While my hormone therapy, routine testing and tracking of my cycle seemed to drag on for quite some time, our attempts at IUI and IVF came one right after another. Looking back I can say it was a “now or never” approach – we weren’t getting any younger….I wasn’t getting any less tired from the treatment – it was all in. I was extremely fortunate that my second IVF, at a different clinic, was covered by my insurance – this was an absolute Godsend and I realize how uncommon coverage is for Infertility. Please speak with your insurance company AND your clinic to determine what is covered and what payment plans are available at the clinic (if any). You can read about my experience in my blog and there will be more to come retroactively as I’m still updating this site. Googling will give you plenty of overview of the coveted IUI and IVF procedures, but here is a brief rundown.
Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) – basically, the aim (no pun intended) is to get as many sperm as possible to the fallopian tubes, in turn, getting closer to the egg and increase the chances of fertilization. Typically, the female partner will have been on some type of ovarian stimulating hormone to have a good sized follicle present for the sperm and received an HCG injection (aka “trigger shot”) at her clinic 24hrs prior. The male partner will provide a sample the day of the procedure. The sperm is “cleaned” and later inserted into the female – overall the procedure itself is over quickly, it’s the waiting at the clinic pre-procedure that can take some time.
Invitro Fertilization (IVF) – A much more complex procedure than IUI and other hormone treatment.
One IVF cycle involves:
- Discussing start of the IVF cycle with your specialist
- Typically daily monitoring at your clinic – bloodwork and ultrasound – for a week or so prior to ‘Retrieval’
- Instructions every evening on the combination of hormone injections you must take to ensure follicle stimulation
- Retrieval – if your body responds to the medication, you should be able to move to the next stage of egg retrieval
- Sperm sample provided by partner
- Insemination/fertilization of eggs and sperm (procedures such as ‘ICSI‘ and ‘assisted hatching‘ may occur between now and the transfer depending on your conversations with your specialist).
- A call from your nurse with updates on how your embryos are doing
- A decision between you, your partner, and doctor on whether you will be doing a 3-or 5- day transfer
- The transfer!