positioned away from me! I forgot to ask, in fact I find when I assuming the legs akimbo position I am generally rendered a bit speechless (and usually I never shut up!). Big relief that all ok .
Also good to hear that once you got pg you felt more back to normal self.
yellowflowers, thanks for sharing your story, so glad it all worked out for you. I have already had the annoying 'it will happen for you just before you start treatment, or it will happen when you relax', grrr, v annoying.
pippi the rules for eligibility vary wildly from each pct area (which is v unfair). Best thing is to look on the website for your lOcal pct (primary care trust) and you can see the rules
Good luck!

jemima, thanks.I'll check out what the criteria is for my local NHS trust. I know I can't have IVF, as my DH has a child who was already an adult whren I met my DH, which I think makes it very unfair that I can't have IVF.

I'll have to check to see if the criteria for IUI and IVF are different. Hope so :(

Hi everyone, I am about to start my first IUI cycle in a few day' time. I had the scan this morning and hard as they tried (and believe me, they kept 'stirring' and prodding for about 20 minutes!), they could not find my ovaries which is a bit ...However, given my previous scans (the last one about 3 months ago) they decided we'd go ahead so I'm injecting for the first time tomorrow and having a second scan on Friday to see if we're good to go...

We've also been ttcing for almost 2 years with no success at all. I am sorry for those of you who've had to deal with mcs. My best friend has had 3 in quick succession and I know first-hand how painful and demoralising it is. It is certainly a challenging journey and I can relate to all of the feelings that you mention as I've been through every emotion possible: down, angry, jealous, deflated, resigned...the lot. Now at least I feel we are doing something about it after almost a year of waiting for appointments and tests. I am not very optimistic as it seems one of my tubes is blocked and I'll be 36 next month but I've heard all sort of unlikely success stories so I know it's not impossible. We've been looking into having IVF privately as our local hospital is not funding it any more (I was told about this at my last appointment with the consultant and burst our crying out of sheer frustration). I tried reflexology a couple of times but since money is a bit tight at the moment, I decided to wait until we've had the 3 goes at IUI.

It's not easy but so many of us are on the same boat and it's great to hear about positive outcomes...Good luck to all!

MCT, sorry you have had a rough time of the ttc business, it is so unfair but it does help to know others are going through a similar thing.
Sounds as though it's all progressing well for you, good luck this week, keep us posted! You are a few weeks ahead of me (we collect injections and drugs this week then start in around 2 weeks time when I get af), so I would be really interested to see how you get on, how the injections go, the actual process etc.
I agree all we can do is be really positive, it's a helping hand in the right direction! From what i have heard you can have sex the days after and before
the actual IUI, so that should improve chances even more?
Wishing you lots and lots of luck with it all!

Hi there,

I had my first injection of Gonal f this evening and we're still unsure as to whether we've done it properly. I was a bit shaky as I've never injected myself so asked DH to do it. We read the instruction booklet several times and did exactly as it said...but we then looked online to make sure and we got some very confusing messages about the pen having to click several times which it didn't do...so now we don't know! I will call the nurse tomorrow and hopefully she will be able to clarify matters for us but it's all a bit confusing tbh.
Thanks for your well wishes, Jemima! I am glad that we can offer support and hand holding through here as these can be very testing times. I will check with the nurse re having sex and whether it helps...at the moment, I am fed up 'trying' and cannot wait for the day when we can go back to having sex just 'for fun'!

Hello ladies-just wanted to pop on and say we had succes with IUI in 2010-sadly ended in MMC-now on ICSI thread having had another MMC since-found no underlying cause... IUI is a fairly straightforward process and we MAY consider it again in the future-it allows spermies to get to the places so to speak they maybe would not get to in SWI but yes you can BD and see what happens!! Wishing you all lots of luck in your treatments x