Considering at-home insemination with donor sperm...?

[wrightywales]

hello ladies

well looks like i might be joining you all sooner than i though. my last fet is not going ahead at the moment due to finances lost my job just before xmas and now using savings for everyday things so would be stupid to even pay all that money at the mo but a friend has offered to be a donor for home insemination. he has always stated he never wants kids himself and has offered in the past but it was when going through ivf so wasnt thinking about things like that. we all need to talk about it a lot more make sure he understands everything required inc tests got to be careful i know i havent got anything.
so fx it all works out and we can start trying in a few months

xxxx

 

[RubyRainbows]

Hi all

Im new to this area of the forum.
A little background - i was married, and have 3 beautiful children. I then met the most amazing woman ive ever met, fell in love and left my husband for her.

She looks at my childrenas her own and is great with them but would desperately love one of her own so we will be looking into donor sperm.

We would much prefer to do at home insemination rather than at a clinic because she said she would then feel like it was more personal and almost like it would be me impregnating her iykwim.

Anyway thats me dipping my toe in the water here!!!!

Welcome! Glad you found us! Has your OH started looking into donors?

 

[RubyRainbows]

Yaayyy sounds like alot of progress going on in here with all you ladies! Donors donors everywhere! Hope they have super sperm & knock you up quickly!

I had thought of an ex boyfriend (who is now gay) that i was going to ask... but chickened out! I just can't muster the courage to have a conversation of that nature with someone... plus i dread the thought of him saying no!

So instead, i made an appointment with a fertility doctor for IUI with frozen donor sperm... which means i can try again... one more time...! I hate having to wait several months in between attempts to save money!

She wants to put me on clomid... which scares the hell out of me! Twins would be wonderful.... but.... i wouldn't want more than two!!! I would even be worried about two bc i need to work full-time & can't be out of work on bed rest or anything like that! Plus with my first pregnancy i was thrilled to find out at 6 weeks that i was carrying twins & then two weeks later i only had one baby. They called it Vanishing Twin Syndrome.

Anyhow, good luck this month! Swim spermies swim!

 

[RubyRainbows]

Well I had a stupid chemical pregnancy last month, 4 positive tests them the witch got me on new years eve So back to square one!!!! Shud ov on the 15th, so have everything in place for this month!!! Good luck everyone! I feel like I'm doing the lottery and only one of us will get it every month, lmao

So sorry to hear this!

 

[sam#3]

yes we think we have found a suitable donor, its kind of at the should we shouldnt we stage with using him at the min!!

good luck with the fertility doc and clomid mommytammy x

 

[beatrixkiddo]

I did home insemeination this month again and just found our it didnt happen this month today : (
I will meet with him around Feb 20th(i think) as my ovulation is so unpredictable
i used a instead cup and a catheter type dropper he gave me...have to try more than once in a cycle this time around

 

[LunaBean]

I did get pregnant this cycle, but miscarried again Onto next month!!

 

[mamclellan]

My gf and i are trying at home. this will be our 2nd time trying. i found a sperm bank that sells sperm for 100 vial some 200.its 150 to ship to your home.i cant wait till she is prego.. im very exicted and i will be waiting for the fed ex package tomorrow..

 

[mamclellan]

Can anyone give me advice for at home ici?? anyone had any LUCK?

 

[LunaBean]

Hi, welcome to the forum! Have you been charting her temperature etc to know when she ovulates? I've never done it with frozen sperm, all I know is that you need to be very careful when bringing them to room temperature, as you can ruin the batch if you do it too quickly! I do it at home with the fresh stuff using a syringe, other people on here might have more info, good luck!!!

 

[jodie4805]

I did get pregnant this cycle, but miscarried again Onto next month!!

