# Natural IUI with known donor



## simplelife (Dec 2, 2011)

Any recommendations for clinics that offer this?  We were looking at the Homerton for convenience and affordability, any success or indeed horror stories?

Can anyone give me pointers on how natural IUI works?  Do you have to go to the clinic out of hours if you are ovulating in the middle of the night?  How did you negotiate time off work, or did you have to pull 'sickies'?


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## motos (Mar 14, 2008)

Sorry you didn't have any replies to this before - it may just be me but reading natural IUI I thought of natural insemination - ie some known donors who want to "donate" by having sex! Obviously not what you're thinking of ....

We had treatment in Glasgow so clinic info not much use to you! But I believe that with unmedicated IUI, you still use a trigger shot - they monitor you, and when the timing looks right they give you a syringe with a trigger shot of HSG to time the release of the egg approx 36 hours before insemination - so unmedicated refers to no clomid or whatever to stimulate egg production, you're still medicated to help with ovulation. 
Hope that helps.


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## deemo (Oct 13, 2009)

Hi simplelife, we used the Homerton with a known donor. Reviews are often mixed but we were very happy with them. If you do natural IUI then you have to use pee sticks to predict when you are going to ovulate,  then you call them when you get a positive result, and they tell you when to come in. You will come in every few days anyway so they can look at your follicles and see how you lining is doing. So they pretty much can predict when you are going to ovulate.  So if it looks like this is going to happen on a Sunday then you are indeed in trouble because the fertility clinic is closed. This happened with us so they offered an injection which makes you ovulate, so IUI could happen on the Saturday. If you are totally against this and want to remain 100% non medicated, you'd have to let that cycle go past and try again I suspect. AFAIK the cycle only counts (or is charged if non NHS) if an insemination has taken place. If you need more specifics about our Homerton experience, feel free to send me a PM.


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## Starz (Aug 24, 2008)

We have done natural IUIs to conceive all our children. We did the pee on a stick at 7am and 7pm and then ran the clinic when we had a postive result. If it was a morning positive then IUI was the next day in the afternoon, if it was an evening positve then IUI was the day after next in the morning. We did not have scanned cycles except the first cycle and even then it was only once on the day of the postive OPK stick, just to check we had a follicle. 
It worked really well for us as we were a 2 and half hour drive from the clinic, so it meant we only had to go once each treatment cycle for the actual IUI. It was also cheaper as they can charge a fortune for the scans. 
With regards to work - you'd get 24 hours notice to needing a day/half day off, so it would depend on your situation. With two of my pregnancies my boss knew i was having treatment so i just told her i needed the day off. With the other, i just told her i needed to take the afternoon off. As this was a rare occurance then there were no questions asked. If you have a regular cycle, you can usually narrow down the possible dates.
Our clinic was great as they said they would let us do 12 natural IUIs before looking at medicated cycles or IVF.  I was only 27 when we started out, but was 33 for the last lot of treatment.

Good luck!


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## simplelife (Dec 2, 2011)

Thanks for the responses!

Still waiting for my appointment, grrrr


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## simplelife (Dec 2, 2011)

Hi, I have another question please?  Has anyone been told that IUI is not possible using frozen sperm?  Someone told me this today but I have looked on the net and not found anything.  Did anyone use frozen sperm successfully?

This whole process is getting more complicated than I thought it would be!


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## Hales :) (Mar 26, 2010)

Hi, we used frozen with our iui's both bfn but my cousins little girl was conceived by natural III with frozen


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## Hales :) (Mar 26, 2010)

Hi, we used frozen with our iui's both bfn but my cousins little girl was conceived by natural III with frozen


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## Starz (Aug 24, 2008)

our sperm was frozen x


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## BecsW (Jun 14, 2009)

Our sperm was frozen too


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## Candy76 (Feb 19, 2011)

Hi Simplelife, any sperm from an unknown donor is frozen as it needs to be quarantined for 3 or 6 months. Hope you are slowly getting your head around everything.

And regarding your original questions, we might not be a good example for IUI, but thats because my AMH is too high for medicated IUI and DW is premenopausal (if only we'd known this 4 year ago!). However, we know a couple who got 3 kids out of 2 IUIs - twins and then a singleton. So, yes, it does work.


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## simplelife (Dec 2, 2011)

Thank you for all the replies


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## simplelife (Dec 2, 2011)

Hello again 

I had to delay starting treatment owing to another medical issue but our sperm donor has finally been to his clinic and donated and I am trying to get my head around the statistics and what they mean because apparently his sperm is 'not the best quality'.  I have an AMH of 32 at the last test, which is apparently good?  He only managed on the first try to donate 2.2ml, not a lot but apparently not unusual because of it being a stressful and unfamiliar environment.  His sperm count was 25 million with 70% motility, reducing to 40% motility after freezing and we are still waiting for them to analyse the morphology.  I can't seem to find statistics anywhere about whether 40% motility after freezing and what it means.  I can see that 20 million is low but not sub fertile and that 70% motility is average.  Can anyone help me understand it all please?


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## Monkey07 (Jul 8, 2012)

Hiya, we used a clinic with anonymous donor from their sperm bank. Our clinic is 2 hours away, I had one scan to check follicles etc and that was at the initial consultation. Our consultant agreed to a natural DIUI cycle. I then monitored my cycle and on the morning I got a positive opk I called them and they booked us in for the next afternoon (which ironically was my day off and DW pulled a sickie!) We were a little disapponted to find out that after the whole quarantine and washing process only 1.5mil survived however that appeared not to matter as I am now 10 weeks pregnant  Good luck with everything xx


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## simplelife (Dec 2, 2011)

Thanks


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## ♥JJ1♥ (Feb 11, 2006)

Don't forget the Homerton doesn't offer a full 7 day service- i know for EC they only do it 3 days a week- not that you need EC with IUI, but they don't routinely scan at weekends etc- just check it out with them, as some women have to skip insems if they ovulate at the weekends. good luck


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## simplelife (Dec 2, 2011)

Hello again fertility friends. I am still on this painfully slow journey and still very confused about what is going on! Can anyone help me understand, sorry to ask - I have a Biology A level & still can't get it!

Last month after scans the clinic did not inseminate because my follicles were too small, there was no dominant follicle at day 13. This month I am on day 10 & have been told to come back for a scan on day 14. According to my previous monitoring of LH surge and temperature I have been ovulating usually on day 13 or 14, however, the doctor said temperature and LH surge are not as reliable as a scan. He said most women only ovulate 8 times out of 12, which confused me as I thought the collapsed follicle caused the menstruation so if there was a period there must have been an egg released. I am also confused about the timing as I read there is only a 4-6 hour window for success with natural IUI because the sperm cannot survive when placed directly in the womb.


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## ♥JJ1♥ (Feb 11, 2006)

not every follicle contains an egg and you don't ovulte every month as the Dr says. gd luck


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## simplelife (Dec 2, 2011)

Thanks JJ1, I need to be more accepting of the science, perhaps. It's so much more confusing than when I learned about it at school! I did have a BFP this month following my first non-aborted IUI and after 5 days allowed myself to get a bit excited but as before with our attempt at home insemination, after less than a week I had a lot of bleeding & cramps. Just waiting for the local early pregnancy assessment unit to call back. The Homerton were very sympathetic but the GP was a bit weird, asking why I have changed to a same sex relationship if I was on the contraceptive pill before, which seemed to be about his curiosity more than anything. I tried to make a joke about liking both but not at the same time but it didn't go down well, he just muttered something about my dignity & I ended up voluntarily assuring him I wasn't promiscuous. Hey ho.


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