What Fertility Treatment Should I do IUI, IVF?

I have people ask me all the time is IUI a waste of money? Keep reading and I will tell you the answer to that question.  A lot of people don’t know the answer to the question should I do IUI, IVF, or timed ovulation. So if you don’t know about infertility treatments and how they work you aren’t alone.

If you are in this boat you may be wondering all the things. So let me explain.

Which is better IUI or IVF?

Which one should you do? Or what should you start with? If you are not sure what the answer to that is keep reading I will share with you the full details of each one.

If you aren’t familiar with them or know the differences I will give you some basic information.

You might wonder how many times should I do IUI before IVF?

That question is one your doctor will help you with. The recommendation is usually 5 IUI tries before IVF. Unless it is highly unlikely IUI will be successful than your doctor may recommend IVF sooner.

I did 2 IUI’s before I went through with IVF.

Let me give you some basic information on what the differences are between IUI and IVF.

IUI is when the nurse inserts healthy sperm into your uterus which puts it close to your egg for ovulation. When going through IUI you will always take fertility drugs like clomid or femara. It will help your body produce eggs and ovulate at a certain time. So that the sperm can be inserted at the correct time of ovulation.

IVF is a bit more complex it’s where you have an egg retrieval and a sample of your spouses sperm or donor sperm are put together. An egg retrieval is a process all on it’s own. The doctor can get any number of eggs during retrieval sometimes it’s a smaller amount sometimes it’s more eggs. It just depends on the persons body. The doctor will insert the sperm inside the egg to create an embryo. Then the embryo will later be put inside you through a catheter.

12 days after the embryo is inserted you will find out if you are pregnant through a blood test at your doctors office.

IUI is one of the beginning steps you usually go through before IVF.

So ask your doctor what their recommendation is for you on how many IUI’s if any you should go through prior to IVF.

That’s usually what happens for infertility treatments. Your doctor may want to try IUI first before IVF. There is a pretty dramatic cost difference between the two procedures. IUI usually costs $300-$1000. IVF usually costs $15,000-$25,000+.

So depending on what your budget is you may want to start out with IUI. My infertility situation is male factor infertility so it was my husband that has a low sperm count. So IUI was almost a waste for us because my doctor told me I would have a 2% chance of getting pregnant with IUI. I wish I would have known those numbers before I did two rounds of IUI.

So if you are wondering what infertility treatment is the best for you.

The answer is it’s up to you. It depends on your current situation, what caused your infertility, your financial situation, your egg health, the sperm count, what your percentage is that IUI will work for you. There are so many things to think about when deciding which one to do.

If I would have known how low my chances were of getting pregnant with IUI was I would have done IVF to begin with. So to me it was a waste of time because my chances of pregnancy were so low. However, it can work for some people. A close family member of mine just got pregnant from her third IUI. So it does happen.

Call your doctor schedule an appointment and ask all the questions. Get the full details and then decide what will work for your situation the best. Don’t be afraid to dig deep with your doctor. They are there for you. They are there to answer your questions to help you decide what is the right thing to do in your particular situation.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today! It means so much to me that you are here.

If you want to see another popular blog post about infertility grief you can CLICK HERE.