Donor Sperm IUI/IVF- 2012

[40isnotold]

Thank you ladies for sharing your stories. There have been a lot of successes and a lot of unhappiness and I thank you for sharing. For those of you who have not been able to get pregnant yet, had m/c's and to CM who has lost her husband, I am so, so sorry! On the other hand, I am so happy for those who have gotten their BFPs and have had their babies - please check in once in a while. It gives me so much hope to see your good posts! Welcome to all the new people too!

I am new on this particular thread and have been following a couple others. I have spent the last couple days reading all of the posts here and this is special to me as I will be using donor sperm. I will be 40 on February 16, am not married and really want to have a baby, so I am doing this on my own.

When I turned 39 last February, I started giving a lot of thought to this and in September I made an appt with my gyno to discuss it. She did blood work, which revealed a low AHM and referred me to a FS. I saw him in October, had an HSG in November and had a hysteroscopy/laparoscopy in December. I've also seen my regular doctor, who did an extensive physical and did further blood work to make sure I am completely healthy for this endeavor. AF is visiting now, so I will be ordering injectables and sperm by the end of the week. Next cycle, I can start IUI.

As far as donor sperm, I am using a sperm bank. It is just too weird for me to use someone I know. I live in SC and am using Pacific Reproductive Services in CA. My FS provided me with a list of banks and told me that Pacific and Midwest are the ones he recommends as he personally checks out the samples at his office and the quantity/quality are better than others. He has been a FS for more than 20 years and he is the type of person who tells it how it is (I love him for the fact that he is very honest and straight forward and doesn't fill me with a lot of excessive optimism/false hope - I know where I stand and know that statistically, my chances are not great). Midwest was his first choice, but their donors are anonymous, so I went with Pacific because I wanted the donor to be willing to be known. I want my child to be able to pursue finding the donor if he/she wants to. I am not interested in trying for a sibling due to my age and I have a first choice and a second choice picked out. I have gotten adult pics of both, but am basing my decision mostly on height (I am tall), followed by health history of family, followed by education. I could care less about things like eye color/hair color since I am single and don't need to match to anyone. I haven't decided whether to buy each month or go ahead and buy three, since I am committing to three treatments before deciding what to do next. My age and AMH level really drops my chances of it being successful. I don't think I am interested in IVF (since it is $12,000) and am willing to consider adoption in 2015 if IUI is not successful - while it would be great to have a biological child, I am ok with just being a mom even if the child is not mine by blood.

I have not told family about my decision to do this as my mother is fairly old-fashioned and would probably not be supportive seeing I am unmarried and going this route - I don't think she would understand. If I become pregnant, I will wait until I am out of the woods in terms of m/c before telling my family - at that point, I think my family would love the idea. I have told a couple of very close friends and they are very excited for me and are supporting me completely.

So good luck to all who are TTC! May 2014 be a lucky year for all of us!

 

[deafgal01]

Good luck to you! You are brave to try this on your own!

 

[cbergs]

Hi 40isnotold!

Welcome!! You are definitely brave, but then again, we're women and can do anything we set our minds to! I hope you get your BFP soon after trying, and who knows- if it goes smoothly you may just want more!

DG- I definitely need all of you, and will probably need you for many more years to come. I hope that we can all stay in this together and just be there for those hard and trying moments. Again, as stated before...you girls are a huge piece of my strength.

I've been getting better at checking back here throughout the week- but if I don't, Facebook is something I am on daily. (unfortunately! I hate fb sometimes!)

Talk back soon.
Love,
C

 

[Olive333]

I just had my second IUI w/ DS and on the TWW. My husband was diagnosed with primary testicular failure. I want to start following this thread and keep in contact with other women that have gone through similar issues as us.

 

[gingmg]

Hi. We are starting IVF with donor sperm after 11 failed IUIs. Question for you ladies that did IVF. How many vials did they use for IVF? Our clinic wanted ICI vials, but our new donor only had IUI ready vials available. My doctor said they would work with whatever we had. The nurse told me that the lab is going to unthaw and use two vials. I haven't called the lab yet to see why they need two. I don't know whether to just let it go and let them use both, or fight it because we don't have that many vials left. How many vials did you use for your IVF cycle? Thanks in advance!
g

 

[Guenhwyvar]

Welcome Olive and Gingmg. It can sometimes take us awhile to respond anymore but we are still here and hopefully more will see your msgs soon and respond.

