IUI – Think Fertility USA

IUI is a safe and straightforward office fertility treatment.

Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is typically performed around the time of ovulation. We monitor your egg growth, and around ovulation time, we directly place prepared sperm into your uterus through the cervix using a very thin cannula. By timing ovulation and eliminating the path that sperm would normally take to the uterus, there is a better chance that sperm will swim to the egg and a pregnancy will occur.

We offer three types of IUI treatments at Think Fertility:

Natural cycle IUI – often used for women with regular menstrual cycles or couples who are unable to have sex. You do not need to take any medication in natural cycle IUI. We monitor your egg growth with the use of ultrasound and perform the procedure around your time of ovulation.
Medication IUI – the most used approach. You take an oral tablet for several days starting in the early phase of your menstrual cycle to stimulate and support your egg growth. We monitor your egg growth by using ultrasound. When eggs are mature enough, you take one trigger injection to ensure the timing of ovulation. The procedure will be performed around the time of ovulation.
Injectable IUI – for some women, we use very low doses of injection medication to stimulate the growth of more than one egg. By increasing your egg production, injectable IUI has higher pregnancy rates compared to natural and medication IUI.

We will choose the best option for your unique circumstances. Call us to know more about IUI treatment.

Who would benefit from IUI?

IUI could be the first step in your assisted fertility journey if you belong to any of the following groups:

Women couple hoping to build a family with the use of donor sperm
Women who need help with ovulation, such as PCOS
Women diagnosed with unexplained infertility
Women who cannot have regular or penetrative sex
Has a partner has borderline semen parameters (mild male factor infertility)
Has a partner has no sperm and requires the use of donor sperm
Need to use your partner’s frozen sperm
A single woman wishing to conceive with donor sperm

IUI is not effective in the following scenarios:

Diminished ovarian reserve especially in advanced age women
Very poor semen parameters
Blocked fallopian tubes
Moderate to severe Endometriosis
Multiple unsuccessful IUI treatment before

What can you expect before and after IUI treatment?

· You may have several office visits for ultrasounds to monitor egg growth.
· Your male partner will provide a semen sample the day of the IUI procedure, or the donor sperm will be thawed.
· We perform the IUI under the guidance of ultrasound. You may need to have a filled or half-filled bladder before the IUI procedure.
· IUI is quick and typically painless and does not require anesthesia.
· Some women may experience spotting immediately after IUI procedure, that’s because of irritation of the delicate tissue of the cervix. Spotting won’t negatively impact your chances of pregnancy. It usually resolves in 1-2 days.
· You can go back to routine activity after IUI procedure. Remain physically active but do not intensively exercise.
· Avoid alcohol, cigarettes or any recreational drugs. Take a prenatal vitamin containing folic acid. Eat a healthy, balanced diet.
· You can take a pregnancy test two weeks after the IUI procedure.

My partner’s sperm morphology is less than 4%. Can we still try IUI?

Low sperm morphology (jump to semen analysis) alone does not refer that a man is infertile. Achieving pregnancy is still possible with low morphology scores.

There is no established threshold value for a morphology score which predicts successful conception, whether with natural conception, IUI, IVF or ICSI.

It has been shown that the results of IUI are strongly dependent, where male parameters are concerned, on the number of motile sperm after sperm washing. Most studies did not concern isolated low normal morphology percentage.

The higher total motile sperm (TMC) after wash, the higher chance of successful pregnancy rate by IUI:

TMC >12 million: pregnancy rate ~ 12%.
TMC 5-10 million: pregnancy rate 6-10%.
TMC < 5 million: pregnancy rate ~ 5%.

Many factors can impact the success rates of IUI, including type and duration of infertility, number of mature follicles, endometrial thickness etc.

We use these other factors in addition to a morphology score when we discuss with you and predict the likelihood of conception.