I would also add -- re: the comments posters have about waiting until he is back to try to conceive and not depriving him of the birth of his child. That is a personal choice between you and your husband, just as my decision to do an IUI while my husband is deployed is one that I came to with him. My first choice would be to have him with me through my whole pregnancy, but I'm almost 37 so the priority is to just try to get started on a family.

My husband just deployed this past weekend and we decided I would do IUI while he is away. I just did the first one this morning. Sorry to reply to this so late but I was just googling "IUI and deployment" and saw this thread so wanted to follow up in case someone else is thinking about this and comes here. My husband is gone for several months and we were going to wait until he returns in the spring but I'm 36 so my GYN suggested we just go for it. We only had one chance - in August - to try naturally between the time I got rid of my IUD and when he left and I didn't get pregnant so plan b: he froze his sperm (and now that I think about it, even if I had gotten pregnant I still should've frozen sperm in case I miscarried and wanted to try again before he got back).

I made the appointment for my husband to leave sperm 5 days in advance. That's when the clinic could squeeze him in. My husband left a specimen on Sept 1 and I just had the IUI today, Sept 13. From setting up the donation appointment to doing the IUI was just a little over 2 weeks. Now, while we got everything set up for him to leave a specimen in under a week (and then his job was done!) it was VERY frustrating, one of the more frustrating things I have dealt with, so I have some tips on how to prepare for and hopefully avoid some frustration farther down.

Re: the poster who said it takes a few months to screen the sperm - it doesn't. Since he's your husband the FDA quarantine period is waved (as opposed to someone donating sperm and you using it, which would require the quarantine period. You're married to this person so presumably you are having sex with them without quaratining his sperm for months and that is good enough for the FDA!), though when you call a fertility clinic many of the people advising you there may not know that. This was a major source of frustration because both the front desk person AND the doctor at the andrology lab said it would be quarantined for months and so it seemed like we wouldn't be able to go ahead with a quick IUI at one point. My GYN contacted a fertility doctor at the clinic (not to be confused with an andrology lab doctor at the clinic, who is a lab doctor who does not normally deal much with patients and, in my case, had attrocius bedside manner) to clear it up and it turned out we did not have to quarantine. There is a sperm analysis (for motility, sperm count, etc) but that can be done in about a day. My husband also had to do blood work to check for hepatitis, etc but that also was complete within a day or two. He did that right after providing a specimen.

Also, and this was a pleasant surprise, one specimen donation (one ejactulation) can actually yield more than enough sperm for multiple IUIs. My husband left one specimen and it yielded enough sperm for 6 vials. I used one today and still have 5 left, which is more IUI cycles that I would do. If you are accounting for possibly moving onto IVF while your husband is still gone, should the IUIs not take, I would think you may need to provide more sperm for that, just in case. I used Columbia Fertility Associates and they have a 25% military discount, though it only applies to certain services so beware. It did not apply for the initial donation or storage but when I picked up the specimen this morning they had applied it to the costs for thawing the sperm and processing the sperm (they "wash" the sperm to filter out the non-Olympic swimmers and debris cells). My husband is TriCare Prime and I am TriCare Standard and nothing is covered, which is why CFA offers the military discount. Speaking of, this coming November I will be signing back up for my employer provided insurance as my secondary insurance. I love TriCare Standard. It's so much better than my work provided insurance in every instance except for fertility stuff.

Now, my tips for avoiding frustration since I felt like I was reinventing the wheel trying to go through this process. If you are doing natural IUI - that is you are not using fertility drugs and you are just having sperm deposited in your uterus because your husband isn't there to do it - then you can just have your GYN do the IUI when you're ovulating and it's cheaper than going through the clinic. Fertility clinics seem to mostly service 1) couples who are struggling to get pregnant but are both physically present 2) older women who are using a donor 3) same sex couples who are using a donor. They don't deal much with couples trying to get pregnant during a deployment. So, steps for this that helped or that I wished I had taken to avoid all the confusion we ran into:

1) discuss with your GYN and make sure they are game to do this. You may need them to trouble shoot some things for you with the clinic so their willingness to do that is crucial.
2) have your GYN call a doctor at the fertility clinic (not a front desk staff person. I spoke with several and if I had gone with what they said was possible I never would've been able to do the IUI) and explain what you would like to do and see if it's doable at that clinic. I called Shady Grove to price compare with Columbia Fertility and was told they wouldn't take my husbands donation. I bet they actually would but it's not what they usually do so the administrative staff just shuts stuff down that isn't in line with their usual routine. These are well-oiled high volume operations but I found the staff is really terrible at thinking outside of the box.
3) Schedule donation appointment. If you run into any problems ask the staff to consult with the fertility clinic doctor that your GYN contacted to clear things up.
4) When you are ready to use the sperm you need to give a days notice so they can thaw the sperm and prep it for IUI. I monitored my ovulation using Clear Blue Ovulation tests and got the LH surge indicator yesterday so I called right away to have the clinic thaw the sperm for pick up first thing this morning. It requires a consent form that your husband must sign. I have general power of attorney for my husband but I didn't want to have to talk to lawyers at the clinic in the off chance that created some extra annoying step so instead I had him save his signature and initials on the "mark up" feature on my iPhone before he deployed. It allowed me to just plug his signature and initials in where it was needed on the forms and email them back, which I am allowed to do since I have the general POA. I also called my GYN to let them know I would be coming in so they could squeeze me in between patients. This morning I picked the sperm up in a little vial (which because of the pinkish fluid it's suspended in resembled strawberry lemonade much more than sperm) and tucked it in my bra to keep it at body temperature, then went to my GYN office. The process was very quick and took about as much time as a normal appointment for a pap smear.
5) Be prepared to ask a lot of questions and have to ask a lot of people the same questions. I found person after person telling me this absoultely wasn't doable or that I needed to pay more than I actually did to be a full time patient of a clinic when all I needed was a place to get my husbands sperm preserved until I could have my GYN use it.

