As to the amount of IUI's you can have before proceeding to IVF? I ask because I know IVF is so darn expensive and I am saving up if need be, but in the meantime would like to plug away with IUI's. Thoughts?
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As to the amount of IUI's you can have before proceeding to IVF? I ask because I know IVF is so darn expensive and I am saving up if need be, but in the meantime would like to plug away with IUI's. Thoughts?
I don't think so, it would be up to your dr and yourselves to discuss and decide. There will probably come a time when you FS talks about moving onto IVF or you can raise the issue with him/her.
It probably depends also on what is causing your IF.
Its definately male factor at this stage, I have had a lap and tube flush and all my tests came back fine.
So the FS wants to collect and prepare the best of DH's sperm for IUI? Sounds like something you could try for a while as you appear all clear. Sometimes people jump too quickly to IVF IMO - best done with good advice from a FS and discussing all the options with them (including financial implications).
Like with natural pg, it can take a while to fall pg with IUI so you may want to discuss how many goes you would be willing to try before discussing the next step more seriously.
There is a BB member who tried IUI, then IVF, then on her 7th IUI (between IVF cycles) fell pg.
Well hubby and I have discussed already to try 10 attemts at IUI, too many? Hopefully it only takes one :pray:
MrsS, I do hope it only takes one for you. Our FS suggested IVF as the next step when we were doing our 6th IUI. By that stage I was more than ready to get more aggressive. However, at the time I felt that he would have been happy for us to continue with the IUI's if we hadn't been ready.
Mrs S - with male factor, depending on how bad the problem is, IUI isn't usually suggested long term. my clinic said we'd try three IUI's before moving to IVF - and we don't have male factor issues. the chances of success with IVF are much higher than with IUI. we had two cancelled IUI's (fail to respond) and three IUI's before moving to IVF. as much as IUI is cheaper, the expense related to IVF and the success rates, it does become almost more affordable (if you can come up with the initial money!). we were waiting to move forward to our next IVF cycle and decided we couldnt' wait five months to get into the next local clinic (we couldn't afford the immediate one - plus it was pretty much booked out) so we asked to try IUI again - and got our longed for BFP and baby girl from the second IUI that time.
it's a really tough call - and i would be speaking seriously with your FS about it. don't look JUST at the financial aspect (as much as that is usually the most pressing thing in your mind - was for us!) - look at the chances of success as well. i think for an IUI with no male factor issues, the success rate is around 5% (i THINK) for IUI - with male factor that could be signficantly lower - while IVF can be as high as 50% depending on embryo quality. i guess i would look at the fact that IVF could be 10 times more likely to succeed - IUI can be very stressful to go through month after month kwim?
good luck in whatever you decide to do
BG
I really think it depends on the kind of male factor issues you have. We have low motility, low morphology and antisperm antibodies. We did some IUIs (cos it only takes one to get there!!!:rolleyes:) but I knew they wouldn't work.
I viewed the IUIs as a bit of a run through for IVF TBH. Getting used to injecting, scans, blood tests and so on. It also meant that when we started IVF, there wasn't too much faffing about with drug levels to see how I responded to stimming.
How many IUIs have you done so far?
I agree with Amaryllis (BTW, love that name. I love Amaryllis, can't wait for them to flower each year! :)) that it depends on the male factor issues. DH has both count and morphology issues and the fs says IUI's are only likely to work if there is only one issue. He said before we even got our tests done that trying more than 3 IUI's was likely to be a waste of money as they have a much lower success rate and if you're not responding, it's better to go straight to IVF.
So I suppose it depends on what the fs/clinic is willing to do, what you want, and how well you respond to everything. Good luck.
I know what you mean about the expense!:
We were given the option of going straight to IVF, or trying IUI with donor sperm. We get three tries, before we have to move on to IVF. Not sure if this is a uniform policy, or just our clinic.