Beginning IUI with donor

[SingleTTC31]

Hi all,

I have just began the journey to become a single mum using donor sperm and IUI. I have my first consultation at the start of Feb.

Just wondering if anyone else is starting themselves or any advise on the process, any do or don't tips to try and nudge the odds in my favour.

I am 31, and as far as I am aware atm I have no fertility issues and regular af.

TIA

If you have a healthy lifestyle (good diet, regular exercise, healthy weight, no alcohol or smoking) and are taking the recommended Folic Acid and Vitamin D supplements; the only other way to improve your chances of success with IUI is to take fertility drugs (letrozole or clomid).

Your clinic will advise you if this is suitable for you or not - basically the drugs usually cause you to release more than one egg each month (so in turn increase the chance that one of these eggs will fertilise and you'll get pregnant).

While the clinic will cancel your IUI if the scans show too many big follicles (so show you will likely release more than 2/3 eggs), fertility drugs still obviously increase your chance of conceiving twins (or in very rare cases triplets) so you would need to accept that risk.
Good Luck!

@IamnotwhouthinkIam thank you for your reply.

I started taking folic acid and vit D at the end of last week. My diet isn't too bad, but taking steps to improve it, more veg and omega-3 and I have cut down my caffeine. I am a total tea junkie lol and it is even worse just now as I am furloughed yet again. I am at the upper end of a healthy weight according to BMI but I think with the increases in veg and decreasing junk food I will lose a lb or two.

Thanks for the info on medicated cycles. I will ask my clinic about these when I meet with them.

There's a long running thread on the Donor conception board called IUI stories. There's a number of us who are having or have had IUI on there. Feel free to come and join us.

Hi @SingleTTC31, I forgot to mention caffeine! I wouldn't stress about your weight at all if your BMI is under 25 and don't worry about your tea drinking too much if you are otherwise fairly healthy (everyone needs a vice, particularly in these times - I don't drink tea or coffee so I get my caffeine fix from ultra dark chocolate!).

Technically the advice is to limit yourself to 200 mg max caffeine a day (but I'm not sure how many cups of tea that is!), so if you are concerned maybe either cut down to only a few cups a day or swop to decaf tea instead (if you can find one that tastes okay - a couple of my friends like Redbush).

@IamnotwhouthinkIam when I am at home I can drink 6-8 mugs of strong tea a day easily, and I think it is about 75mg per cup 😂

Tbh my weight isn't too much of a stress for me, but I am still eating like it is the week of Christmas and snacking on a lot of junk as it is still lying about the house, mostly gifts, feels like everyone bought me chocolates and treats this year 🤣

@GrettaGreen Thanks, I have seen the thread, but as I am still a little early on my TTC journey didn't want to just hop on, with everyone else going through IUIs. Feels like you are all much closer than me, if you see what I mean 😂

@SingleTTC31 hi, I'm booked for my initial consultation this Friday 5th for IUI, also single. I know what you mean about not feeling ready to post on the other thread as its such early days! I've been reading the posts but nice to know someone is at the same point as me. I've started folic acid, supplements etc in early Jan, so it's just waiting for Friday now 🙂

@TTCSOLO I have my bloods and scan on Saturday and then initial consultation 10 days later. Have you already had bloods done or does your clinic do it the other way round? What supplements are you taking? I'm taking vit D everyday and then alternating vit c plus zinc and a multi vitamin, not a pre conception one just an ordinary one. The pre conception ones are really expensive for what they are imo.

Hope it all goes well on Friday, it would be great to hear how you get on

@SingleTTC31
I've got the initial consultation first, then baseline scan and bloods after that, I'm hoping I won't be waiting too long for them.I just want to get started with the whole process now.
I got the pregnacare supplements on 3 for 2 in boots, so wasn't quite so bad cost wise. I'm taking a general multivitamin and added vitamin C at the moment. I think once you're getting 400ug of folic acid though it doesn't make much difference.
I'll keep you posted on Friday, I'm feeling like I'm quite naive about the whole thing at the moment and might be in for a bit of an education on Friday!
Good luck for Saturday

Hi all,

Glad to find a thread about this topic. I am single using donor sperm on a journey of an IUI treatment.