 

[EpdTTC]

MommyTammyPA-
I did Clomid for the first time this cycle, 50 mg on cycle days 3-7. It wasn't bad. I didn't have any side effects. I did have 3-4 ripe follicles and there is a chance of multiples because of that. Ovulation was pretty painful but not worse than period cramps, just really tender for 4-5 days. I went in on a Sunday and he did an ultrasound. My follicles were mature (3-4 of them!) so he gave me a trigger shot and told me to come in the next day for the IUI. After the first IUI he did an ultrasound and determined I had not yet ovulated. On the car ride home I had the worst pain, definitely ovulation pain. I had another IUI the next morning just to cover our bases and after it he did another ultrasound and determined I had indeed ovulated. I was having some brown spotting at 5 dpo that lasted a couple of days and then on 8 dpo I had a few streaks of bright red blood. I was so upset as I thought for sure I had started my period, although I was worried too because it was way early for my period (it wasn't due for another week or more). I called my doctor and they were concerned that maybe I had a cyst and said to come in. So I drove two hours to my Dr. to have things checked out. He did an ultrasound and said he didn't see any endometrial blood so he didn't think I was getting my period. He did see some cysts but nothing he seemed very concerned about. They also did some blood work.

And now for the big news....when I called to get my blood test results...BFP! I am still in disbelief! My hcg level was crazy high (776 at 8 dpo) and the doc said there is a high chance of multiples. I have to get another hcg test on Friday, fingers crossed that my number keeps growing! I leave for Atlanta on Saturday and will be gone a week and have an ultrasound scheduled for Feb 14th. Not sure what, if anything, we will be able to see by then but I am still excited.

I will keep you all posted...lots of luck and baby dust to all of you. Hope I have a sticky bean (or beans as it may be )
Erin

 

[Nimyra]

Yay Erin!!!!!!!! Lots of sticky bean dust to you and the peanut(s)!

 

[Nimyra]

Mamclellan, A number of us have been successful doing at-home inseminations - I know 21 pages of chat is a lot to read through but people have shared a lot of tips and suggestions in the previous posts. I used a cervical cap with stem for some inseminations, others I used an instead cup. Many others have been successful just using a small oral medicine syringe.

Good luck!

 

[EpdTTC]

I have 4-5 leftover syringes, a couple catheters, and a cervical cap that I paid $50 bucks for, like the one Em Maryland used when she got her BFP. I bought them for this past cycle but then ended up having IUIs and was blessed enough for it to work the first time. With any luck it will stick.

Anyway, I hate to see all of that stuff go to waste when wonderful women who want babies could make good use of it and I would be more than happy to donate my supplies to whomever expresses an interest first.

 

[RubyRainbows]

Yaayyy! Epd -- Congrats on your BFP!!!!!!!!

Please keep us posted after your first U/S! What a wonderful Valentine's Day present!!!!!!!

 

[LunaBean]

Wow!! Congrats Epd!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's brilliant! With hcg as high as that, Id say you have a pretty good shot at 2, maybe even 3!!! Hope everything goes well and you get to see something on the 14th, keep us posted!!!

I was just wondering, I know it's different in the US than here in the UK, how did you go about having IUI at the doctors surgery? Did you just enquire yourself? Did the donor go along with you, or did you use the frozen stuff? I might look into it here!!

 

[EpdTTC]

Hi Lizzie Moon!
So sorry to hear that you lost your bean this month. I know you've been through that a couple times now and you must be hurting I guess the good thing about going to the Dr. is that you could find out if there is something going on that keeps the bean from sticking, like maybe a progesterone issue? It seems like you don't have any problem getting pregnant so I don't necessarily think you should go pay for an IUI or frozen sperm for that matter but maybe just to tell them you've had a couple of early miscarriages and you don't know why. Who knows, maybe they would also suggest something like clomid for you to help produce a "stronger"egg.

