Donor IUI?

[MinnieMooMoo]

Hello! Just looking for a group/quiche to join but not really sure where I fit it.

I'm intending to go it alone and have Donor Insemination by IUI starting in January providing my investigations all come back clear.

Any one else in the same boat, or has done it alone in the past?

P.S. Just threw my toys out of the pram with my clinic. I called up to make an appointment with the consultant and I was told 02 March was the earliest possible date. So I had a major rant, told them I was not satisfied with the service they're providing, that I urgently need an appointment,demanded to speak to a manager, and told them we are thinking of changing clinic and can we please have our unused vial of sperm... Ooopsie. I blame the hormones, I can get away with that, right?

Anyway, it worked cos they phoned back all apologetic and offered us an appointment on Monday.

I feel bad if we've bumped anyone but I am getting fed up of them being useless. I am impatient and just want to find out what's gone wrong and get on with doing it right.

That said I was talking to my wife last night about our options - whether we switch to IVF or consider adopting etc. And I think I'm coming round to the adopting option. Not saying we're going to go for it but previously had kind of thought of it as a last chance solution to having kids. Hmm, interesting how things change. Anyway, we'll see....

Oh my bad - you are doing medicated! Sorry for assuming! .

Ah you're not taking/administering as many injections as I thought you would be, which is good. Ah you're brave - I think I'd have to go round to my Mums every day for her to give me the injection - I'm not squeamish with needles at all, but for some reason, having to give myself one makes me go funny, haha! It's better than I thought it'd be tho - I thought they'd actually give you like a proper needle to inject yourself with, not like an allergy pen. That's so much better to handle - I may be able to stretch myself to giving myself it, ha ha!

Ah I don't blame you at all for not telling the world about going through the treatment. I mean, I'm sitting on the fence - I've told my family, yet can't bring myself to tell my Godmothers and other certain people. At the end of the day, it's down to you and what you feel is right. If you don't feel like the timing is right, or you're uncomfortable with people knowing, you're not obliged and have to tell them. It's personal discretion

Thank you so much for replying to me - and so in depth - in your lunch hour! I really appreciate it.
I'm going to pay my GP a visit soon I think. He'll be able to do the baseline blood tests at the very least which will save me a bit. Thank you for trying to remember - again, it means so much! I'm not 100% sure my GP would be co-operative, but we'll have to wait and see. Hopefully this thread goes on for a good few weeks yet, and I can update you all on how my appointment with the GP goes!

Ha ha, same weird boat. I guess it is slightly strange if you look at it from an outsiders point of view! But it feels so right for us, doesn't it? I think I'm going to book into an open evening just to hear more about things. It won't do any harm, and I know for definite this is the route I want to go down, whether it be next month or next year. Any information is good information!

I LOVE Labradors! They're beautiful names, too!! My nan had a white/golden one, she was adorable. She passed away about two years ago now, she was called Lucy . I have a Pug X Yorkie, called tessie. She's the absolute love of my life, lol!

No no don't worry about how long it takes to reply. I know you're going to so that's the main thing . After going a year without any other anecdotes and experiences from any other ladies, now I've found you I don't want to let you go, haha!

What, you paid £1000, and that gave you five rounds of IUI with that same donor..? Or have I interpreted that wrong? If I've got it right, that's amazing! Especially seeing as it costs the best part of a grand to do it for one procedure.

So, if (again) I've got this right, do you think my first IUI will cost around £1570? Or would that be for the second, etc? And did you pay the £1700 and £1100 on the first cycle, or was it £1100 then you paid the remaining £600 to make it £1700?

I'm just thinking because if I have my IUI, it'll cost £1570 (or there abouts) and I'll have to pay the £300 for meds, £1/200 consultation fee... And would that be it, making it around £2k or just over? And then my second round would be more like £1570?

As you can probably tell, my maths is shocking. I've not got a maths brain at ALL - I'm quite disastrous when it comes to maths, really. But give me English/reading/writing any day and I'll fly through it..!

