STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO IUI

Intrauterine insemination process popularly known as (IUI process) is artificial insemination that involves placing sperm inside a woman’s uterus to facilitate fertilization. With the growing technology in our world, the medication processes have grown too and doctors have discovered the processes to help infertile couples have their own baby.

IUI is one of the most popular ways for treating problems that are causing problems for the occurrence of pregnancy like, poor cervical mucus, cervicitis, cervical scarring etc. in women, while ejaculation problems, mild sperm abnormality and erectile dysfunction in men.

Also, what makes it the first thought for couples is that it is a non-surgical treatment and takes very less time to perform. This treatment may not be apt for women with blocked fallopian tubes, serious endometriosis or pelvic infections or for males who have extensively low sperm count.

IUI treatment is done after a thorough medical assessment of both men and women. Men go through a semen analysis whereas in the case of women, various hormone levels are checked and analyzed like, Anti-mullein hormone (AMH) and Follicle-stimulating Hormone (FSH).

These hormonal examinations provide information about the egg supply and ovarian function in women. Physical tests and vaginal / TVS ultrasounds are also done along with the discussion regarding any past medical issues and history like medical diagnoses, previous pregnancies, if any, etc.

To finally achieve the positive results for which there is an estimated chance of 10-15%, you should carefully go through an IUI step by step treatment explanation of the complete procedure. There are 5 major steps which will result into a success towards having a baby:

1. Preconception Admonishing from Doctor

Many doctors suggest for this step of taking medical advice from IUI specialist before you get started with the core process of IUI. In this part, the doctor advises you about how to focus on your maternal health by taking some medications, carefully planning your diet, giving up on things like smoking and drinking and other essentials to take you through a fair journey to a healthy pregnancy.

The doctor may examine you and suggest tests to determine the specific causes that are hindering the process of natural pregnancy in your body. The cause will help to see if IUI treatment process will work for you or not and if it does how effective will it be for you with respect to your infertility reasons.

2. Ensuring Production of Eggs

Women usually do this on their own for finding the perfect timing or insemination of sperm for IUI pregnancy while they are ovulating. If women have earlier problems with ovulation and have been through unsuccessful IUI procedures then doctors may prescribe oral drugs to deal with and stimulate ovulation.

The stimulation of ovulation can also be done by injecting drugs directly into your body but this process has now been reduced as it had resulted in the release of multiple eggs further creating a severe risk of multiple pregnancies in women.

3. Tracking your monthly cycle

There are various methods to track your ovulation cycle; you can do it by tracking your cervical mucus and measuring its temperature whereas various ovulation cycles tracking kits are also available to effectively tracking your ovulation cycle.

Tracking ovulation cycle determines about the days you are ovulating so that you can go to the doctor within 24-36 hours for further carrying out IUI procedure step by step and successful result of it.

4. Harvesting of sperm

You can either use fresh sperm or the old frozen sperm for IUI treatment. If you are using a fresh one then your partner or your acquired sperm donor will need to be there. In case of non-availability of fresh sperm, there are plenty of other donated or frozen sperm that you can use for fertilization.

The frozen ones are defrosted for you if you need it by the clinic itself. After defrosting, the sperm is washed to clear out impurities if any and get hold of more of the sample part and less of the fluid of the sperm so that the more amounts of sperm can result into more chances of the egg to get fertilized easily and effectively.

5. Insertion of sperm

After washing and clearing out all impurities of the sperm, the core IUI step by step treatment starts. The doctor inserts a thin long tube which is also called catheter in medical terms; it is medical equipment which helps in planting sperm in your uterus to carry out IUI procedure.

It is inserted into the uterus through your vagina passing through your cervix area and the tube then releases the sperm into your uterus and hopes to successfully carry out its further journey towards the eggs. It is said that IUI procedure is the treatment which is completely painless but it has been seen in some cases that mild cramps may occur while going through the procedure.

6. Pregnancy test

The last step of the whole procedure will come in occurrence after few days of insemination of sperm into your uterus. This is the step of taking up the pregnancy test to finally see if the IUI treatment turned out to be successful for you or not.

You can take up this test at least two weeks after taking up the IUI procedure. If it is not successful, you can consult the doctor and take up the procedure again and it still doesn’t work out then you can try the other infertility cure i.e. IVF.

Pros of IUI

As discussed above, IUI is one of the majorly popular fertility treatments for couples nowadays. It takes no time to get executed and it is painless treatment as well. But what things make it advantageously stand out among other fertility treatments are as follows:

Less Invasive: This fertility procedure doesn’t include any kind of invasion as there is no surgery to be conducted for gaining pregnancy because the eggs of the mother are not extracted from the body which may have to be done in other fertility treatments.

This makes it a safe procedure to take up for dealing with the infertility of the patient and often considered as the first choice of the doctor as well the patients because of its advantage of being less invasive and safe.

Inexpensive: This procedure is extensively affordable for everyone who is facing fertility issues in their marital life. You will not have to think twice to take up this treatment with regard to the expense; this is because there is no use of great laboratory equipment or monitoring.

Also, there is no need of performing any kind of expensive methods in the treatment, like extraction of eggs through surgery etc. which makes this procedure less costly than other treatments available and the doctor tends to advice to take this treatment before getting towards any other fertility treatments due to its cost-effectiveness and safety.

Cons of IUI

Though the IUI treatment is considered to be one of the finest fertility treatments but in some cases, it is not considered to be a beneficial or effective treatment for the people. For IUI treatment to work effectively it is necessary that-

1. Female patients have healthy and clear fallopian tubes otherwise the treatment will turn out as a complete failure as well as the patient must be ovulating to carry out the pregnancy. If any of these things lack, the possibility of a successful result of the IUI procedure completely turns to nil. In this case, you will have to opt for other treatments to carry out a pregnancy.
2. Male partner should not have a low sperm motility rate by any chance because for carrying out the treatment of IUI successfully there is a certain level of sperm motility rate required. Though the sperm motility rate goes from 0 to up to 200 million it is required to have at least 1 million as some doctors prefer minimum number of motile sperm as 1 million while others may require to have comparatively higher amount i.e. ranging up to 3 million, 5 million and even 10 million motile sperms for effective result of IUI treatment procedure.

All of the information discussed may have provided you with some raw sketch of what IUI procedure is like and what all is necessary to know before thinking of taking up this process for yourself if you are facing any fertility issues. Hopefully, it was a beneficial read to educate you about this affordable and efficient fertility treatment with its limitations and fair benefits.