When I went to my Dr. I just went by myself. I was honest with him about the fact that I was using donor sperm. Typically here in the US, they will NOT do inseminations in the Dr office with donor sperm unless they put it through rigorous testing and quarantine it for six months (which would cost bundles of money). My doctor initially lectured me about how I was putting myself at risk by using known donor sperm and doing things the way I was doing them. I think that after he got to know me a little better and realized I wasn't a moron and my mom even came with me to a couple of appointments that he changed his mind a bit. I ended up signing a couple of agreements stating that I wouldn't hold him liable if I ended up with a disease or if my kid came out with a genetic disease and that he recommended testing and quarantining my donor's sperm but I declined to have all of that done. Then he did the IUI for me. I think his desire to help me eventually over rode his concerns about me using donor sperm. He put himself out on a limb for me and is taking a chance on me by going against his usual protocol. He won't be sorry. I would never hold someone liable for a decision I blatantly made. Plus, I did my homework on my donor and he is a friend. So, just know that if you go to the dr and tell them you are using donor sperm they will likely not let you without spending a ton of money on all of the testing and quarantining but you could use frozen sperm which would probably be cheaper than doing all of that. Or, if you don't mind being deceptive (I didn't want to be) you could take your donor with you and say he is your boyfriend and they will usually do it in that case. Isn't that bull? They will do it for an unmarried heterosexual couple that come in and say they can't get pregnant but not for a woman who has a donor? I did tell my doctor that I am a lesbian and my SO is female. He didn't have a problem with it at all and has helped a lot of lesbians get pregnant.

Also, he had me start on progesterone suppositories the day after the IUI to help prevent miscarriage even before we knew if I was pregnant. I'm not diagnosed with a progesterone deficiency but it is just a precaution, especially with the use of Clomid which can thin the uterine lining for some people. I have to stay on them for the first 10 weeks of my pregnancy until the placenta is able to take over progesterone production. I wonder if something like that would help you hold onto your bean.
Hope that helps,
Erin

 

[LunaBean]

Thanks for that info! I was thinking it might be my progesterone levels, I got natural progesterone cream off the internet (its safe, other people on here are using the same one!), and have been taking soy isoflovines, which emulates clomid, I wonder if that could be thinning my womb lining? Because when I went for an internal scan last week when I started bleeding, the sonographer said the lining wasn't as thick as it should be? It was thickened, but not alot. I've to make an appointment with my doc next week to get a prescription for 5g of folic acid too, incase it's my medication making the embryo defective. Gona start taking baby aspirin everyday too, see if that helps.

Bet you're so excited!!!!!

 

[EpdTTC]

Well gals, I'm really worried. I had my blood checked again today and the hcg level (the pregnancy hormone) went down significantly from 776 to 230. My doctor's office told me to try not to worry (easier said than done) and that they still think I am pregnant. Now they are saying that it could have been the trigger shot in my system combined with me actually being pregnant that made my number so high after all. I am so pissed because I questioned the woman who gave me my initial results forwards and backwards about the possibility that it was from the hcg trigger shot still being in my system and she said absolutely not and said I was 1000% pregnant. The medical assistant that I spoke to on the phone today said that 230 is still a high number (25 is considered pregnant) and she still thinks I'm pregnant and that at this point (12 days since the trigger shot and 11 days post ovulation) generally if it is still lingering in a woman's system the number is fairly low like 10-50. I guess I'm just not convinced, if it could be 776 on Tuesday and the one chick swore that much couldn't be left over, it seems possible that 230 still could be left three days later, and that maybe in a few days it will all be gone. I am full of worry. I was SOOO EXCITED and now I am in a state of anxiety. They want me to find a place to test again on Monday when I am in Atlanta. Which I will do, but the waiting is going to kill me...and if I get my results back while I am all alone in Atlanta and it's bad news, I will be beside myself. My woman's intuition (or maybe it's just wishful thinking and wanting) tells me that I truly am pregnant but lord knows my gut has been off before. So I guess the possibilities are that I was never pregnant and it was a false positive, that I am pregnant but I am going to miscarry, or I am pregnant and everything is fine and that my number just dropped because more of the trigger shot left my system.

Not much I can do except to wait and see..please keep your fingers crossed for me...it will be an awful let down to think I was pregnant and then find out I really wasn't or to find out I am miscarrying.
Erin