No no, you've not confused anything or have said anything wrong - you're really helping, actually.
IUI seems the best option for me I think. IVF seems really invasive, plus so much more money, and on the CARE fertility website for Northampton, it says that (I think I'm recalling this correctly) that in three cycles, 33% of women will fall pregnant - that's a third, and seeing as I've got no problems fertility wise (or so I think/hope), I can't see why IUI wouldn't work for me eventually. I'd rather have a good few rounds of IUI than save for one round of IVF and be disappointed and not fall pregnant. Seems realistic to me to just go for IUI.

Oh I'm exactly the same. I need to know why a going on and why - I'm so curious but I don't see it as a bad thing!

Whoops, I'm glad you've had it out with your clinic. They're not treating you fairly at all, and if they could offer you an appointment for Monday, why couldn't they do that in the first place? 2nd March is actually awful, it's eight weeks away!!! Don't feel bad. You're paying them money, you've every right to feel and act the way you do.

Adoption is such a lovely thing to do. It's down to you completely, and if you feel as though that's the best option for you now, go for it. Nobody can tell you & your wife what's best for you - and I know whatever way you choose to do things, when you finally become parents I know you'll be great! X

Oh my goodness, an essay!

Quick reply back from me, sorry...

Sorry I might have confused you a little on the injections. I take Gonal F injection once a day every day from day 3 to usually about day 10/11 (depends on your cycle length, mine are quite short ~25/26 days) so you might need a couple more days, but lets say maybe 8 days of doing this once a day. Does that make sense? But generally you just buy the 1 pen device and it normally has enough shots in it to do 1 a day for about 8 days (again depends on the actual drug you're using, I know Kwik has been put on a different drug and that may well just be clinic to clinic variation). I too was not happy to inject myself but was surprised at how easy I found it. Again, if you can or want to find someone to do it for you then that's great.

So for the sp3rm, we paid £1000 up front to use that donor and reserve 5 vials. Then when it came to the turkey basting we paid about £600 per vial to actually use the stuff. I presume some clinics don't charge the £1000 up front but each vial might then be a little more pricey. I don't know. I have the figures for the other clinics we were considering at home, but didn't look at either of the 2 you're looking at so wouldn't know what they charge.

To clarify - we paid for 1 consultation appointment up front and 1 x £1000 sp3rm reserve charge up front. After that all cycles cost the same at about £1700 a pop (including everything, meds, scans, bloods, etc). Hopefully your clinic won't charge the up front £1000 and then it will just be the same per go. Shouldn't be more than £2K a pop I don't think and some places are quite a bit cheaper, but make sure you don't go for cheap over good... Looking at your numbers I think you might be charged the £1570 + ~£300 meds per go. So that's £1870. But I could be wrong - the meds might already be included in the £1570. Best to go to an open evening and ask the clinic direct as I'm really no expert. As a guess I would say £1500 - £2000 per go would be expected.

Also, don't forget at any point you can change your mind and change what procedure you want to go for. Currently we're doing IUI but I suszpect at some point if it continues to not be successful we will switch to IVF due to the higher success rate (and me getting on a bit as this seems to be taking a few years to get anywhere).

I think you're roughly right %s wise. Obviously depends on your age and other stuff but I think in my category (probably 30-35 when I started) we were looking at about 13% success each shot with IUI and about 35% success each shot with IVF. So roughly 3 x more success with IUI. But if you have time on your hands which you do, and want to be less invasive/disruptive...

I'm just taking a little look online at the clinic which was 2nd best option for us when we came to picking... just to see what prices etc are if we did decide to switch clinics. Not that I'm thinking of doing that at all... ;)

It was an essay wasn't it - i do apologise . Sorry!!

Ahhh so you're still on an injection a day for a good week or so then...! And then you said you take another single injection (Ovitrelle?)? Still, that's not too many - I thought there'd be about four/five different ones I'd have to inject myself with throughout the course of my cycle - but I think I'm thinking of IVF because I read up a lot about that at the end of last year. Do you have to do anything/take anything once you've had your IUI done? Ah if the thought of injecting yourself is worse than actually doing it, I think I'd be okay. But then again, I can't even wax my top lip myself without struggling to find the strength to pull the strip off haha!

