New to BB Forum - new to infertility

[kasam]

Hi all. We are new to this forum so I thought I would tell you a little bit about us.

DH and I have been TTC now for 14 months. SA performed on DH in June confirmed that DH's swimmers aren't all that crash hot and he has a fair amount of abnormal ones. DH had an undesended testiles whcih was corrected when he was about 6. We went and saw a FS yesterday for the first time and have been sent for all our blood tests, another SA for hubby and I have to have dye put through my tubes tomorrow to make sure they aren't blocked. According to the FS as long as there are no problems with me then we should be able to undergo artificial insemination. DH is currently working away which makes it a little bit harder to do things but we will get there. I am stressed to my eyeballs right now wiht everything going on and am glad there are places like here to stop and chat - we are the first in our families to go through anything like this (I am from a big family of breeders lol) so it is hard to sit down adn talk to anyone about it.

Was just wondering if there had been girls on here who have undergone AI and what their success rates have been and what the proceedure was like etc.

Thanks

[briggsy's girl]

i have done all this stuff and will come back tomorrow to post more - just on my way to bed with a splitting headache!

just wanted to let you know that i'll be back to talk soon!!

good luck tomorrow

BG

[Bloom]

Hey Kasam,

Sorry we haven't had/or having AI but I just wanted to pop in a say hi! We were diagnosed with low count, morphology and motility for DH after only 6 months of trying and we were definately NOT expecting it! So i can totally understand how stressful it can be and how it's a whole new world of A.C.

Our F.S. says that DH's swimmers aren't good enough for AI so we are going straight to IVF. Has your F.S. suggested ways of improving DH's swimmers? This is what we are doing for my DH based on googling: low GI high protein diet, a daily multivitamin, boxers, not too much bike riding, no caffiene, no spas/saunas, lots of antioxidants from fruit and vege. It makes us feel like we are doing something. Even if it doesn't improve the swimmers enough for natural conception it could increase the sucess of the AI. Anyway... something to ask your FS about.

There are so many variables about sucess rates but I can totally understand wanting to know. Your clinic should publish it's sucess rates for AI. My clinic's rates are around 10-15% per cycle for AI...

[Nixon]

Hey Kasam,

My Hubbie had undescended testes also - both of them. It tunred out that his anti-sperm antibodies (ASAB) were through the roof so even though my plumbing was perfectly fine we went straight to ICSI. Some probelms with them being a bit deformed as well - 2 tails and all that.

The FS told us that the damage the sperm would sustain because of the ASAB the andrology depatment had to 'wash' the sperm and there were a few otgher procedures that we needed to do differently to other ICSI patients ie: vitamin E, C, folica acid for DH. And instead of him abstaining from ejaculation for 3 days before the collection day - he was told to ejaculate each night for 3 nights up until the night before the collection.

Which clinic are you with?

Anyway babe - I am on my way for my first ever blastocyst transfer. This is our first round and it has been stressful and emotional, but all I can say is Information is power. The more you know and learn about the different proceedures the more comfortable you will get. I'm not saying you will ever being saying "wow - I'm so happy we had problems", but it makes it easier to deal with.

I'll be back later today to see how you're going

Brigsy's girl is a great source of knowledge and advice too. So hopefully she can add more than me.

[Bloom]

Nixon - all the best for your transfer today! How exciting for you. Try and stay calm and relax!

[briggsy's girl]

Was just wondering if there had been girls on here who have undergone AI and what their success rates have been and what the proceedure was like etc.

Thanks

righto - i'm back! sorry last nights message was so brief, but i didn't want to read and have you think i wouldn't reply!! i understand how scary and stressful the situation is, and sometimes you just want to feel heard, feel like someone is acknowledging you - and then scream for help!!! As was mentioned, information/knowledge is your best asset in this game. knowing what the FS is talking about, how that applies to you, what it will mean in the long term - that information is what will help sustain you. and you've come to a fantastic place to find your answers!!

i think to help you, i'll give you a little bit of my history so that you can take which bits you need, discard the bits you don't! i'll keep it short, i promise!!

i have severe Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and dont ovulate on my own very often (maybe twice a year if lucky), so we've had to move to assisted conception to force me to ovulate. DH's first SA was borderline for AI/IUI, but second came back showing it was alright to go ahead. in between, we did a lot of what has already been mentioned, but the main thing was getting him to realise that alcohol impacts his swimmers! he still drinks, but not the same way, so this has been a huge lifestyle change (for the better might i add - it's amazing what having no choice does!)

i started out trying clomid, which is often used to help women ovulate, and is sometimes used on it's own, sometimes in conjunction with IUI. unfortunately, this one didn't work for me at all.

we started an IUI cycle last year by using a nasal spray (synarel) to put me into a state of drug induced menopause. i was then given injectible medication (puregon, some clinics use gonal-f) to stimulate my ovaries to produce a follicle (and hopefully an egg). unfortunately, i didn't respond due to the synarel - my ovaries didn't want to wake up! tried this twice, two cancelled cycles.

