IUI or IVF?

[highlove]

hello, just hoping to get some views as not sure what to do next.

DH fine, I have a hormonal imbalance resulting in irregular ovulation and cycles and spotting for up to a week prior to period. Also got one open but not brilliant tube, other is perfect. Fives goes at Clomid which made me Ov but not pregnant. One cycle of injectibles with IUI and then cyclogest after Ov resulted in pregnancy but which very sadly I miscarried at about 8 weeks.

Basically, for various reasons we are not entitled to any further NHS treatment. Though I hesitate to say we can 'afford' private, we are fortunate enough that we can find the money for some further treatment.

If we didn't have to pay I'd definitely go for a few more IUI and injectibles cycles as we know it can work for us and is less invasive. But of course it has a lower chance of success. When you add in drugs, scans, the IUI, etc, it's looking about £12-1400 per cycle at the clinic we've chosen.. So doing that for a few cycles and we might as well have gone for IVF which at my age I think has more like a fifty chance of success compared to 15-20% for IUI and injectibles. But We are also hoping to egg share which would make each cycle about the same cost as IUI.

Initially my preference was for lesser intervention and I guess still is, but then again I just desperately want to be pregnant so maybe we should just go straight to the big guns, as it were, and have a much higher chance of success. I'm really torn both in terms of the invasiveness Vs success thing and the financial implications. Obviously we will discuss options with our clinic but I'd really welcome other people's views, thoughts and experiences.

Thanks x

It is many years since my dh and I had fertility treatment, we stopped in 1999, we only ever had iui we did not go as far as I've, at the time it was very expensive and the success rate not great.
We went on to adopt our girls, who I love dearly and would not be without, but I do occasionally wonder if ivf would have worked.
What I am trying to say is give yourselves the best chance to conceive, infertility is tough and really takes it out on your relationship.
Sooty for your miscarriage and good luck for the future.

Sorry for the typos, should learn to proof read.

Hi Moomoomie

Just a few thoughts (from an ex ivf-er) For me what was useful was to see ivf as a journey ... so when we started it, i had thought to myself that I would give it 3 shots (needed 2 in the end). That way you are more able to cope with the possible negative after a cycle (of course there are many people who get pregnant the first time).

I would do my research. I would go to the best possible ivf place near you. Look at their statistics of pregnancies, what the percentage is, and also depending on your age (it was for me) factor this in, and if you are 38 upwards I would look at a clinic that deals with ivf for "older" women. Once you know there statistics, you can work out how many times you would need to go to get a possible pregnancy. So when i was given 30% chance, i worked out that i would go 3 times, which would mean i had a good shot.

I think the good thing about ivf is they get your eggs and fertilise them and you will have some idea about your fertility/ quality of eggs. with the other you wont know this (although it can be succesful). For me, if it is what you wanted, i would do some research; go to the best clinic, and possibly throw my resources (financial and emotional) behind ivf ...

I found fertilityfriends.co.uk very useful at this point, as there were lots of women on the same journey i was making, and it was helpful to learn about clinics, procedures etc.

Good luck, it is indeed a long journey, in which i learnt the true meaning of pain and happiness ..... Luckily it is the happiness that has now lasted for me ....

sorry that should have read hi highlove and not moomoomie, although hello to moomomie too!

So glad it worked for you.
We had a very long and painful journey to parent hood, but one we don't regret, at the time ivf success rates were a lot lower and I think were more expensive, so we did not go down that road.
We now have our 3 wonderful girls.

Thank you M ... Yes ours, like yours was a long and painful journey. I am glad we both got what we needed ... In the end ... Three girls, how marvellous!

Highlove,

DH and I had unexplained infertility and decided to go for IVF last year, we were lucky and although round one resulted in only three eggs, all fertilised and one turned into our beautiful (if quite noisy!) DD.

There is some great advice from PPs but I also wanted to say that I found the short protocol ivf treatment we had wasn't that intrusive. Yes the scans are a bit undignified (but no more so than the scans I had with clomid) and the egg collection left me quite sore for a couple of days but i found it very manageable.