From what I can gather, the LWC in Luton charge £795 for non-medicated IUI, and and that includes sperm preparation as it's got a breakdown on the price list. Actually purchasing the sperm is more expensive - £950.
On the CARE fee schedule, it's not specific - it doesn't even have different prices for non-medicated and medicated IUI, just has 'IUI' under the heading of 'Artificial Insemination', and seeing as I can't find 'sperm preparation' on the list I'm assuming it's in with the £810 price of IUI.

Ah so it's similar to LWC - they charge £950 per vial of sperm, or £1250 for three (I think). Getting 5 vials for £1000 is quite a good bargain, actually, albeit paying £600 per cycle to have it prepared!
You're right though, because each round of IUI I'll have/need, I'll have to pay £760 minimum for a vial, plus the £810 IUI - but the prep of the sperm is included (from what I can gather) in the £810, so it's not all bad.

Because I won't need to pay the £1000 up front for the sperm as I'll be paying per round, I'll just need to pay for the consultation, right? Plus a fertility assessment? I'm a little confused on something, though, and was wondering whether you could shed some light... On the CARE fee schedule, it says "detailed pre-treatment scan - including antral follicle count", which is £110, or you've got "fertility assessment - female" for £320 - which would would I need to have? Again, this is something I should probably ask my clinic/consultant, but I was wondering whether you knew the difference too? From what I make of it, a detailed pre-treatment scan is the one I'd need - and the fertility assessment is for ladies who have been struggling to conceive to check everything's ok? Again, I'm not sure, so I could be completely wrong.

£1570 is much better than I thought it'd be - even £1870 is a lot better. I expected it to be around £2500 because of how shocking and unclear the CARE fee schedule is - and plus, being a newbie and having not ever talked about this with someone who knows what they're talking about from experience, I kind of just made a rough number from all the things I thought I'd need. I'm definitely going to book myself on an open evening. But I did email both clinics last night and asked if they could perhaps give me a rough price of how much it'd be, just so I knew what I was looking at. Just waiting for them to get back now, which I hope won't take too long!

Oh I know, lovely . After a few rounds of IUI, if I'm not successful I may just have to save up and give IVF a go. I'm hoping I will be successful though at IUI - but at the same time I'm not pinning all my hopes on being successful first time round, or even second time.
CARE are offering an IVF refund plan - which is what made me think of IVF being the better option - where you have to be under 37 and using your own eggs, pay between £9,200 & £13,200 (it didn't specify who you'd need to be to be in the lower/higher bracket) and you get three rounds of IVF included. If you weren't successful after three attempts, you get a 70% refund. Just thought I'd let you know in case it's something you are going to seriously consider .

Hm, that's so interesting. You would've thought that, being 2016, they'd have a way of making IUI a bit more than 13% success rate, and making IVF success rates higher, too. From what I can gather, the amount of live births under 35 at CARE Northampton is just slightly under 50% - something like 49.8%. It doesn't specify how many % of births are from IUI and how many are from IVF, but the Northampton CARE clinic success rates are the best in the country (against other CARE clinics). So I'm quite happy to have my treatment there.

Haha, I don't blame you if you are considering switching clinics! Your clinic ( no offence ) sounds a bit blasé about everything! Especially with saying they haven't got an appointment til March 2nd and then giving you one for Monday... when you told me that originally, it made me smile lol! What was your second choice of clinic? X

Whoopsie - another essay again TayDex! Sorry sorry sorry

Nope - I lied! Just double checked, CARE fertility Northampton live birth success rate is 43.8%. Still better than the second best clinic who's success rate is 36.5% x

I lied again . I think it's East Midlands and West Midlands clinics that have been compared - and Northamptons CARE has a better live birth success rate by 12.3%... X

Hi Caution,

Just a quick one because I am half way through cooking my dinner (steak - medium. Definitely not recommended during certain parts (and therefore I say from day 1 to be extra safe) of IUI. Yum!).

Check out this website www.hfea.gov.uk/fertility-clinics-success-rates.html for comparable against each other success rates to help you decide. I might check mine out later but not great to see on this phone.

TD x

Excellent. Thanks TayDex - I'll have a gander at that in a while. I'm just half way through cooking my dinner too - a roast! My favourite dinner haha! X

Wow! I sure have been away for a while... How many postings have there been?!