Olive: I'm sorry that you and DH are going through this. Hopefully you will have a quick TWW ending in a

Gingmg: We only did IUI-D these last couple of years (I started out with what ended up IVF using DS) so I can only speculate why they are using 2 vials. If the MOT was low then they'd probably want to use extra as they can loose quite a bit in the washing technique. Also if they are doing natural fertilization as opposed to ICSI they'd need more sperm. But again, I can only speculate.

AFM: Ragnar decided to come early and was born at 36w2d weighing 6lbs 4 ounces and 20½ inches long. I'm totally smitten with him.

 

[gingmg]

Guenhyvar- thanks.

 

[Olive333]

Guen- thanks for the welcome. I hope to see more post about others that have gone through what I'm going through right now.

Thanks

 

[silverbell]

Huge congratulations, Guen

Welcome gingmg and olive and good luck to you both.

Gingmg, sorry but I can't answer your question as where we are we had unlimited supplies from the donor who was recruited by our clinic. I hope somebody else can answer your question soon. The azoospermia thread may be useful to you.

 

[MrsC8776]

Hi Ladies!! I just wanted to check on everyone and see how you all are doing? I hope all is well.

 

[deafgal01]

Still in limbo land of waiting. We had two failed IUI attempts, one natural and one medicated. I may research into home insemination this summer as a cheaper alternative since we are using a known donor. We will see.

Right now my life is just hectic juggling three jobs (1 full time and 2 part time) but it might as well be two full time jobs I am doing. I hope over the summer my body will adjust back to more normal schedule of sleeping nights and working daytime only.

 

[BrandyRelax]

I'm not sure how I forgot to post here, but we did a dIUI in January, and I'm almost 13 weeks pregnant now.

We used Puregon for ovulation induction, produced 4 eggs, did an HCG trigger shot, and did double dIUI about 12 hours before and after ovulation. I was on progesterone suppositories up to 12 weeks, and am happily suppository free now! I honestly didn't have much hope the dIUI because the motile sperm was 8 and 9 million in the two samples, which is much lower than in the December IUI that was unsuccessful (higher motility, and 3 eggs ovulated), but here I am... shocked that it worked, but so happy that it did.

Hopefully that's hope for anyone still on the path to creating your family.

I think our only challenge is telling my dad. He's pretty old fashioned, so we've just told him we're pregnant, let that shock sink in (because he was sure we had decided we weren't having kids), and later in the pregnancy we'll tell him about the biology of the sperm. We will be honest with everyone, including the child, about her origins, but want to make sure it's received as well as it could be.

Brandy

 

[Olive333]

I'm in the same boat a deafgal, we are in limbo waiting to save money. We also had 2 failed medicated cycles. Everything seemed to be perfect the second time since the first time my lining was thin do to clomid.

To the ones that have had success, how many cycles did you have to do with ds to get your BFP? Also did you do all of your dIUI's back to back without skipping a cycle? I had to skip a cycle in between IUI's do to the holidays, I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it.

Thanks

 

[cbergs]

Mrs C-

I am 3 days past my due date. The donor sperm jitters have subsided, and couldn't be more excited to meet our son.

I want to wish you all the best of luck, again, with starting your families. it WILL happen- you just need to have faith. Pray about it.

I pray for all you ladies almost daily. Infertility is one of the most heartbreaking "diseases" that anyone can go through. It sucks that the general public does not understand or see this...

I'll post a picture of my little guy as soon as I get one.

Love,
C

 

[raelynn]

cbergs - So excited for you!!

Olive - It took us just one round of dIUI but that was the very next cycle after we did IVF and had a miscarriage. I was also on clomid to help me ovulate since I have PCOS but other than that ovulated on my own (no trigger needed)

As for me, just enjoying being a mommy. Our little angel is just about 10 months now and we're starting to plan for her first birthday. We're also thinking about heading back to the clinic shortly after she is one to start moving on baby #2. I'm keeping all of you in my thoughts and prayers as well. Infertility is a horribly difficult journey to go through and coming to the choice of using a donor adds more stress. We all have gone through more than our share of struggles but will hopefully all get to the families we dream of.