The hardest part was the roller coaster of emotions - hurrah we have lots of follicles, oh crap we only have three eggs, hurray they have all fertilised, oh god we have to wait for ever to find out if it's worked etc etc. But I think you have that with any fertility treatment.

I would say if you want to go for it, work out your boundaries before you start (we decided we would have up to three goes but no more), look after yourself as much as possible and definitely visit some clinics to find the one that not only has the most promising stats for your age but also makes you feel most comfortable and confident in their abilities. I totally trusted our consultant which made it much easier as, not matter how stressed I got, I knew we were in excellent hands.

I also found it reassuring that ivf lets the drs pick the best embryos - I had had a few chem pgs before ivf so it was good to know the embryos they transferred were looking good and dividing speedily right from the start.

You sound like you have given this a lot of thought so I am sure you will make the right decision for you. FWIW, my consultant said when a woman under 38 starts fertility treatment, it is a question of finding out what will work, not whether treatment will work at all.

I wish you lots of luck and a sticky bfp

Xxx

PS we considered iui but we'd been ttc for 3 yrs and decided just to go for it with ivf as I am quite an old bird already so didn't want to spend time on iui cycles which we were told would give us a 15% chance rather than 40% chance with each ivf cycle

If you want a baby ASAP go straight to IVF. Id be amazed if you can get anything like a 20% live birth rate per cycle in an anovulatory woman. And iui is SO unsuccessful that the NHS now rarely funds it.
The most successful clinics are in London, have a look at ARGC and UCH, all the results are on the HFEA website.

IUI is a total waste of time unless the only real problem is anovulation but given your history that doesn't seem to be the story. Much harder to control ovulation, no real information about what is going wrong. Go straight to IVF, it will give you the best chance of success for your money.

Hi, I am a newbie to Mumsnet but am facing the same decision (apologies not trying to hijack your query Highlove!). I dont have any known issues save for a low amh so the clock is ticking and I dont seem to be having much luck naturally. The factor my decision hinges on is how invasive IVF is. I know a positive result will make it all worth while but ignoring the financial pain, how much of a toll does it take on the body? Any thoughts much appreciated. Just wondering if I should be trying IUI first?

If you do go for IVF Highlove, make sure you have acupuncture alongside it. Apparently it can double your chances!!!!! Btw the AGRC centre has a useful table showing the relative success rates of different clinics. Link below.

www.argc.co.uk/statistics.html

Good luck!

The day to day reality of IVF is injecting drugs for about 10 days, scans to see how your ovaries are doing, then egg collection, usually under sedation. Then they put the embryos back with a tiny catheter, like having an extended smear. That's it.

Thanks BagofHolly. Whilst clearly not a walk in the park, it sounds less invasive than I had anticipated.

Hiya, thanks everyone, have been checking this regularly. We have settled on IVF after another SA revealed that DH not so perfect after all. To be honest I was halfway there anyway, it's just about giving up on having a baby naturally, ifyswim. Not like IUI and injectibles is natural, but more so! Anyway, we are in the early tests for egg sharing and all ok so far, so fingers crossed.

Attagirl, I've done the injections for my IUI cycle. I found mixing the stuff the worst bit, just fiddly, and after I'd done the first actual jab it was otherwise fine. No doubt you've had the lady garden scans by now during tests so you know about that - will just be more of them. Can't tell you what egg collection is like but I guess IUI is similar to embryo transfer (anybody who's actually had both agree with my assumption?!) and as bagofholly says, it's like a smear only longer.

Best of luck

I didn't find IVF particularly invasive - the injections are no different than you would do for IUI anyway, IUI involves a catheter into the uterus so that's the same too, the only difference is egg retrieval. Which tbh is not the most fun way to spend a morning, but is not that bad and you are nicely drugged up so you don't feel it. You can feel a bit sore afterwards but nothing major

Re ARGC just be careful of the propaganda. Authorised stats are at HFEA.

Re acupuncture, I've never seen convincing stats. Can't hurt, may not help. I found it useless (my endo came back worse than ever when I was doing it) but YMMV.