You both should be joyous regarding your youth... I am on about 5% success rate for unmedicated iui and 20% for medicated.

My menopur injections were different - a prepared vial that I think had to measure out correct amount for a new needle each time... I got quite into it! The needle is so thin that it does not hurt much at all (like ovitrelle one) and I felt a bit like a nurse... i always wanted to be one when I was young!

Just arrived in second city of the week. Staying somewhere very obscure but cosy and will do for the 2 nights I am here for until I fly on to next destination.

Feel meh... Lots of pre- af symptoms and think I have a cold coming which is a real dillema as the only medication I have with me is paracetomol with codeine which j think I am not supposed to take or lemsip, ditto.

See you later - have to make a work call.... No rest for the wicked!

TayDex - I've had a look at that website you passed on, and I've definitely made my decision based on my findings...

Based on non-medicated IUI, London Woman's Clinic in Luton have a 5% - 19% predicted chance of an average patient having a live birth, most likely around 10.2%, whereas CARE Northamptons predicted chance of an average patient having a live birth is 3% - 89%, most likely around 33.3% chance - a whopping 23.1% chance more! It's definitely cemented my decision, and I'm about to book an open evening with them on Monday 1st Feb.. Just under three weeks away! I have a feeling I've just missed out on the January one, but ah well.

Hi Kwick! You're an extremely busy lady!
Ooh having to measure out the liquid from the vial would make me paranoid id be getting it wrong - mind you, I don't suppose you can get it majorly wrong, can you? Knowing me I'd still manage to cock up .
Pre-AF symptoms can be pregnancy symptoms though - you're not out until the Witch rears her ugly head!!! Will you be back by wkend in time to test?? Make sure you update us when you do POAS - i can't wait to know!!

Look after yourself Kwick x

Your message made me feel all warm and fuzzy! Thanks!

Hello ladies,

Caution - they don't make it easy to find out how much you're going to have to pay, do they? I'd ask the clincs themselves as they all vary so much. I'd also recommend doing an open day evening thing with both of the clinics you've shortlisted, just to compare them and see if one gives you the warm fuzzy feeling or if one is not so nice. Just a suggestion.

I'm not sure about the"detailed pre-treatment scan - including antral follicle count" or "fertility assessment - female". I think this is probably the stuff I had done on the NHS (various blood tests, plus a hysterosalpingogram (apologies for spelling) and an ultrasound). I could be wrong. Again, maybe ask the clinic/GP.

Yes, my clinic offers some kind of IVF money back guarantee thing too. I've not really looked into it, but have seen leaflets in the waiting room so will pick one up next time I'm there. I presume it's the same kind of thing.

I find the problem with the success rates for IUI is that most clinics don't actually perform many per year in each age bracket so they're not massively accurate. For example they may have only done 1 IUI and if it wasn't successful it will say your chances are e.g. 0-80% chance of success. Where as with IVF if they've done 100 cycles and say 42 are successful they will say the predicted range is e.g. 37-47% or something. So just be a bit wary of that. If you want I can look on the HFEA website and see what it looks like for your 2 clinics and try to explain more clearly - let me know.

Back in a mo...

TD x

Kwik,

My 'youth' is not far behind yours, I'm 36...

See if you can get some just paracetamol. I spoke to the nurse at my clinic and she said decongestants are a no no. Nice of her to tell me after my cold - why don't they tell you this up front?!

Hope all is well with your travels. Stay strong, you never know, this could be your time...

TD x

I ditto td on this - go to open evenings - I promise at each one you will learn something new. Also do not be intimidated by others there - they often ask great questions!

Good afternoon TayDex and Kwick!

I have just been emailing my local CARE clinic and she broke down the price for me and told me everything else I would need to have done, and the cost of it all.

So, IUI is £810, and donor sperm £760. Plus the scans I'll need to have, which is £165. Then the doctors consultation at £185, and all the blood tests and their prices. They do check for CMV - so I'd need to have that done, too. She said I'm more than welcome to go to my GP and have the HIV, Hep B, Hep C, Rubella and Chlamydia tests done through him... So that'll save £304 straight off! I had a chlamydia test done in November last year because I had a water infection and he said he may as well send it off for analysis, and it came back negative, and she said the shelf life of the chlamydia test is quite a while so I wouldn't need to repeat it. She also said some GP's in Northamptonshire are reluctant to do the bloodwork if you're privately funding, but he's known me since I was 11, so I don't think I'll have any problems there.