 

[BrandyRelax]

I'm in the same boat a deafgal, we are in limbo waiting to save money. We also had 2 failed medicated cycles. Everything seemed to be perfect the second time since the first time my lining was thin do to clomid.

To the ones that have had success, how many cycles did you have to do with ds to get your BFP? Also did you do all of your dIUI's back to back without skipping a cycle? I had to skip a cycle in between IUI's do to the holidays, I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it.

Thanks

You can see from my signature, we did IVF with ICSI, and FET that were unsuccessful. When we did IUI, our first one was with Femara, and the second was the next cycle right after, and using Puregon, and we were successful. Both times we did double IUI, so 12 hours before and 12 hours after because it increases the odds slightly, and if I was putting all the time and effort into the cycle, we may as well do what we can to increase the odds. My doctor told me that Clomid and Femara can thin your lining or cause lining issues, so that's why we switched to injectibles (Puregon), for our successful cycle.

 

[SunUp]

Three diui's that seemed perfect, medicated w clomid, clomid, then injectables. All bfn. I think that was the hardest - already going through infertility, finding the 'cause' figuring a solution and then STILL nothing. After 3 negatives we did IVF and our almost 10 month old is napping right now.

 

[MrsC8776]

dg~ I hope that this summer you find success and possibly even with at home insem. Have you seen the thread of ladies who do it at home? Maybe they can give some ideas.

Brandy~ Huge congrats!! I hope that sharing the news goes well and every one is supportive!

Olive~ I'm sorry to hear you are in limbo land as well. I hope that you find success soon as well. As for the questions you asked... I did 4 unmedicated IUI's and then one medicated which was our success. My first four were at a clinic that didn't want to give me meds or monitor anything. Just use OPK's and call the next day. I started getting very upset at their lack of help so we took a few months off and went to a different clinic in the area. They put me on a low dose of clomid and gave me scans before, during and after the clomid. When the follicles were right I did a trigger shot. I now have my beautiful girls! All my IUI's were single so we didn't double up and do back to back. Both places I went said that there really wasn't a difference in outcomes with back to back. One other thing that was different about the last clinic was that right after the IUI they told me to get up and go home where as the first clinic had me lay there 15-20 minutes each time. Not sure if thats what made a difference though. I did ovulate on my own, only reason for the IUI's is male factor of course.

cbergs~ Please update!! I truly hope you have had your little man by now! I can't wait to see his cute little face!

raelynn~ I'm glad to hear you are doing so well. The time passes so quickly doesn't it?!?! We have talked about going in and trying again but we just aren't sure if now is the time. I think we are really up in the air on if we even want to try again. We have two samples left and I just paid another year of storage so we have some time to decide. I'm excited for you guys to be trying again soon!

SunUp~ Sounds like things are going good for you! It's such a struggle to get to the end. It was so hard to know that everything was perfect yet nothing good was still happening. It's so unfair. Then the BFP moment comes and all the struggle is so worth it in the end.

I'm thinking of you all and wishing you all a bfp in the near future. It will happen. As hard as it is not to... don't give up.

AFM~ The girls are 13 months and growing like weeds. They are little teething machines. Ava has 11 teeth (including all 4 molars) and Emma has 8 teeth (one molar). We had a ladybug themed birthday part for them and the girls loved it. Emma was a little freaked out by the balloons so we had to remove them for her pictures and sneak them in during the cake smash. No walking yet thankfully... Once that happens it will for sure be go time around here. It won't be long though. Here is a couple pictures from their one year shoot and cake smash. They are both such daddy's girls and love talking to him on the computer while he working out of country.

 

[raelynn]

Oh my gosh MrsC, they are so adorable! We have a little daddy's girl too. She just lights up when he's around.

 

[deafgal01]

MrsC- haven't looked that thread up yet but I will after May 9th when I have more time for me. Your girls are darling!