[sarahsar]

Originally Posted by KeLLi23xo

my question was if anyone did IUI and if it took and which cycle? I so badly want a baby but as bad as this sounds, I keep putting money out to these doctors who seem like they are full of crap and just want my money

I think it's very important to trust the doctors you are working with on this. If you don't trust your clinic, you should look around to others, because it _is_ a lot of money (not to mention physical and emotional investment) and not all fertility clinics are created equal. I do think some are pretty shady, preying on people's hopes and taking a lot of money to do so. But others are excellent and will be honest with you. Trust is key.

I don't think success rates are published for IUI like they are for IVF (you can look up success rates for IVF on the CDC website), so it's probably harder to judge. I would ask your clinic, though, what the chances of success are. If you ask here, there are sure to be people for whom it worked and people for whom it didn't, but that doesn't necessarily say much about your situation. The chance of success for you particularly will depend on a lot of things - your age, reason for infertility, etc. I _think_ (please don't quote me on this), that the chance of success with an IUI is something like 15-20% per cycle, but again, that would depend greatly on your particular situation, whether you do it unmedicated, with Clomid, with injectibles, etc. The cost would also depend a lot on what meds you use. You have every right to ask those questions of your clinic, and if they don't give you a straight answer, that would raise a red flag that maybe you should look elsewhere.

If you're asking more generally - can IUI work? Of course it can, depending on your reason for infertility, and for many it does. The success rates are definitely lower than for IVF, but so is the cost and the effort involved. For us, we started out as unexplained infertility (it later turned out to be stage IV endometriosis, but we didn't know that at the time), and it seemed reasonable to try it, especially with no insurance coverage for IVF (we had a little bit of coverage for IUI). Our clinic suggested trying IUI no more than 3 times. We only did 2, because we had a suspicion of the reason for infertility and I thought IUI was probably very unlikely to work for us, which turned out to be the case because of stuff being blocked. Still, if everything (tubes, etc.) is open inside, there's no theoretical reason why it wouldn't work, which is why it's a reasonable choice for a lot of people.

I wish you the best in making this decision!

[beejerry]

I was told the chances are 20% for IUI and 50% for IVF. But it's better than nothing!!!!

My friend failed the first IVF but she succeed on the 2nd and gave birth to a healthy boy. Don't give up hopes yet! Can you get a good reference from friends or family on the Dr? There should be more info on some baby board.

[KeLLi23xo]

I just don't have $20,000 to put out there for IVF and then have it not work, you know? I got a reference from one doctor and he turned out to be really mean. The next doctor I found I really liked then she stopped taking my insurance. So I had to find another one. I like this doctor he knew a lot more than the others but I'm just scared about IUI and it not taking.

[sarahsar]

Originally Posted by KeLLi23xo

I just don't have $20,000 to put out there for IVF and then have it not work, you know? I got a reference from one doctor and he turned out to be really mean. The next doctor I found I really liked then she stopped taking my insurance. So I had to find another one. I like this doctor he knew a lot more than the others but I'm just scared about IUI and it not taking.

I definitely sympathize with your situation. The whole thing is so frustrating, and then to be concerned about the doctors only adds to it. It sounds like you have at least found a knowledgeable doctor, which is a good thing. I will say, though, that unfortunately there is a lot of uncertainty built in to the process. Putting large sums of money towards this does _not_ guarantee success, even at the absolute best clinic with the best doctor.

Look at the statistics on the CDC website - these are for IVF, not IUI, but the success rates for IVF should be higher than IUI: http://www.cdc.gov/ART/

For example, you can see that in 2005, nationally, only 34% of fresh cycles using nondonor eggs resulted in pregnancy. Now, that is only one piece of information, and this particular statistic is including all age groups, all types of infertility, etc. You can go through and break it down by age, clinic, etc. Some clinics have better rates, some have worse, your chances at 30 are better than at 40, and so on. (For example, national rate of pregnancy for women <35 was 43.1%, for those ages 41-42, it was 17.6%). The statistics can be a little misleading, too, since some clinics take more difficult cases than others. But even the best IVF rates are maybe 50% (higher with donor eggs). The bottom line is that it is really a big gamble, even in the best possible situations.

I know you're talking about IUI, not IVF, but the principles are the same. They just don't publish the data on IUI so easily for everyone to see. I do think it's important for anyone considering these procedures to look at those success rates - again, not to get caught up in the numbers, but to realize what the reality of the situation is. IVF can do amazing things (for me, it was my only chance at pregnancy), but it is far from a sure thing. The same holds true for IUI.

I don't say any of this to be discouraging, and of course everyone that goes through these things wants it to work, preferably on the first cycle! I think you have to have a certain optimism to get through all of this. But the expenses are significant, emotionally as much as financially, even for IUI, so it's a good thing to be an educated consumer.

[duranie70]

MsMelanie... do you go to NY?
I go to CWRC- they always return calls.
Google Mark Sauer...