I also asked whether I could have the doctors consultation now (or in a month or two) and still proceed with treatment in 6-8 months, or whether the consult needs to be close to treatment dates - she said if it's after a year they may want to review at a lower cost of £120, but it's ok to have the appointment and go ahead with treatment half a year or so later without needing another one. Am I still making sense?! Haha

I also asked whether I needed to pay the full balance of everything on the day of my doctors consultation because upon researching some clinics, they want the entire treatment costs etc on the day of the initial doctors appointment. But that's not the case with CARE either - I'll pay for the treatment costs (£810 + £760) on the first day of my treatment cycle.

So all in all, it's going to cost me around £1,920 which isn't bad at all. As I said to you the other day TayDex, I assumed it would cost about £2,500. If I take away the cost of the doctors appointment and the scans which I'll have before the IUI, the actual cost of my treatment that I'll have to pay on the day is £1,570 - which is what you said TayDex!! You were spot on .

I'm still waiting to hear back on whether I've been booked into the open evening on 1st Feb, but I'll have my doctors appointment around March I should think, because the lady I've been speaking to said that I'll need to see the donor coordinator and the counsellor pretty much on the same day - but the donor coordinator & counsellor appointments are both free of charge!

I have woken up in a very good mood today. Seems to me like I can do this all so much quicker. Maybe in 3-4 months instead of 6-8. Hope you're both having a glorious day x

Hi ladies - didn't see your messages before I sent mine... Doh!

I'm definitely going to the open evening - I'm just waiting to hear back to see whether my places have been booked (you have to do it through email). I can't wait for it, though. It finally seems as though I can get the ball rolling now. The lady I spoke to through email at CARE was fantastic. I'm still waiting to hear back from LWC in Luton, I sent the email same time as I sent it to CARE. So far, CARE is winning in my eyes ha.

It'd be great if you could look at the HFEA website - you're a bit more experienced than I am at looking at and understanding the statistics - I tried to make sense of it and ithink I got it wrong! X

Hola!

I'm bored of work for the day (and people breaking my spreadsheets!) so I thought I'd pop on here for a catch up.

Yay! Good news on the money side of things Caution, it's great that the price is cheaper than you originally thought. I would recommend popping in a quick appointment with your GP for sooner if you can, I found the tests on the NHS can take a while (blood tests are pretty quick but if they send you for anything else if might take a little while to get an appointment). No harm in being ready. Let me see if I can find any of the links we used to look into whether there was any chance of getting NHS funding (incidentally, the result of our review was if we have 12 cycles of IUI and they don't work then we might get 1 x IVF paid for by the NHS). Sure I have paperwork and stuff at home somewhere... I'm not sure if single person would be similar to lesbian couple or if it's a whole new set of rules. But still, no harm having a quick squiz online.

I'll take a look at the HFEA website for you. Back in a bit.

TD x

Hi Caution,

Found your clinics... all info below is based on year ending mid 2014.

What you need to look for is Donor Insemination (DI).

So:

CARE Northampton
Under 35 shows 1 out of 3 cycles were successful. Based on that info (and it's only a very small number of cycles so this is not massively accurate), you'd have a roughly 1 in 3 chance of being up-duffed with cycle 1 (look at the most likely figure of 33%).

LWC Luton
Under 35 shows 18 out of 177 cycles were successful. Based on that info (this is on a lot more cycles so a lot more accurate), you'd have a roughly 18 in 177 (1 in 10) chance of being up-duffed with cycle 1 (look at the most likely figure of 10%).

Incidentally, the national average in your age range is 16% - the HFEA website says that both of the above clinics are consistent with this figure (e.g. they're not loads higher or lower).

The thing with the CARE figure is that as there were only 3 cycles performed in that year the data is not massively accurate. Imagine if you will if there was 1 more unsuccessful cycle performed or 1 fewer successful cycle performed your average would change to 50% or 25%. Does that make sense?