My disclaimer is that I don't know the results yet of this process. But it has allowed me to continue on trying to get pregnant for the initial months that I would have if my husband were here. Then, if the IUIs don't work, I will move on to IVF sooner than I would have been able to.

I hope this helps!

Contact an re ASAP because the process can take a few months! Some make you see a therapist before insemination. They may even let you freeze and store the sperm before you finish the paperwork. Even if you get Prego right before he leaves you will have youthful sperm on hand just in case.

I would recommend 10 vials or so. Most clinics like you to have two on hand each cycle.

Anonymous wrote:Your husband is deploying for 18 months? What service is he in? Are you sure he's not just going to Korea or something?

It sucks but it's not fair to make your husband miss the birth of his child. Just wait.

Yes, I'm certain he not just going to Korea or sometime. It's an interesting assumption you make that I'd be "making" my husband miss the birth of our (not just his) child. I wonder why you think that?

Your husband is deploying for 18 months? What service is he in? Are you sure he's not just going to Korea or something?

It sucks but it's not fair to make your husband miss the birth of his child. Just wait.

CFA has a military discount. We live Dr. Sacks. Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:How long will he be gone? If it's only a few months, I'd wait. You are young.

It's a 18 month tour with some breaks.

Walter Reed has a program. Talk to your primary care.

How long will he be gone? If it's only a few months, I'd wait. You are young.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Neither my husband or I have any known fertility issues and are 29/31. I conceived within 6 months when we first started TTC, but had a miscarriage at 15 weeks. It took some time for my body to recover, and we've really only been able to TTC again these last two cycles, but no luck yet. My husband is deploying in three months, so we realistically only have two or maybe three more cycles before he leaves. Would a fertility clinic take me to do IUI?

My question probably isn't clear. If I don't get pregnant before he leaves, could I do IUI to keep trying while he is gone? Is this done? Our insurance doesn't cover fertility treatment, regardless of if you have a diagnosis or not.

yes but I would contact them ASAP and start the process.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Neither my husband or I have any known fertility issues and are 29/31. I conceived within 6 months when we first started TTC, but had a miscarriage at 15 weeks. It took some time for my body to recover, and we've really only been able to TTC again these last two cycles, but no luck yet. My husband is deploying in three months, so we realistically only have two or maybe three more cycles before he leaves. Would a fertility clinic take me to do IUI?

My question probably isn't clear. If I don't get pregnant before he leaves, could I do IUI to keep trying while he is gone? Is this done? Our insurance doesn't cover fertility treatment, regardless of if you have a diagnosis or not.

sure, why not, if you have the sperm frozen ahead of time? If insurance isn't going to pay for it anyway, then it's just you, and I don't see why a clinic would not be willing to do this as long as they get paid. It's basically like a single mom or lesbian couple needing IUI with frozen donor sperm. But who knows how long it takes to get the sperm donation/freezing process in gear, or what requirements they might have, so you should look into it on the sooner side.

Anonymous wrote:Neither my husband or I have any known fertility issues and are 29/31. I conceived within 6 months when we first started TTC, but had a miscarriage at 15 weeks. It took some time for my body to recover, and we've really only been able to TTC again these last two cycles, but no luck yet. My husband is deploying in three months, so we realistically only have two or maybe three more cycles before he leaves. Would a fertility clinic take me to do IUI?

My question probably isn't clear. If I don't get pregnant before he leaves, could I do IUI to keep trying while he is gone? Is this done? Our insurance doesn't cover fertility treatment, regardless of if you have a diagnosis or not.

Shady Grove was willing to do IVF with my husband's frozen sperm while he was deployed.

Do you mean IUI once he's deployed with frozen sperm?

I don't think you're a candidate. IUI also takes a few months for all the testing to get done and to wait for a new cycle to start.

Neither my husband or I have any known fertility issues and are 29/31. I conceived within 6 months when we first started TTC, but had a miscarriage at 15 weeks. It took some time for my body to recover, and we've really only been able to TTC again these last two cycles, but no luck yet. My husband is deploying in three months, so we realistically only have two or maybe three more cycles before he leaves. Would a fertility clinic take me to do IUI?