IUI: How Many Times?

[Heather719]

Hi Ladies-

I just found out this morning that I'm not pregnat following my 2nd IUI. First IUI was with Clomid & trigger shot. I had two good follies and we did the IUI 24 hours post trigger. This past cycle we moved on to injectables (Gonal-F & Lupron)- which worked great. I had 4 good follies and we did the IUI 12 hours post trigger.

I realize that these things take time, but after 2 years and 7 months of trying and 2 miscarriages, I'm getting pretty sick and tired of this.

So how many IUI's did you have before you were sucessful? My RE said that if it doesn't take withing 4-6 times, then it probably won't.

Thanks,
Heather

PS-- I have PCOS, which we've known about since 2002. I also have a blood clotting problem disorder that was discovered after my 2nd m/c.

[Kelly's Girl]

Heather, I am sorry the results weren't what you wanted. I know how frustrating, expensive, time-consuming, and emotional the fertilitly road can be.

I took Clomid but never O'ed with it. I switched to injectibles at the end of last year and had an IUI in early December. I got pg, but my #'s didn't cooperate, and I m/c New Year's Day. I had a second round of shots in Feb. of this year and had another IUI March 2. It also took, with better results this time.

FWIW, my RE never told me that if it didn't take early, it probably won't. I'm not discounting your RE- maybe we never got to that point, but hopefully that statistic is wrong. I know you must be impatient and I hope the next step works for you. Hang in there, you WILL be a mom!

[Suzlywoozly]

Heather- I'm sorry to hear everything you are going through! It can be really frustrating. I did 5 IUI's without any sucess and was on clomid for 10 cycles :eek:. I was going to my OB for all of this and he told me it is standard practice to do 4-6 IUI's and then send me to the RE. When I went to the RE in May, I thought we would move on to injectables & IUI's, but he said that after being on clomid for so long and doing 4 IUI's with no results it wouldn't ever work for us now. I was pretty disappointed to hear that IVF is our only option at this point. Sorry I don't have any beter news to give you, but I jsut wanted to let you know that I was told the same thing by my RE that yours told you. Good luck :)

[wife&wannabemom]

Heather - I'm sorry for your results....I wanted to give you good news though that the THIRD time was a charm for us and DH and I are 32w2d PG and waiting for our little boy to arrive.

Our first 2 cycles were clomid & trigger shots (it was actually my 8th cycle on clomid and each time I had at least 3 follicles). The cycle we conceived was our first on Follistim and trigger...I have PCOS and did end up overstimulating but it worked so it was worth it in the end. I had 4 mature follicles when we trigger and did the IUI 24 hours after the trigger.

Good luck to you!

[Ole Miss Bride]

12 hours post-trigger and 24 hours post-trigger sound kind of early. Especially 12 hours. I thought 36 hours post-trigger was pretty standard for IUI timing. You want to time IUI as closely to ovulation as possible, as washed sperm will not live as long in your fallopian tubes as regular, old "sex sperm." Granted, I realize a few women might respond differently, so if your doctor is monitoring you with u/s following your trigger shot, maybe that explains his timing.

That said, I've done three injectables+IUI cycles, all three with IUI 36 hours post-trigger, and I conceived all three cycles. I miscarried the first two pregnancies, but I'm currently 16 weeks pregnant after my last cycle. If I were in your shoes, I'd ask your doctor about changing the timing of your IUI's. I'd imagine 36 hours would be your best bet.

Good luck to you. I know this is frustrating.

-Betsy

[Scooter]

Heather, I'm so sorry for what you're going through. :( And for your results today, how disappointing!

I definitely hear you--we've been trying for 2 years and 4 months. I'm getting so tired of this. I've had 4 IUIs so far; we find out next Wednesday if the lastest one worked. We did 2 IUIs with clomid & 2 with Femara/Letrozole. Next month we do injectibles & our last IUI before IVF.

Hasn't worked for us yet, unfortunately, although there have been a lot of success stories on the boards. We were told the same thing, if you're not pg after 5-6 IUIs then your chances are very low of getting pg without IVF.

