Home Insemination

hopeful

Hello all. I am a single mother by choice who is trying for child #2. For those of you who may be considering at home insemination via ICI, I wanted to share my experience with my first insemination in hopes that it may help others plan better than I did I opted to do a couple of cycles of ICI in the comfort of my own home as I don't believe that I have any fertility issues. If it does not work (I am 36) then I will try IUI.

So 2 days ago my pee stick shows that I am having an LH surge....yay. I am all prepared, I have the donor sperm but I have not opened the container to look at the vial for fear of tampering with the temperature inside the container. I have the 4 inch long needleless syringe that my doctor told me to get (still unopened so as to remain sterile so I haven't looked at that either), the pillows are ready and waiting to elevate my hips, my 5 year old daughter is sound asleep. I am ready for baby making!!! I thaw the sperm per my doctor's instructions (I do notice that the vial is MUCH smaller than I expected but I continue on because, after all, I have done the research and I am prepared), I open the packaging of the 4 inch long syringe.....and I realize that the syringe is too wide to fit into the vial to suck up the sperm . OH NO!!! Now, I am freaking out because, as you may know, sperm only lives so long once it is thawed. Luckily, I do have a 5 year old child so I had other syringes in my medicine cabinet. But it took precious time to find one that may have been long enough (was only 3 inches though....so I may have missed my opportunity and wasted some money this cycle).

Moral of the story, if you are doing home insemination....beware that the opening to the vial is quite small so try to find a needleless syringe that is quite skinny so YOU don't waste your opportunity. I hope that this may help somebody out there. Best of luck to you all on your journey!!!

latebloomer

you are so brave! the thought crossed my mind but I didn't think I could ever do it on my own so I sucked it up and have been paying the doctor to do it! Two IUIs later still no baby but doctor says all my numbers on paper are great. The only thing we don't know is what my egg quality is for sure and the only way to know is through in vitro where they pull the eggs out. My insurance won't pay until I've done this 6 times on my own so I seriously considered doing the home insemination to save money but to be honest I've never had "good aim" if you know what I mean! You are right, the vial is a heck of a lot smaller than I expected it to be too! Best of luck and please continue to post your progress! I may be inspired to do one on my own!

bluesky10

You could take the plunger out and poor the sperm in the other end.

I swear by one IUI at 36 hours.

hopeful

@latebloomer....thanks. Actually, I am obviously no MD but I would say stick with the IUI if at all possible since you have had 2 unsuccessul attempts already. Home insemination has a lower success rate than IUI. But 2 unsuccessfuls is not many at all....keep your chin up and it will happen! As far as the aim goes....haha, that is another reason that a skinnier syringe is best. You have to feel for the cervix with one hand, keep your finger there and insert the syringe aimed towards the top of the cervix with your other so that the sperm coats the entire cervix. Therefore, a wide syringe is not exactly comfortable...lol.

@bluesky.... I was in such a panic, I did try to pull the plunger out to pour it in the top, but it wouldn't come out. It must have been nerves because after reading your post I just tried it again. I had to pull really hard but it did come out this time. Yes, I know that IUI is better for most people and I may have to do it myself eventually. But I am in no huge rush and I know quite a few friends who have been successful with home inseminations using frozen donor sperm so I am giving it a couple of tries first. Heck, my daughter was a welcome surprise as I was on birth control pills (but I skipped a couple of days that month and tried to double up on them afterwards.....fyi, that doesn't work....lol) so I was pretty fertile a few years ago anyway.