I have done a baseline scan and an initial consultation December last year, I have done all sort of blood tests for AHM, HIV, Hep B/C etc, completed a hycosy scan a couple of weeks ago. Everything seems fine and ready to go ahead with the IUI procedure. Although my egg count was low due to my age (I am 39) there are 3-4 size follicles on each side with 1 dominant follicle. Donor sperm has been arranged hopefully will arrive at the clinic soon. Tomorrow is my day 1 of my cycle (well they said if my cycle starts after 12pm it counts as tomorrow) and I am going to book an 8-10 day scan tomorrow morning to review the size of my follicles and ready for the IUI treatment when ovulation occurs (around day 11)!

Good luck to everyone who is TTC on here.

@TTCSOLO hope it goes well today and they are able to give you some useful info ☺️

@dwyc That's all very exciting. Has it taken long for the sperm to arrive? Was it difficult to choose your donor?

Good luck with the follicle scan goes well.

@SingleTTC31 I ordered the donor sperm from LSB their lab is just near London Bridge station which is very close to my clinic. The lady at LSB mentioned to me it will be a same-day delivery so that's the good thing about ordering from this sperm bank, but I must say their choice of sperm donors are very limited.

I ignore many facts from the donor in terms of their occupations and educations etc as some donors could be just 18yo or in their early 20s. All i want is just healthy sperm to make a healthy baby. It feels wrong to me but I am not choosing a boyfriend or husband :)

My scan is scheduled for next Thursday. Fingers cross x

@dwyc thank goodness you've said that about choosing your donor... that's exactly how I feel and was reading posts where people were struggling to choose, which was making me overthink my feelings completely. Best of luck for your scan 🤞
@SingleTTC31 this morning went well, I liked the consultant, she was very warm and friendly. The next step will be SIS and bloods for me on day 6-10 of my cycle (I'm thinking it should be around Feb 22nd!) Then review with the dr and donor counselling.
It's nice to feel that it's finally happening now. Good luck for tomorrow, is it an SIS scan your having done? Or pelvic ultrasound?

@TTCSOLO glad yesterday went well for you. Did she give you a sort of timeline for how things would proceed after the bloods etc? I think with my clinic it can be about 3 months but the time you do the counselling and the consenting appointment. Not sure if that is standard or if it is due to a waiting list though.

It's a pelvic ultrasound I'm having. Some people also have a HyCoSy but I think that is later in the process.

@SingleTTC31 do you know I actually forgot to ask that? I spoke to a nurse from the clinic a few weeks ago about something else though and she made it sound like it will be maybe 2 months, but that would be cycle dependent. Is your next appointment next week now?

@TTCSOLO yeah my next appointment is a week on Wednesday. My bloods will be back by then and the consultant will go over what options are available/odds etc based on the results. Getting the blood was a bit of a 'mare as I have terrible veins. Had to go through the back of my wrist 🤣 the pelvic was painless and really interesting as it was linked to a TV on the wall so I could see what was going on and the measurements as the nurse took them.

My clinic has its own sperm bank but also uses the European sperm bank. Think I will see what they have, apparently it isn't a large selection though. My main priority is that they aren't a carrier for anything. Some people seem to put a lot of thought into the character of the donor, and their interests/hobbies those things are really of interest to me and I feel a bit odd that they don't bother me, does that make sense? So many people seem to be interested in finding a 'nice guy'

@SingleTTC31 I know exactly what you mean about picking the donor, I actually almost don't think of the donor as being a real person if that makes sense? I'm not interested in anything apart from their health really, as you say.

@dwyc I think you've said the same, I'm so relieved to hear you both have a similar view!
It feels more real now that the process is actually started. Hopefully things run smoothly for us all now 🤞

@dwyc how did you get on with your scan? It was at the end of last week?

I am still waiting on my results from the ovarian assessment I had a week past Saturday. Not really anxious about it, but would like the results before I meet with the consultant in case I have any questions about what the results mean which aren't covered iykwim.

