Questions about moving from IUI to IVF

[Anonymous]

A little background - We're dealing with secondary IF and pursuing treatment at Shady Grove. I'm 35 with diagnosed endometriosis manifested as ovarian cysts. Some were removed a while ago and I have one under 4 cm now. But my HSG was thankfully all clear. DH has low morphology (3%).

If the Clomid/FSH IUI cycle we're doing now doesn't work, we're moving on to IVF. Our consult with the RE is in 2 weeks and I have no idea what to expect in this process. I found my learning curve to be painfully frustrating with the IUIs and am hoping to avoid that this time.

What questions should I be asking? What concerns would you warn me of? Do they usually make you take time off medicated cycles before going into IVF?

TIA

[Anonymous]

I have stage 4 endo and have never been pregnant, we have done 3 cycles of IUI and now we are considering natural cycle IVF as I'm a poor responder to meds even though I'm only 29 yrs old.

[Anonymous]

Hi, I know you posted this a while ago but when I moved from IUI to IVF I found the learning curve not that bad. You'll do much of the same monitoring. I was able to go straight from a failed IUI cycle into an IVF cycle, but the docs knew that was the plan in advance. The most stressful thing for me was deciding what to do financially - we went with Shared Risk (which in the end benefited SG more than me because I got pregnant after one fresh cycle and one FET, but that's the whole point of shared risk). You will also need to make some decisions about how many to transfer, but based on your history the docs will likely recommend 1 or 2 the first try.

The part that is new with IVF is obviously the egg retrieval -- it requires general anaesthesia and some discomfort for a few days after. The transfer itself is not physically difficult at all, and then of course the 2ww is just as bad as ever.

There are a lot more shots but the little sub-Q shots aren't bad at all, and I found the IM progesterone was OK if I iced the area first and heated after (but everyone has different techniques for handling those).

In the end, I wish I hadn't done three full IUI cycles before making the decision to move on. My DH's count and morphology were so bad that it just wasn't worth the money, time and stress to do the IUIs but I wasn't mentally prepared for IVF yet. Three IUIs later, I was definitily ready to move on to something with a better track record (and will celebrate my daughter's 1st birthday this week, and are thinking about a 2nd... and how to afford it if we need IVF again).

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info. I am in the same boat too...two failed IUIs and will try a 3rd, but am not optimistic(secondary infertility as well).

The financial is definitely the scariest part. Also, the IM shots, but I guess it is a small price to pay.

Thanks for sharing your insights.

[Anonymous]

Taking into account your DH's low morphology, I am surprised your RE even agreed to do an IUI. According to the stats, the success rate of IUI is almost the same as with the timed intercouse. I would advise to move forward with an IVF.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks for the responses.

Yeah, my expectations were low for the IUIs as SGs statistics showed success rates of between 8 and 15% for what we're dealing with. Hence we only did two. More to ease into the whole thing. Funny enough, they said the low morphology wasn't an issue with the IUI. Perhaps because everything else was good? Who knows.

Anyways, IVF consult is tomorrow and we're planning to definitely move forward with it. The main thing I'm worried about is the cyst, which has grown in the last two weeks.