we then did an "antagonist" IUI cycle - puregon on it's own, then, if needed, after seven days of injections, we added another injection which would allow follicle to grow but stop me ovulating before they were ready! when the follicle/s were looking nice and ripe (on u/s), i had a different injection to make me ovulate, DH provided his sample, and i was inseminated. the insemination isn't much different to a pap smear - speculum used so they can visualise the cervix, and rather than being scraped as you would be in a pap, they insert a catheter through the cervix to allow the swimmers to be deposited in the uterus, basically stopping them having to navigate the cervix!! this can be a little uncomfy if you have a shy cervix like mine, but it's generally not too bad. the insemination happens 24-48 hours after the trigger shot, and basically makes sure the sperm are waiting for the egg when it's released.

because i had to be forced to ovulate, i had booster shots during the wait to find out if it had worked - just extra hormones to help in supporting any pregnancy that was trying to take hold.

i've now been through 2 cancelled IUI cycles, and four where we've gotten to transfer. from those four, we've had a positive result twice, but have unfortunately lost both of those angels due to my hormonal issues. the success rates, as they were explained to me, are much the same as you'd have on a "normal" cycle if you had no TTC issues - i think they're anywhere up to 20% depending on the clinic. some clinics may have higher success rates based on who they allow to attempt IUI.

IUI is, i guess, the "softer" stepping stone up to IVF. having been through both, IUI is physically a lot easier, but i'll be 100% honest - the emotional side of assisted conception is damn hard either way!

i hope i've helped a little. feel free to ask any other questions you need to ask. there are threads dedicated to long term ttc (ltttc) and assisted conception (ac), ttc using IUI, and a variety of other ttc threads, so jump in, ask away hun!

hoping today gave you some good results

BG

[Devon]

Hi Kasam

Welcome to BB, you will find loads of information and support here.

I had three cycles of ovulation induction with IUI, and I fell pg on the last one. My clinic has a success rate of 20% per cycle with IUI.

I haven't had any other form of assisted conception, so I can't compare to clomid or IVF. I do ovulate on my own, but my hormone levels aren't quite good enough, I think I don't ovulate well so chances of conceiving naturally are lower. DH's sperm are fine, that's why we used OI and IUI.

Physically the OI and IUI wasn't a big deal for me - I was on a low dose and didn't really get many side effects. Like BG I was also on Pregnyl booster shots following ovulation, which did make me feel pg even when I wasn't. The IUI procedure itself was no problem at all, mild discomfort when the catheter was going in, and a bit of an ache for a litte while afterwards, then all fine.

The hardest bit for me was emotional, and it was quite a hard time to go through. But at the end of it it did work for us and was definitely worth it.

I guess the thing is that your husband's sperm need to be good enough to give you a good chance of conceiving just with the IUI, but if your FS has suggested it then in his opinion you have a decent chance of getting pg this way.

I hope your procedure went well today and you get the all clear to go ahead with the IUI.

Best of luck, and I hope you are blessed very soon.

In the meantime, I have found so much support here on BB - definitely explore the Long Term TTC and Assisted Conception threads, there are some really wonderful women here. I don't know how I would have survived this process without BellyBelly.

Devon
xxxx

[kasam]

Thanks for the responses girls. My scan went ok yesterday - I didn't have to much pain at all and only really had a little bit of discomfort. They didn't really say anything after it was done so I am not sure if my tubes were blocked or not. I have another appointment with the FS in about 3 weeks time to allow us enough time to have my 21 day and then another day 2 blood tests and for hubby to have his SA done. I do feel a litlte bit better having done some more research into things. From the finances side of things I sure do hope that IUI works rather than having to go down the IVF track. Hubby is really positive and is still positive that it won't need to come to any of the above. I love his positive attitude I also realised yesterday that instead of going from financial year to financial year that the medicare safety net is a January to January thing so we are going to have to decide whether to postpone starting until January next year so we can make sure that the first proceedure puts us over the safety net and that it isn't horribly expensive after that if that makes any sense. We are by no means wealthy so for us this will be a bit thing financially which makes it even more stressful. We are also trying to renovate our house in the middle of things. I have had such selfish thoughts about this whole one being that the money we are about to put into having a child could have been used to build our verandah or finish off the interiour of our house but then I really want a child as well. Hmmmmm so so emotional! Well I really hope that I get to know you all better soon. Thank you once again for the information. I like to be well informed so good to find some new reading material. It was good to go to the IVF clinic and roughly know what they were talking about. Thanks kasam

[christiy]

Hi Kasam

I'm currently about to complete my third round of AI. DH and I have been diagnosed with unexplained fertility and we've been trying on and off for about 24 months. I went into AI being quite naive thinking that it would work the first time but they also (once I asked) gave me the same info about the chances of falling pregnant as you were given, just got to keep your fingers crossed.

Good luck