Hi @SingleTTC31 - I had my scan on 11/02 and they told me that there is a dominant 17mm follicle in my left ovary and a 13mm in my right ovary. As the follicle wasn't big enough (ideal size 18mm) so they told me to use ovulation test strips over the weekend and monitor my LH level.

Well, on Friday late evening I had a smiley face on Clearblue test stick and I had the IUI treatment done on Saturday midday. Today is my DPO2 and the pregnancy blood test has been booked for 1st March.

I do think the timing for treatment is really important as I did worry about ovulation had already happened before my treatment and as you know egg only lives up to 12 hours.

An hour after my treatment, I could feel a sharp rise in my body basal temperature and which means that the ovulation had occurred. I also felt cramping on my left side of my abdomen (I guess the 17mm follicle released the egg) an hour after and I read about it could be some sort of contraction of the fallopian tube which guides the egg travel down the fallopian tube. The cramping lasted for half a day and I felt extremely exhausted in the last two days, I suppose it was because of the rise of progesterone hormone which is normal. Today, no symptoms whatsoever.

Hope your ovarian assessment goes well and you are almost ready to go :) Have you started to look for a sperm donor yet?

@TTCSOLO - hope all goes well. Have you chosen the donor sperm? What is your next step?

As you have mentioned about the timeline I can give you a rough idea of how long it took for the whole natural IUI process - about 2 months for me but I really had to keep chasing the clinic a lot. There is a lot of waiting game as it has to be at the right time of your cycle - I have short cycles (24-25 days) hence the whole process is shorter and quicker.

22nd Dec - Initial baseline scan and AHM blood test
28th Dec - Initial Consultation via zoom
18th Jan - Hycosy scan and blood test (HIV, blood count, hep b, etc.)
20th Jan - Donor Sperm ordered (they mentioned to allow a month for delivery, my case was my clinic was holding up the consent form that's why the delivery got delayed)
10th Feb - Donor sperm arrived at clinic
11th Feb - Day 8-10 scan to check follicle sizes if ready
13th Feb - natural IUI treatment
1st March - pregnancy blood test (scheduled)

@dwyc I haven't chosen my donor yet
My clinic have their own bank and also use the European Sperm Bank. I have been holding off on choosing a donor, as I would hate to decide on one, and then find they are out of stock when I do go to order it, so will be looking and buying at the same time.

This cycle I have been tracking my bbt and ovulation, as it's not something I have ever paid close attention to before, and if I go down the un-medicated route, I would like to know what to expect and hopefully be more accurate in my predictions. My cycles are about 32 days, so a bit longer than the 'average'. At the moment I am just using the cheap one steps off Amazon. I think if I do it without a trigger I will get the clear blue one. Did you use yours for a few cycles before this one?

Fingers crossed it comes back ok. I remember seeing follicles about 4mm at the scan, but not sure if there were bigger ones, I hope so, otherwise I doubt they will mature enough naturally for ovulation - oh well, I suppose that's why someone invented Clomid 😂

Did you do your consent appointment and counselling session before the HyCoSy or after? There hasn't been any mention of HyCoSy atm for me, but I expect they will do one as a standard?

My last lot of bloods got taken from the back of my wrist and it was still sore a week later, think I need to google how to get good veins 😂

Are you going to do a home test as well or just get and wait it out for the blood test?

Fingers crossed you get a bfp with the first round xx

Oops sorry for the essay 😂

Welcome to the fertility journey! I also have longer than average cycles at somewhere between 30-40 days depending on the month. I'm currently pregnant with my second child after unmedicated IUI treatment. Good luck with the journey 😁

@dwyc hi, I have a busy week this week, I've got the donor counselling session on wed via zoom, then up to clinic on Friday for blood tests and SIS, so thankfully things are moving along reasonably quickly! I've not ordered the donor sperm yet, I'm hoping that will be the next step though so things can really progress then.

That's really exciting that you're in TTW!! I hope it passes quickly for you, are you able to keep busy/distracted?