# IUI or IVF?



## Hales :) (Mar 26, 2010)

Hi all, 
Currently waiting for our appointment to come through the post for our consultant to start tx in October(ish) - and in a bit of a quandry! We only have 4 vials of sibling sperm and our donor has retired, so really only have 4 shots at this as it is important to us that the kids are half siblings at least, so our natural inclination is to have IVF, however given that we now have 2 babies to pay for, there is no way we can afford to spend as much as we did for DP.
So I first thought that maybe we could try IUI, but to mitigate the risk of having another set of twins (we would find it very difficult to cope with another set - not to mention childcare costs!) would need to be a natural cycle - which obviously lowers the probability of it working, and given that we only have 4 shots at it...Don't know what to do really for the best!

What would you all do in the same situation?

Hales


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## Candy76 (Feb 19, 2011)

Hi Hales, the first thing I would do is talking to your clinic's embriologist.
I think if you really want a third child, then I would go for IVF. With a bit of luck you might get a really good embryo that can be nursed to a blastocyst (day 5 or so). And then only implant the one. I understand you have a better success rate with blastocysts.
If you are actually happy with your 2 boys and just want to use up the sperm because you have it and on the off chance to get pregnant, I would go for nat IUI.

I feel a bit like a hypocrite giving you advise when we haven't managed to get pregnant. On the other side, we did do a lot of thinking about what we would do in which situation.

Curious to hear what other people's thoughts or experiences are.


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## Hales :) (Mar 26, 2010)

No, definitely, definitely want a 3rd - I have never been pregnant and would be heartbroken not to have the chance! Our boys were blast transfers, so the intention has always been if we do go for IVF then we would go for an eSET of a blastocyst. If we hadn't gone to blastocyst with our boys we'd have chosen our 3 day 8 cell embryo, which didn't make it to day 5 so just goes to show you!


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## welshginge (Jul 12, 2009)

I would go for IVF.  Blast xfer is a sensible option with (hopefully) some snowbabies as back up. Speculate to accumulate & all that. If you had plenty of sperm I would say IUI. Whatever you decide, the very best of luck to you!! x


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## Hales :) (Mar 26, 2010)

Thanks both! That is where we were swaying to be honest - our clinic are really strict about what they freeze - but at least there is the option of possibly having some frosties!


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## lmb15 (Jun 12, 2009)

Hales - i'd definitely go for IVF. Would you consider egg sharing? If so, this would make IVF cheaper than IUI and much more likely to work. Just a thought, in case it's not something you've considered. I know not everyone likes the idea of egg sharing, though. Good luck!!
Lisa x


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## single.mummy (Mar 12, 2009)

This was a question we debate for ages before we started TTC again. We had 3 vials of sibling sperm, but think there may be 2 more still available at the clinic. I had got pregnant after 4 attempts with DD and then 2 attempts with DS. Now apologies in advance as I am not too good with IVF lingo, but I had a question about whether you normally get embryos that you can freeze, because I worried about having IVF and having Frozen Embryos and getting pregnant, what to do with the frozen embryos? If that makes sense.

Anyhow, we have gone for IUI for the first attempt and are going to for the second attempt. Put not sure what to do after that. We can save another vial if 2nd IUI is unsuccessful and then have 2 to use. So we could in theory have IVF for attempt number 3 but am unsure.

Another question - when we mentioned medicated IUI at our clinic they said that it would not improve our chances? I did not understand this, why would it not benefit us?

Sorry for bombarding your message.


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## Candy76 (Feb 19, 2011)

Hales - glad we could help.

2 mummies - All statistical success rates I have seen for medicated IUI were higher than for unmedicated IUI. If you got pregnant on your 4th & 2nd unmedicated IUI, that's fab! I thought the theory behind medicated IUI is a) that they aim for 2 or 3 ripe follicles (rather than 1 in a natural cycle), so more choice and more chance that one of them is a good one. And b) that they get the timing right due to the trigger shot.

We have noticed that most clinics prefere to do either one or the other. Not sure why.

One thing I wondered was if medicated IUIs will be phased out eventually because the whole point is to get 2 or 3 follicles which is why there is a 25% chance of twins. But clinics are supposed to bring the multiple pregnancy rate down. I have always hoped for twins as we always wanted a big family and realised we couldn't afford 5x treatment. Four years later and we would be happy to have one or two children and spoil them rotten with attention. How things change...


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## MandMtb (Mar 6, 2009)

Hi Hales,

We are also hoping to start TTC later this year (with DW having TX this time) and have 5 vials sibling sperm (however at present our donor is still available so could have the option of buying more- however due to finances have agreed at the moment that we could only afford to fund treatment with the 5 vials we have already brought, but am sure if faced with unsuccessful treatments we may reconsider this as we both really want another child). In respect of our treatment we have decided to try IUI first as DW does not want to have IVF, and I suppose we feel IUI worked for us last time too (eventually), but similarly to 2mummies may choose to an IVF attempt if the first couple of IUI's are unsuccessful. It is such a hard journey TTC with so many difficult decisions. I am so excited to get going again for no.2 but also feel a bit anxious about getting back on the roller coaster of TTC! 

Good luck with the consultation, I hope that helps you make a decision.

I hope the twins are doing well?

S x


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