Home insemination

[Bigbear123]

Hi everyone,

We are looking to start a family and unfortunately we are unable to conceive the traditional way. Hence, we are looking into home insemination kit.

It's an exciting time for both me & my husband. Though I'm a little nervous of how to start? I've seen a number of insemination kits online and OPK kits. I'm seeking for advice from someone who has done / is doing home insemination for some encouragement.

The information is vast out there and I'm a little confused as to what / which kits I really need.

I look forward to hearing from you all.

Many thanks
'Big bear mama to be'

Hi Faye32, congratulations on the positive! I would probably call your GP about the spotting, I haven't had this but understand that it is usually nothing to worry about but they sometimes like to see you to check. You may get better advise posting on one of the pregnancy threads as lots of people there will have experienced similar. You can join one with your due date month group and normally someone will have the answer or start a new thread. I believe it's normally implantation bleeding but I would ask someone who knows more than me!

@Faye32 many congratulations!!! Yes I had spotting for about 10 days. Very light brown marks, didn't need any sanitary pads.

Agree with @Whatnext11 that you should go and see your GP. And get yourself on the system :-)

How's everyone else doing? I'm sending you all lots of love, prayers and positive vibes on this journey xxx

Hi, how is everyone doing? Trying home insem now (second cycle of trying) and this thread had given me some hope! Would love to hear some updates (and tipps!)

@AdriannaP sorry for my late reply. Glad to hear you have started your journey. I started this thread over a year ago. After 4 cycles I got pregnant and I'm now 34 weeks pregnant.

All I can say is be patient. I wish you the best of luck! Xx

@Bigbear123 Many thanks and all the best for your pregnancy and birth! Wonderful to hear. X
We tried two cycles so far and no luck yet.

I am trying this too! I’ve been following your advice @Bigbear123 , thank you! Hope you are keeping well x

@AdriannaP good luck with your journey and don't give up hope. We tried 3 months and I am currently awake with my nearly 6 month old little boy.

@Bigbear123 so glad to hear you're doing well, you are getting so close to the end now.

Hi everyone - I'm new to this thread (and Mumsnet in general) but reading this has been so uplifting! I suffer from vaginismus as well and it can feel so daunting when all you want is to be a mother and it feels like your own body is against you.

My partner and I managed to get pregnant in month 3 of trying using a home insemination kit (exactly the one that @Bigbear123 mentioned, and I also replaced the syringes with smaller ones!). Unfortunately, last week at the 6 week mark I have miscarried. I feel quite crushed as I'm
still going through the motions, but I'm trying to remind myself that miscarriages are common and that there's nothing I could have done to stop it - and at least I now know that we CAN get pregnant and relatively pain-free which is a big fat PLUS given the nightmare of vaginismus. Good luck to everyone trying to conceive using this method!

@primrosechill aww thank you so much for taking the time to share your story. I'm so sorry for your loss. Like you said, you know you CAN get pregnant, it's only a matter of time and please don't get the miscarriage gets to you. I know it's easier said than done but I can tell you are a strong person.

I wish you and all the 'mama to be' in this group the very best of luck. I continue to pray and send you all positive vibes.

Lots and lots of love xx

Hi @Simz01 how has it been for you? Any updates?

Hi Primrosechill,

I am so sorry to hear about your miscarriage, hope you can take some time out to recover. Of course it doesn’t compensate for these feelings, but I agree it is good to know that it did work for you !

I have a history of endometriosis and cysts. I did get a laproscopy and removal , but still get a lot of pain. I have had 2 Ivf’s and IUI, one was a v early miscarriage and last was a negative so I just wanted to take a break from it as IVF failure due to its nature of always waiting for results can be disheartening. This was our first month trying this method in the same way as yourself , following Bigbear’s method. It didn’t work this month , but will try again next month. Which stage are you at currently ? X

@primrosechill

So sorry to hear about this. I was doing home insem and then last month on the 4th of April I managed penetration for the first time after suffering from vaginismus for many years. If you ever want to talk about anything please feel free to send me a private message. Its a lonely feeling having it! Wishing you the best of luck.

@Simz01 - thank you for sharing and sorry that it has been so difficult for you, sounds so draining - power to you for staying so open to different options and exploring various methods. This pregnancy business is much tougher than I naively thought when we first decided that we were ready to start trying... Have you been ttc for long overall, if you don't mind me asking?

I have my follow-up hospital appointment tomorrow to see how my miscarriage has progressed and whether I need any additional care - hoping that it's all done now as I just desperately want to move on now, but I am still spotting... We will give it one cycle before we continue with home insemination - to make sure I am fully recovered etc. - so hoping we can go back to ttc in June.

@ttcchapter1 thank you so much for your kind words - yes, vaginismus can be quite horrible at times, but I've also managed to get to the point where I no longer let it send me into despair - it is what it is and I know that I am doing everything I can to overcome it, and that it just will take some time now. It helps to have a lovely caring partner and on PG front to know that there is a ttc method that works for me and doesn't cause me massive pain :) Are you actively trying at the moment?

@primrosechill

How are you doing now, and how was everything at the hospital ? I hope you are feeling a bit better .. it’s a good idea to take a month out for you to recover , but also to it think about trying either.

Of course don’t mind you asking. It is a harder than I naively thought too - thank you for your kind words. I am doing ok and try to keep going as yourself, that’s what helps me to feel like am always doing something to try. But I realised we have to give ourselves a break to do some good. I’ve been trying for about 2 years, including the small ops to remove cysts / endo and moving to IVF, but I did take a break in that too to do some travelling for work and in general etc. Sometimes wish I didn’t.

Take care and do let me know how you are getting on x

Hi everyone how dare you all getting on ? Xx

Big bear how are you doing ? Xx

We've been trying 13 months and just looking at this method, I have ME, long cycles and possible pcos and work shifts as a nurse so trying to time things when on shift and not feeling I'll is a challenge! OH also has some issues with ED although much better than they were. Trying to use opk but get multiple positives and waiting for fertility clinic, temp and cervical fluid better indicator or me. Tried for first time Sunday between 2 shifts with insemination and am going to try in amongst when I feel up to it! Fingers crossed for everyone x

Hi Kerry,

Keep going it worked for me on the 5th attempt . How are you inseminating?

@Faye32 so i've got a syringe and a straw that goes on the end (actually for oral meds!) and we've started popping that in every other day at moment as close to cervix as possible due to me having migraines and being on 12 hours shifts just when I've gone to bed so I'm laid down, hips elevated a short while. Signs are good for ovulation impending or possibly happened last night but I get multiple episodes like this that seem to get false starts every cycle before my bbt actually rises. Waiting for fertility clinic referral once OH has done his SA which we just need to collect from GP. any tips though would be appreciated as fitting it all in when I work as a nurse and I also have ME which is not great at the moment so wish we'd thought of this sooner!

Sounds good to me what you are doing , the only thing I did diff was I used the soft cup afterwards so nothing came out and it sits close to the cervix - kept it in for about 6-8 hours each time or you can go to bed woth it in ! Oh and an orgasm is supposed to help !!lol

@Faye32 I'm so sorry it's taken me two years to reply. I haven't been on here since my little one came along. My daughter was born in May 2020, right in the middle of lockdown. I had three bouts of mastitis and had to have operations to remove the infection. It wasn't perfect! I was then diagnosed with Postnatal Depression! Our little one is 22m now—time flies. We are in the middle of moving house. We relocate to the coast to be near family and start thinking about baby number 2. I'm reading about the process again!

How have you been?