Any advice is appreciated!!

Cita13

My wife and myself live in Philadelphia and we are begining what seems to be the very overwhelming process of trying to have a baby. To be honest everytime we think we know where to start things seem to get confusing We want to try an at home insemination and from what I have read we would need to use ICI. Does anyone out there have any experience doing things at home? Can anyone give us any advice about storage? We have more or less found a donor that we like but now I have this giant fear that the donor will sell out. We aren't even sure about finding a proper doctor who would be ok with us doing things at home. I apologize if I'm all over the place but like I said we would appreciate and welcome any and all advice!!! :geek:

bluesky10

Honestly doing it at home is a very very low chance. I would find a doc and go that route.

heidibee

I am not sure of the statistics about doing it at home or with a Dr. If you are using fresh, your chances would be the same as any other hetero couple trying which is about 20%. It is all in the timing but with fresh it can live longer and you have more of a window of oppertunity. If you are using frozen I would go the Dr route. I am sure it has been done at home but my experience was it did not work for us using ICI at home and had to have IUI at the office. You can buy home insemination kits online, I forget where we bought ours. But it had collections cups, syringes and cathaters and information on how to do it all. Good Luck.

jackiew00021

I would start with a dr anyway. Dr. Pfeffer in Bryn Mawr is WONDERFUL. definitely worth the trip!!!
A dr will help answer any questions you may have.
good luck!
if you have any specific questions, please ask. (pm is best)


ETA:
130 South Bryn Mawr Avenue
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010-3121
(610) 527-0800

trickynic79

I just saw your post, My wife and i live in York PA and went to the Fertility Center and saw Dr. Filer. He has an office in Lancaster too, so that wouldnt be too far for you. Its not cheap, as there are many tests they have you go through before doing the insemination. But Dr. Filer is wonderful!! And our 1st insemination worked!! I am due in about a week!! We cant wait to meet our baby boy!! If you have any questions feel free to contact me!!

redolfin26

i am not not sure what insurance you have but these days many procedures are covered..if you have no reason to think you have any infertility issues then im not sure any tests besides bloodwork to check general health and hormone levels is necessary..its all my dr did...i do suggest you go to a fertility center/dr to increase your chance of success...if u have insurance it should cover everything except the actual sperm samples and i dont think relatively speaking , that its a huge cost unless it takes a very long time to get pregnant...hope this helps some...good luck

heidibee

trickynic79 wrote:

I just saw your post, My wife and i live in York PA and went to the Fertility Center and saw Dr. Filer. He has an office in Lancaster too, so that wouldnt be too far for you. Its not cheap, as there are many tests they have you go through before doing the insemination. But Dr. Filer is wonderful!! And our 1st insemination worked!! I am due in about a week!! We cant wait to meet our baby boy!! If you have any questions feel free to contact me!!

My wife and I live on the the York /Cumberland County border. Small world. Congrats on the baby!!!

tdub1127

Hey cita13 congrats on the beginning of a long, sometimes strange, and yet wonderful trip.

Good luck to you if you try the at home route. We decided to go with a dr and used Dr. Jacqueline Gutmann http://www.rmaphiladelphia.com/
They're at 1015 Chestnut Street in Philly. The staff was great and the doc was fantastic!

@ trickynic and heidibee - I'm originally from Gettysburg so it looks like this forum covers all of South Central/Eastern PA...really is a small world. Congrats and best of luck to you all!

Kleonard83

Hey Cita13, My partner and i are just starting our journey as well. We have chosen to do IUI because the chance of getting pregnant is much better. We do have a doctor that we have been going to. Like the previous post he is with RMA. It's Dr. Martin Freedman. There is a location in center city. Everyone at the office is very helpful and nice. They also check your insurance to see if anything is covered. You should find that out. You may be pleasantly surprised The thing that my insurance does not cover is Invitro. Good luck with your journey

skinnyjennie

I have a friend who was successful at home. It took 9 tries. She was in her mid-twenties at the time. When we started, my wife was over 40, we went to the doctor and found out that she had a cyst. So, we could try at home but it would have never worked. We tried four unsuccessful IUIs on her and one IVF using my eggs. This was a long, hard journey financially, emotionally and physically. Our first doctor moved. We ended up with his partner who was a waste of time. So, a friend recommended a different doctor who was wonderful. After three years with no success, we decided to go with the "back-up" uterus. It worked on me the first try! Because of our ages, we were on injectables. For her first IUI, she was on Clomid. I am 30 weeks pregnant! We found out that I am an early ovulator which would have been a factor at home, too. On our successful try, we relaxed! We took mini vacations. I had a massage the day before the IUI. I really think the relaxation was key! In network, our insurance covered more than expected. Out-of-network, it was a lot more expensive but we had success! Watch out for lifetime limits, too! My two points are relax and don't give up! Good luck!