TTCing and no luck to date? Trialists needed for The Stork, a new home conception aid! RECRUITMENT NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

We have been asked by The Stork to find 20 MNers who are currently TTC to try their home conception aid and to add feedback on MN.

Fertility issues are on the increase, caused by lifestyle and environmental factors as well as couples leaving it later before they try for a baby, when the fact is fertility declines with age.

The Stork “is a drug free, natural, home conception aid using cervical cap insemination that can be used in the privacy and comfort of your own home. The Stork helps bridge the gap between natural intercourse and in-clinic, assisted treatments such as intrauterine insemination (IUI), in vitro fertilization (IVF) or clomifene (*see note below). The Stork is available from Superdrug.com, at £99.99 for both in-store collection via click and collect, or home delivery via the website ”.

“The Stork is designed to help couples with common fertility difficulties such as low sperm count, low sperm motility, unfavourable vaginal environment, and unexplained infertility. However, couples with no documented fertility issues can try using the device to augment natural intercourse while trying to conceive”.

See pdf factsheet here

To be eligible for this trial you need to be TTC now and not currently undergoing any of the other treatments/techniques to get pregnant as per below.

Selected MNers will be sent three Stork products, to be trialled over three months. This means that you can try The Stork more than once during any given cycle or once a month, it’s up to you. Trialists should note the product is single-use only. To try The Stork you will need to watch the relevant demonstration video on the Stork website www.thestorkconception.co.uk/videos/, read the Step by Step guide on the website and the 'Instructions For Use' in the packaging very carefully before trying the product.

It's suggested to use the device during ovulation - the woman’s most fertile days of the month. The Stork can be used in conjunction with ovulation predictor methods to help to determine the most fertile days of the monthly cycle.

In return, selected trialists will need to add feedback at least twice to a thread on MN - on first impressions and also following use.

Please note comments made on the feedback thread may well be used by The Stork on their own website, social media channels and possibly elsewhere - please only apply if you're happy for your comments to be used (you're welcome to name change for feedback) - this will be anon. We may well ask some trialists to speak to the media about their experience but this is entirely optional.

If you'd like to take part, please add your details on this link and we will be in touch with selected testers: www.surveymonkey.com/s/CF696B7

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

• Please note: Clomifene is a commonly used ‘anti-oestrogen’ medication treatment and works by stimulating the release of eggs from the ovary. Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is a technique used for artificial insemination that requires providing a sample of sperm, which is then ‘washed’ and filtered using special techniques. This concentrated sperm is then passed directly into the woman’s womb through a thin tube or catheter. IVF is a technique that requires the woman to take fertility drugs to stimulate her ovaries to produce more eggs so the physician can retrieve one or more of these eggs and mix them with her partner’s sperm in a petri dish. If fertilisation occurs, the embryo/s are then implanted in the lining of the woman’s uterus.

Congratulations Probably, hopefully we can all get our bfp's one day too - Come on stork, bring us a baby! Wishing you a happy and healthy pregnancy

Congratulations Probably - I hope it is all smooth sailing from here on!

Added!

Wow, I can't believe the price of it!

I would be willing to pay up to about £25 a go, even that I would class as expensive for what it is but almost a hundred quid for what is essentially a condom and a cap with an applicator??

I would want to use it at least three times a month in case timing was off, so it would cost £300 a month.

I would rather buy pre-seed and a mooncup (and a syringe if I was really desperate to get the semen as close to the cervix as possible!)
Or those menstrual cap things you can use instead of a mooncup that sit close to the cervix with some pre-seed.

Just use the pre-seed, do the deed (or insert semen another way) and follow up with a menstrual cap or mooncup. I would bet that the success rates wouldn't be all that different and you would be looking at about £30 for a six month supply.

After trying for years it was the pre-seed and mooncup method that gave me my DD (and OPK's for timing, along with temping to ensure ovulation)

By the way, clomid is used for people who don't ovulate and would have no impact on the way the stork is supposed to work.
If you don't ovulate then all the fertility aids in the world aren't going to help!
I would hate for someone to give up clomid in the hope that this might help them instead.

Good luck to anyone who entered or are TTC :)

Hi - sorry for the delay in coming back but we have a response from The Stork for you.

They say
“We are running this product review trial to learn more about how people find The Stork - the good and the bad. We’ll take on board all comments.

Cervical cap insemination is a well-established technique, used for decades by healthcare professionals. The Stork was initially available as an FDA-cleared (Food & Drug Administration) prescription product in the US in 2013, it is has since been cleared for usage without a prescription in the UK, Canada, and most recently cleared by the FDA for over-the-counter use in the US.

~ The cervical cap allows semen to be placed closer to the cervix for a longer duration, which can help couples with low sperm count and motility.

~ The cervical cap helps to minimise the backflow of semen from the vagina, again maximising time sperm are closer to the cervix, whilst allowing the woman to carry on with her daily activities.

~ The cap can also assist with issues surrounding an unfavourable vaginal environment, by placing sperm directly at the opening to the cervix.

The Stork can be used alongside Clomifene and we would certainly not recommend using The Stork instead of Clomifene if you know you are not ovulating. The Stork is recommended for use by people with issues around low sperm count, low sperm motility, unfavourable vaginal environment and unexplained infertility. Clomifene is used to stimulate ovulation and The Stork is used to collect, place and hold the sperm at the cervical opening.

The cost of The Stork reflects the innovation required for semen collection, and accurate cap positioning & placement to allow the cap to be positioned accurately and securely against the cervix, whilst minimising the chance of spillage during the process. Each device is designed for single-use only as reuse of the device may result in an infection, which may endanger future fertility.”

I was accepted for the trial, received the kits last week and used today - it is without a doubt the worst thing I have done throughout my four years of ttc (I have tried a lot!) Instructions are awful, contraption is useless, husband hated it and really uncomfortable for both of us!

Never again!!

hi cavamonster - we have exchanged emails but I wanted to pass on the below message from The Stork.
"We are sorry to hear that your experience with The Stork was not as expected. It is our goal here at Rinovum to help you with becoming pregnant. We thank you for trying the product and value your feedback as we are constantly looking at product development."

Is this also the feedback thread?

hi - sorry tobeabat I hadn't realised you were after a response - the feedback for this is in a private area of the site - all testers are busy trying it and sharing feedback with each other. The Stork felt testers would benefit from the anonymity of a private thread rather than public.

Thanks tobeabat. We do see your point that people who are TTC may be vulnerable in some ways and of course we want to be sensitive to that - the last thing we want to do is be exploitative in any way.

At the same time, conception is definitely an area that many MNers are very interested in, and our understanding (which may well not be perfect) is that some methods and products can be beneficial in some circumstances (see Spongeboob's post earlier on about pre-seed and menstrual cups) so it's difficult to make hard and fast rules tbh, especially as this seems to be a field in which there are quite a lot of new products being developed and efficacy is still being researched.

If there's a strong feeling among MNers that we should have a think about how we approach this sort of thing then we're very happy to do it.

On the feedback for this particular one, The Stork wanted to have the feedback thread private because obviously this product gets used in a fairly intimate way and the client wanted the users to feel free to talk openly about their experiences with it. We (MNHQ) always sign off on clients using MNers' quotes or anything to do with Mumsnet in their communications, and we're always careful to make sure that it's a fair reflection of what was said.

HTH