I'm off to check out my figures...

TD x

Whoa, hold on, I think I gave you figures for unstimulated (un medicated)...

So, figures above were for non medicated (which you could still go for / be offered), so don't dismiss these.

Medicated figures are as follows:

CARE Northampton
Under 35 shows 0 out of 4 cycles were successful = 0%

LWC Luton
Under 35 shows 9 out of 67 cycles were successful = 13.4%

National average 18.8%

It says both of these are in line with the national average.

It's hard to say with IUI as the number of people who opt for it is still pretty low.

Just found out my 2nd choice clinic (Herts & Essex Fertility Centre) had pretty good results for IUI last year :) So I'm hopeful if Bourn doesn't work out...

TD x

Good evening TayDex!

Thank you so much for looking up those statistics for me. Sounds like CARE doesn't do an awful lot of IUI's, but on the ones that they have carried out, the success rate is slightly higher than the one in LWC... Even though they've done more. Have I interpreted that correctly?

I think the reason why CARE show no medicated IUI statistics is because they don't offer it. I'm happy to try non-medicated first down to my circumstances of being young etc, and then progress to medicated if I've had no luck with the first few tries.

Ooh maybe it might be worth a change then? The clinic you're at now seem a bit blasé about things - they don't seem to care much that they miss your ovulation.

With CARE, the emails I've had off of them today seem very friendly and open, like nothing is too much trouble. She took the time to answer all my questions and explained things in 'laymans terms'. Whereas I received an email off of LWC about an hour ago, and it was full of technical jargon and very blunt. I know I shouldn't make assumptions based on an email, but I can't help but feel as though my treatment should be with CARE.

16% is slightly higher than I expected. I expected around 12% success rate - which isn't a great deal higher but 16 sounds better than 12 .

I know! I'm over the moon about what CARE said today - I'm looking at just over £1500 per cycle after the first, so that's £500 cheaper (at least) than I thought.
I'm going to book in to see my GP next week (if not this week) and get the blood tests done at the very least. Then once I've got them back I can go ahead and have my doctors consultation, and the meetings with the donation coordinator and counsellor (which are both free, hurrah!) then hopefully get the ball rolling with treatment in the summer. That's a lot quicker than I expected, as I was looking at least around October/November this year.

All in all, I'm in a very good mood with everything I've been told today. I'm just praying and hoping on everything that they don't turn me down because of the bipolar disorder. But I've been stable for three and a half years now - on barely any medication (just an antidepressant, low dose) so I've done it all through power of mind . I can't tell you how nervous and anxious I am to hear whether they'd let me go ahead or not. They've got no justifiable reason to say no, though, so we'll see!! X

Dearest Taydex if you ever get bored again please can you check out CRGH for iui natural and medicated and ivf natural and medicated. Stats are definitely not my forte!

caution great tgat you have good news :) fingers crossed you can get started soon!

I still have same sympotoms of yesterday and day before... My boobs are about to explode! Good news is that I am flying home tomorrow.

Hi Kwick - will be lovely to have you back in the conversation when you're finally home .

Well I remembered my GP doesn't work Thursday's, so I'm going to see him Friday - providing they let me have a wretched appointment (they're not always great with app's unless you ring up at 8am on the dot) to see if I can get the bloodwork done on the NHS. Maybe the scans too. We'll see

Will you test tomorrow quick? Or are you waiting for the weekend? It's such a good sign that your boobs feel as though they're about to explode.. I've got everything crossed for you! Safe flight home x

I dont feel well. Blocked nose has progressed to sore throat and other cold yuckiness. Only have unallowed medication on me... Feeling sorry for myself as slept like shit and have another full day if meetings when what I need is time to do some work!!!
Boobage still sore - but I get this every month.
Not sure I will have wherewithall to test today or tomorrow but maybe sat. It is a funny cycle as the medication meant I ovulated earlier than usual so test date is before af due.
Good luck with getting gp appt - I normally have a 2 week wait for gp - i really would like to change but no other surgeries near where I live. I may try and change to my mums if I do get preggers as the service is diabolical at mine - I think they are just overrun and understaffed.