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PART III: WHAT TREATMENTS ARE AVAILABLE FOR INFERTILITY – INTRAUTERINE INSEMINATION

Rocky Mountain Fertility Center Blog PART III: WHAT TREATMENTS ARE AVAILABLE FOR INFERTILITY – INTRAUTERINE INSEMINATION
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This is Part III on the Rocky Mountain Fertility Center series on Infertility. The first focused on Medical Management options, and the second focused on Reproductive Surgery options. Here is an overview of Intrauterine Insemination.

Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is a procedure used for infertility patients that involves placing a “washed” and concentrated sperm sample into the uterus at the time of ovulation. IUI therapy should be used with fertility drugs in women with infertility issues.  The procedure is typically done in the fertility clinic’s office and takes only about 10 minutes to complete.

The intrauterine insemination procedure gets the sperm closer to the fallopian tubes,  and hopefully closer to the  egg that has just been released from the ovaries. Timing of insemination procedures need to be close to the time of ovulation.  Intrauterine insemination can used when couples are unable to get pregnant due to a variety of reasons.  Even in cases of unknown infertility causes, intrauterine insemination may offer favorable results.

The IUI procedure is most often used for:

Intrauterine insemination procedures should be utilized with fertility drugs in patients with infertility.  The success of IUI’s in woman without the use of fertility drugs is very low.  An exception is the use of IUI  in woman receiving donor sperm insemination that have no fertility issues, success is fairly high in this group without the use of fertility medications.

The Expected Outcome of Treatment

Results may vary from patient to patient.  Your fertility treatment center doctor will instruct you to wait about two weeks before taking a home pregnancy test.  The timing will ensure that hormone levels are at a measurable amount and pregnancy can be detected.  If a woman becomes over-anxious and tests too soon, a false-negative result may occur.  This means that the test may report that you are not pregnant, when in fact you are.

You may be instructed to return to the fertility clinic for a blood test, which is able to detect sensitive pregnancy hormones following fertilization.  If you do not become pregnant the first time using intrauterine insemination, often the fertility doctor will recommend 2 more cycles of IUI therapy before moving on to other treatment options.

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