Self Insemination - Am I doing it right? HELP

[Ank17]

I have been an active mumsnet reader for a while now but this is my first time posting here.

My husband and I have been trying for a baby for a while now but initially he would get stressed and unable to release inside me. Having read so many success stories on mumsnet, we moved on to self insemination. We have now been doing self insemination for about 6 months with no luck. So I thought I will post here explaining how we do it and request the experts here to check if there is anything we are doing wrong please?

1. Husband ejaculates into a clear container (ones they have at the hospitals for urine sample collection)

1. We wrap the container with a warm cloth and keep it as is for c.20min for the semen to liquify. Husband usually produces around 2.5-4ml (not sure if this is too low)

1. I lie down on the bed with pillows and cushions underneath. Usually get an angle of about 25-35degrees.

1. Use a syringe to suck the semen and inject in me.

1. Once the semen is delivered in me, I leave the syringe inside for about 25-30min

My concerns are:

1. Is DH producing less amount of semen?
2. Once the syringe is taken out after 25-30min, some of semen sometimes leaks out and for some reason I always go for urination after I take out the syringe. Does the leak mean I lose the semen which is why it hasn't worked for these many months? And similarly for urination - does it mean all of semens gets flushed out and hence the struggle?
3. Am I lying down for too little time?
4. Are we leaving the semen to liquify for too long?

I dont know what the problem is but its stressing us out and cant pin point on exactly what is it that we are doing wrong.

I also have an app that I use to track my periods and we do all of the above every day starting the first day when the app says medium possibility of getting pregnant, all the way to high days during ovulation and follow on medium days after ovulation. Are we doing too much? We used to do only couple of times during the fertile period initially but with months passing we do it every day now. I must add semen quantity decreases as well which each day passing... is that the problem?

Calling all the successfully pregnant ladies using self insemination means to help and advise on what is it that we need to change or do more of please? Losing the will with each month passing... Please..

Haven't tried this method myself, but could you self-inseminate just before you go to sleep, so you are lying down for eight hours? That gives the sperm more time to enter your womb. Remember that if you can have orgasm after self-insemination (but before you sleep), your body will move the sperm up towards your egg. And I think every two days is better than every day...better sperm quality and it will help take pressure off. Good luck!

I don't think you are doing anything wrong so please don't feel bad! I was really lucky and got pregnant first time but I know on average it takes several months.

I was told 10 mins at room temperature is the best amount of time for the semen to liquify.

If you're worried about the semen coming back out of you, you could use a menstrual cup or a diaphragm to keep it up there. I've heard a lot of people use the disposable "softcup" ones. You can do the syringe thing and then insert the softcup while you're still lying down at a good angle, or you can put the semen in the cup and then insert it (I didn't try this as I assumed I would end up spilling it everywhere haha)

As well as using the app you can get ovulation prediction kits, there are loads of different ones but they all basically do the same thing which is tell you when you've had the big increase in the hormone that starts ovulation. So they can help you know more accurately when your most fertile day is.

I took a pre-pregnancy vitamin & extra vitamin C and vegetarian omega 3, which are all meant to be good for female fertility. There are supplements that men can take as well.

Good luck, I hope it happens soon for you guys ❤

Pregnacare Max and a mooncup may help more as it keeps the sperm close to the cervix.

We do insemination too.

We usually give it 5-10 mins to liquify and then insert it.
Apparently if you orgasm after helps. We use pre seed sometimes too
The volume of sperm sounds normal to me, hubbys decreases if we do it every day so we havent figured if we should do that or every other day. We are ttc #1 going in to the 5th month of trying. Wishing you lots of luck.

The going to the toilet itself isn’t a problem as it’s coming out of a different place, so not washing the semen out. Gravity is more the issue I should think.