[Dasha]

I'm really sorry your 2nd IUI was not successful. I found it really hard to keep dusting and preparing myself for the next round of treatment.
I conceived on my 3rd IUI with injectibles in June. I really thought that cycle had no chance of success for a number of reasons-I triggered a day or two earlier than the RE would have liked, but she was concerned about one follicle getting too large; I had to use my husband's frozen sperm because he was out on a business trip and it was impossible for him to come home for the insemination, my mental state was about as unrelaxed as possible while still being considered functional. Also after the first 2 inseminations I lay on the table for approximately 20 minutes afterwards, listening to soothing spiritual music and visualizing the union of egg and sperm. This time I had to get up almost immediately after the insemination was finished.

So, please, don't think that because 2 were unsuccessful, that IUIs won't work for you. Also, you've only done one cycle with injectibles, and their success rate is much, much higher than it is with Clomid. Please, if you have the emotional resolve, I hope you will try another round with injectibles. I also agree with the other posters about the timing. All 3 of my IUIs were 36 hours post trigger. And my 3rd, and successful, cycle was back to back inseminations. You might want to ask your RE if s/he does 2 of them 24 hours apart.

Good luck to you.

[conneals]

So sorry for the results Heather. I had 7 IUIs. I was on Femara and a trigger shot. My IUIs were always 24 hours after trigger. I got pregnant on #3 and #7. #3 was miscarried and #7 is now nearly 36w, actually 36w ago today we were inseminated!

My doctor always said his best results were on the 3rd time. He only allowed me a 7th time because our numbers were not so good on the 6th IUI and he almost cancelled it. If the 7th one had not worked, he was moving us onto injectibles. So, the fact that you are on injectibles, it may work better for you.

I'll be thinking of you and hoping for the best!

[wife&wannabemom]

12 hours post-trigger and 24 hours post-trigger sound kind of early. Especially 12 hours. I thought 36 hours post-trigger was pretty standard for IUI timing. You want to time IUI as closely to ovulation as possible, as washed sperm will not live as long in your fallopian tubes as regular, old "sex sperm." Granted, I realize a few women might respond differently, so if your doctor is monitoring you with u/s following your trigger shot, maybe that explains his timing.



Ooops, I made a typo in my post....I, like Betsy, had the IUI 36 hours after the trigger, not 24...and I agree, 12 hours after sounds kind of short...my RE liked to do it 36 hours after the trigger.

[kamileer]

39 hours after the trigger worked like a charm for me!

[Heather719]

Thank you all so much for your input! It's great to hear so many success stories!! :)

Looks like 12 hours after trigger may not be too early after all. ;) The test 13DPO was negative- but the test on 15 DPO wasn't! I had my first beta today at 17 DPO and it was 122. :D

-Heather

[Kelly's Girl]

What fabulous news! Keep us posted as those betas double, and congrats!

[red_canuck]

heather i've been following along and I just have to say I am so very happy!! Fingers and toes crossed that this is sticky!

[Ole Miss Bride]

Congratulations, Heather! So glad to see you come back and post this wonderful news!

:)

-Betsy

[Heather719]

Hi Ladies-

Sorry to come back with bad news, but it looks like this is another non-viable pregnancy. My beta's aren't rising like they are supposed to. 122 on Monday, 190 on Wednesday and 250 today. We're going to keep testing next week- but I'm not holding out much hope.

We are extraordinarily disappointed since we were doing so much this cycle to help it work. Hopefully my RE will have some more tricks up his sleeve.

-Heather

[Dan's*Girl]

Heather, I'm so sorry your beta's are not going up. Don't give up hope.


I have a ? for all of the ladies, I just had my first IUI, and had a trigger shot immediately after. I'm so worried now that it won't work. I had 4 follies two days before the IUI on the ultrasound and only 2 the day of the IUI. Could this even possibly have worked???
I have my blood draw this coming friday.

Thanks!

[Heather719]

My betas dropped to 51 today- so we're definitely heading towards another miscarriage. :(

Thanks for thinking of me, Dan's*Girl.

If I'm reading your post correctly, the did your IUI then they triggered you? Typically, you trigger, then do the IUI 24 - 36 hours later. That said, that doesn't mean that this won't work. First off, 2 follies is great- all you need is one to get pregnant! Secondly, I'd make sure you and your DH were BDing consistantly for the next couple days. If your DH doesn't have any sperm issues, I'd BD every 24 hours to cover all your bases. Sperm can last up to 72 hours inside the cervix & uterus- so you have a good chance of catching the egg.

[Nigellas]

Oh, Heather, I'm so sorry. :(

[Ole Miss Bride]

I'm so, so sorry, Heather.

-Betsy