Anyone had IUI treatment and can share advice after a failed cycle

[GimmieABreakOr3]

Has anyone had IUI treatment before? How have you found it, and were you ever successful?
I am 36 and my first IUI has failed 😞 I haven’t really coped too well with it as everything looked really great conditions wise. I have two more IUI cycles left. Do you have any advice?

Hello and I’m so sorry. Infertility was the hardest thing I ever went through.
Yes I had IUI many years ago. Drug assisted. On the NHS. Three cycles which sadly failed. We then started IVF which I found less stressful as I had more knowledge at each stage and not just waiting to see whether it had worked.
First IVF failed. Second gave us DC 1. Third gave us Dtwins. All a long time ago as they are young adults now but had to reply as I remember the devastation of that first IUI failure.
Best to think in terms of batches of treatment rather than pinning too many hopes on one cycle. Easy to say but very very hard in practice.
I wish you so much luck and positivity.

Thank you ever so much for your reply, I truly appreciate it. Thanks for sharing your experience as well. I have tried to look at it as a batch of treatment as well, it’s hard though isn’t it? I have a feeling IUI won’t work for us, and we will need IVF too. I’m glad that you had a lovely outcome. Do you know why the IUI failed for you? I hate the uncertainty that comes with it as well. I feel so out of control and I’m hating the whole thing, I feel it’s wrecking my mental health. I’m having counselling every couple of weeks.

That’s just it. With the IUI it was the not knowing. Just going for the insemination then waiting.
With the IVF you at least get to know whether you produced eggs, their quality, whether they fertilised and how many. Then the horrible wait but with the knowledge that there was an embryo at one point.
Plus if you’re thinking of IVF then the IUI cycles are ‘using up’ valuable months while your age ticks up and people around you get pregnant and their babies grow up.
Of course I have the benefit of hindsight and IVF worked for me so I can’t be neutral. Are you having drug assisted?
I was a bit younger than you. 30 with the IUI. DC1 born when I was 32 and twins at 36. My experience is so old now that I’m wary of giving any advice except if you can afford it and DH is on board I would skip the IUI and go straight to IVF.
I’m sure younger mums will be along with more recent experience! Mine are in their 20s now.

Trouble is I’ve already paid for x3 IUI cycles, so there is no going back now. I am still hoping to conceive by IUI as it is less invasive and it was more affordable for us. I’m on the NHS waiting list, so my hope is that if the IUIs aren’t successful, then we can proceed with NHS IVF. It is a ticking clock though and that causes me anxiety.

Hi. A bit more recent experiences - I did 4 rounds of medicated IUI when I was ~32 (about 5 years ago) using donor sperm. Normal-High AMH for age, everything looked pretty good on paper, only doing IUI because of same sex couple. Every cycle was a BFN within IUI, despite recruiting 2 follicules per cycle.

We went on to do 2 rounds of IVF - first round I had a very poor response (I just don't respond well to stimulation apparently...), only got 2 mature eggs, both made to blasts but first transfer was a BFN and second transfer was a chemical pregnancy. Second round I got 6 mature eggs, all made to day 5 blasts but only 3 suitable to freeze. First transfer resulted in my daughter, second transfer 2 years later resuled in my son, and third transfer earlier this year was a BFN.

I think you need to be much more realisitic about the chances of IUI working - assuming you've been trying for awhile, timing things properly, and your partner has good sperm quality, then IUI probably isn't giving you much better odds than trying naturally to be honest. IUI has the best odds for same-sex or SMBC, and even then the odds are normally around 8-12% per cycle.

I'm happy to be your IUI buddy though - we're doing the paperwork at the moment to try two final rounds of medicated IUI hopefully in the next month or two. Half of me feels its really low odds but I still feel like I need to give it one last go - going down IUI route as for a few reasons I don't want to do an egg collection again at this stage.

Thank you for sharing!

I still feel like IUI is better for us than naturally due to the fact it’s medicated. I have PCOS, and whilst I have regular periods, it would seem my follicles were simply not maturing. Letrozole enters the chat. I do wonder if Letrozole plus us trying naturally would help us alone, however they like to monitor you in case of OHSS. We have been trying for years without success. Likely because I wasn’t properly ovulating.

I was panicking last night thinking I’ve made the wrong decision with IUI as time is running out and I should’ve gone straight to IVF, but we are where we are. I am starting to look at IVF as an option now and would even consider going abroad for it.

Hi, I didn’t want to pass your post without leaving a positive story.

I had IUI last year due to severe PCOS (no cycle at all), and it worked first time. It was supposed to be a trial run of medication before IVF the following month to see how I responded and it worked!
I tried letrozole for 5 months but it had no effect on me at all, so we did the IUI with stims and a trigger shot and was successful. I was so apprehensive due to the low success rates I’d read about too.

fingers crossed for you!! 🤞🏼🙏🏼

Hi OP. I'm sorry you're going through this, it's so, so hard.

I had 5 years of fertility treatment, both IUI and IVF, as a healthy mid-30's woman (issue was male factor).

What I will say about IUI is as others have said above, you have to see it more as a block of treatment and it often takes several tries before it will work. I did it 9 times with donor sperm (so eliminated the male factor issue - all totally healthy - no PCOS or anything), and it never worked for me.

It's a bit like throwing a dart with a blindfold on - there's not a very high chance each time that you are going to hit the bullseye, even if you're healthy. I think it's something like 10-15% chance each time, even in a healthy woman with healthy sperm. That means it could take 9 or 10 times to work even if there's nothing wrong.

I think you need to put a cap on how long you are willing to do IUI before you move to IVF - at least that way, there is an end in sight.

The very first time I did IVF with donor sperm, it worked for me.

I hope that IUI works for you but if it doesn't, I would just say, don't delay doing IVF.

That’s exactly how I’m viewing it now… as a block of treatment. We are capping the IUI to 3 and then considering IVF. I’m healthy (other than PCOS) and husband’s sperm is fine too! It’s so heart breaking. I can’t wait for the IUIs to end.

That's a really sensible idea to cap it - I wish we had - it would have saved months of distress.

I have everything crossed for you. This journey is not easy. Be kind to yourself today x

Thank you so much @wrinklycactus You are so kind. It’s been a tricky summer this year. TTC over the summer months isn’t too fun!

PCOS is a bit different, as if you're using Letrozole it might really help in your situation :)

Another thing to try is taking myo-inisotol (especially helpful for PCOS) and Coq10. It takes 90 days to get the full effects but still useful to begin to take. I took both for my second egg collection and (along with accupuncture and changing protocol) I had a much more successful cycle, so I've started taking both again for doing IUI.

Yes, I thought this too! I seemed to respond well to the letrozole the first cycle :) I was very hopeful. I was sad it didn’t work. I remain somewhat hopeful, but I am a bit disappointed and concerned.

Yes, I’m currently taking Folic Acid, Vitamin D, Coq10 & Myo & D-Chiro Inositol.

I’ve just introduced the Coq10, so I may not see the benefits of this for another 2-3 months sadly. I wish the clinic recommended this to me at the start! They only recommended folic acid and vitamin D…

I am about to start acupuncture tomorrow!