# Which route following ectopic pregnancy



## kathdoug (Jan 10, 2011)

My wife successfully conceived with IUI on the first attempt, but unfortunately it was ectopic, and her left tube was removed. There were no signs of previous blockages. Her right tube has been examined during the surgery and appears to have no blockage.

We are now considering which route to take next. My wife does not want to miss out on her egg bearing a child.

We have discussed the options of another IUI, IVF and possible me carrying my wife's eggs and are still unsure.

My wife is very slender and does not bode well with drugs, she had a lot of pain with 50mg clomid and has taken over a month to start to recover from surgery.

IUI would be the easiest in terms of treatment but there is a risk of another ectopic.
IVF is obviously more invasive- does this have a reduced risk of ectopic? Are the success rates generally higher for IVF than IUI?
Me carrying my wife's eggs - is the success rate any lower than it would be if my wife carried on with the normal IVF and the eggs were implanted inside her? Generally how much more expensive is this route than IVF? 

Any thought from others who have had a similar dilemma would be appreciated.


----------



## Candy76 (Feb 19, 2011)

Hi Kathdoug, sorry to hear you had such a difficult time and still a lot of decisions to make.

I don't know too much about ectopic pregnancies. One clinic told us there was a higher risk of ectopic pregnancies with IVF than with IUI. They explained that the embryo goes against the flow, so to speaking (not coming down the tube).

Can you go back to your clinic and raise those questions or are there any other clinics near you where you could go to an open evening and ask those questions there? You would then also get a feeling how you get on with them.

I think IVF is a minimum of £5k. Your wife might be too old for egg sharing with a third party to reduce costs. The success rates are higher with IVF than IUI. We found the drugs more full on. I don't think the success rate would be any lower if the (fresh) embryo would be put back in you rather than your wife.

With IUI I would think it might be a bit of hit and miss. Because if the follicles were only to grow on your wives right ovary, you couldn't go ahead with that cycle.

Very much hope the tables will turn and you will soon be luckier.


----------



## motos (Mar 14, 2008)

Hi Kathdoug
How scary for you and your partner, I'm so sorry.
I would have said that there was no chance of ectopic pregnancy, but obviously Candy76 has heard different and I'm not a healthcare professional, so clearly my opinion is invalid!
However, I can say fairly confidently that the chances of success using IVF are considerably higher than IUI, and I don't know how IUI would work if you had only one fallopian tube, as Candy76 said, you might have to abanadon cycles if the egg was coming from the wrong ovary. 
I'm not totally confident about the effect on success rates of replacing an embryo from your partner's egg into your womb, I think that there's not a big difference but I guess that there could be a bigger chance of rejection. I'm afraid that it may not make much difference to how difficult your partner finds the treatment - all the heavy drugs are to do with stimualtion prior to collecting egg, I don't think that the drugs that you might take as a recipient are nearly as strong. I don't know how much more expensive it is, I suspect that this varies quite a lot by clinic, it's not a very common route so the ways of charging for it probably differ quite a bit.
Sorry not to be able to give more definite answers. Hope that things start to go your way soon.


----------



## sharon1973 (Apr 9, 2006)

Hi,

Just looking at your post and yes you can still have an ectopic when having IVF.  I lost both my tubes to ectopics prior to my IVF attempt.  When I had IVF I was told that depending on how much fallopian tube was left I could suffer another one, luckily for me I didn't.

Goodluck 

Sharon xx


----------



## coweyes (Sep 4, 2008)

Yes you can have an ectopic through ivf, i would think it was a higher risk than iui as the pg sucess rate is also higher with ivf.  But the positive thing about having treatment is that you do find out asap, as aposed to having a natural ectopic where it can be left a while before you know! (i know you are a same sex couple so guess this would not be a factor).

I have read on here before that a same sex couple wanted to use her egg in her partner, but if i remember correctly, it becomes very complicated and even more costly (sorry to say).  I do not know why though, guess it would be as if you were both having treatment.  You may be able to find the thread.

So sorry to hear of your partners ectopic, i have had one myself and have to say that i found it increadibly difficult, please give yourselves time to heal. I will have a look and see if i can find that thread. xxx


----------



## kathdoug (Jan 10, 2011)

Thank you all for your responses. We have discussed the options with the clinic and we are probably going to go down the route of me carrying my partners egg. This sounds a bit strange at first but the more I think about it the better this appears in the long term. We with both have a biological link to the child, which is definitely what I want, and if we are able to freeze some of the eggs for a second attempt we may have a chance of siblings also being genetically related. This is the most expensive option however at 6k. If this does not work we will go with IUI for me.


----------



## coweyes (Sep 4, 2008)

Katchdoug  Hope u have success in what ever u decide.  We need pgd for our next cycle (due to me having a chromazone problem) that costs £9,000   , but i try to remind myself that the cost is just a small part of it.  The most important thing is doing what you feel is right and living with no regrets. xxxxxxxxxxxx


----------



## Candy76 (Feb 19, 2011)

Hi Kathdoug, sounds like a plan.
Also good to have a backup plan, in case things don't work out. We didn't have one when hit with a BFN at our last IUI and it temporarily destroyed us.
Best of luck!


----------