Best of luck to all....please keep us updated. Lots of baby dust !

tillie

For the IUI 36 hrs after surge advice, I have a question! I'm trying to nail this down for myself but am a little confused. Let's say you test every day with the OPK at 2pm. You get, let's say, on Day 13 two lines of pretty similar color. In other words, they now look like a match. The next day, on Day 14, you get the test line (or whatever you call it; the one you are watching and wanting to change) visibly darker than the other. What am I counting 36 hrs from? I never know which is considered the actually surge. My fertility nurse says schedule the day after it is a match and don't wait for the line to get darker. Not sure that's right. Plus, they like to do back-to-backs, so that part drives me crazy as well. Also, should I count from Day 14 at 2pm or Day 15 at 2pm or, alternatively, should I realize that was just the test time and I should presume the surge really happened in the a.m. and count from say 9 am on one of those dates. Also, what if 36 hours falls at a time (e.g., 9pm) that the clinic is not open for the IUI or at a time (e.g., 4pm) when they don't do IUIs (I think mine schedules all for before noon).

Thanks thanks thanks! Probably should have resolved all of this before I started trying. I think the clinic is not super concerned about preciseness since they do back-to-backs, so it is on me to be anal about this and try to drive it to get the timing right. Plus, I'm in change of the OPKs and reading that and making the right decisions there.

bluesky10

If you are going through a clinic why not do the montiored and trigger?

If you go this route they watch the size of the follicals. When they are big enough they will give you a trigger shot and insem after that. Doing back to backs doesnt really do anything other than wast money. One timed IUI after the trigger shot covers the same and has a better sucess rate.

If your doing it on your own then you cant really go by that.

tillie

bluesky10 wrote:

If you are going through a clinic why not do the montiored and trigger?

If you go this route they watch the size of the follicals. When they are big enough they will give you a trigger shot and insem after that. Doing back to backs doesnt really do anything other than wast money. One timed IUI after the trigger shot covers the same and has a better sucess rate.

If your doing it on your own then you cant really go by that.

Monitoring and trigger are about 5-10 times the money. Without any identified fertilities issues (I'm gay, so I have not tried and failed), and no insurance coverage, this was considered money unnecessarily spent at this point. Maybe I will get there, but trying a few natural cycle IUIs first using the OPK for timing.

hopeful

Tillie...yes, timing can be tough on your own! My doctor has been great with helping me understand and working closely with me. What I can share is that you can test 2x per day with OTC ovulation tests (once you think that ovulation time is near) if you hold your urine and limit your fluid intake for at least 2 hrs prior to the test. Diluted urine will alter the results. This will give you a better idea of when your LH surge really was. As soon as the control line and test line are the same color....you are having an LH surge and it is best to be inseminated that very day (or next day at the latest) as you will ovulate soon and the sperm needs to be there to meet that egg (or eggs).

I have no answer about what to do if the clinic is closed as I am not doing IUI. I am sure others will have an answer or you???? I do know that I have a friend who recently gave birth to a beautiul baby (conceived via IUI donor sperm) and she asked a nurse practitioner in her clinic to do the IUI on a weekend since she knew she would be ovulating on a weekend

latebloomer

Yes timing is everything! My clinic is actually open 7 days a week. They don't necessarily let you know that coming in but when I went for monitoring last month on a Friday they said, we'll see you on Sunday and I was like Sunday? Funny thing was I showed up that Sunday and they're in a medical complex and only one door was unlocked because everything else in the complex was closed. I finally found the unlocked door and when I got inside the fire alarm was going off! I did get in and get out though but it was really funny.

I used the ovulation strips and they drove me nuts so I broke down and bought the digital one. Real easy to read that smiley face! Got it at Wal Mart for $35 and everywhere online was $50. Good luck!

hopeful

Haha, that is funny latebloomer! Actually, I think it is very nice to have some comic relief in the midst of all of baby making madness I just hope you were able to laugh and not get even more stressed. I hope someone here is able to answer your question for you! Yes, I will invest in the digital one for next cycle if necessary. Lots of baby dust and please remember to keep us posted!

@bluesky, I hope your numbers are continuing to rise and little one is hanging in there Thoughts are with you and yours!

hopeful

oops, I was typing too fast and not proofreading. I meant to address my comment about hoping that your question is answered soon to Tillie. My bad...lol.