IUI after 20 months TTC/ unexplained infertility

[Cerulean]

Hi!

I've been reading on here but never posted before. We've been ttc for 20 months now and I'm starting to feel like it will never happen for us.

I'm 32, have a healthy 13 year old from a previous relationship. This time I came off the pill to conceive and after 6 months got an ultrasound. Was told lining was a bit thin. Doc prescribed Clomid. That didn't work. Have been tracking ovulation an seem to ovulate a little early and spot on day 21 but bloodwork is normal. Had another ultrasound after 16 months ttc and was told lining was too thick!

Had a lap and dye during which they did a hysteroscopy and d & c. All bloodwork and tests have come back normal. Partner's tests have come back normal/good. I don't know what's wrong!!

We've been referred for IUI but I'm not confident it will work as the success rates seem so low for people with unexplained infertility. I was devasted when the lap and dye didn't work too so don't want to get my hopes up.

Anyone else out there have any ideas as to what could be wrong? I am a healthy weight and not really stressed or anything. Tried acupuncture and herbs for about 6 months but gave it up as it was a bit expensive and I didn't see any improvement.

 

[BelleNuit]

Hey there. We struggled with unexplained infertility for two years and eight months (38 cycles total). I understand how frustrating it is not to have answers. We never did get an answer. We tried two IUIs and three additional medicated cycles, acupuncture, naturopathy, herbs, vitamins. Nothing worked. I'm one of those stupid success stories where I got pregnant after we stopped trying. I don't think it's because I was "relaxed" though. I think that people with unexplained infertility would be better off being told that they have subfertility, rather than infertility. We were told we had between a 1-3% chance of success each month that we tried. Well that 1-3% chance adds up over time. So I hate to say it, but hang in there!

 

[mimi4]

BelleNuit - congrats. It seems you had the psychological issues surrounding infertility.
Cerulean- I agree that IUI has lower success rates. I would recommend you to see a doc that specializes in the area unexplained factors or just do not give up and continue trying, as BelleNuit did. Good luck

 

[BelleNuit]

Mimi I know you mean well, but people with unexplained infertility experience enough stigma as it is, without people attributing it to psychological causes. It's pretty defeating to be told by someone who doesn't know you
that your infertility is/was due to psychological factors. That puts the blame all on the woman, as if you caused your infertility by wanting a baby too much.

Unexplained infertility is unexplained because doctors don't know what causes it. As medical knowledge on reproductive health improves, the proportion of people diagnosed with unexplained infertility also reduces. Think about conditions like pcos, before we had the medical knowledge to understand these conditions people may have been told they had unexplained infertility, even though there were very real medical conditions resulting in their infertility. Today we are just starting to understand how egg quality, sperm quality (fragmentation), implantation and immune responses contribute to infertility. People with unexplained infertility likely have subtle medical reasons contributing to their subfertility. To reduce it to "psychological causes" does these people a real disservice.

People with unexplained infertility often get lucky over time with enough tries. Their chances of success is 1-3% per month, while the chance of success for a typical person is more like 20% per month.

 

[kittiecat]

Amen @BelleNuit tbh @mimi4 I found your reply to be quite rude in assuming someone had infertility issues due to "psychological" issues. As Belle said medicine is advancing all the time and there are probably many more reasons for infertility they haven't even discovered yet!

 

[brittany12]

We tried for 3 years before getting pregnant. I did everything possible other than IUI and IVF. We were perfectly “healthy” and “fine” we had 1 chemical at like 5 weeks the first year.

Literally I was at a loss for words because we were also young! I was 22 when ttc.

I had basically given up and the month I graduated college and got a job I was so preoccupied and ended up pregnant.

Trust me I know 100% that isn’t what you want to hear and I hateddddd when people said that to me, but truly is the only thing I have!

 

[saveme]

Unexplained infertility SUCKS! Ihated hearing that from every doctor I went to. It took me 7 years 7 months to conceive my daughter. I was slightly overweight at the time so through the first 3 years I worked really hard on my health and lost 60 lbs and was in the best physical and mental condition I'd ever been I didn't do the iui either because the success rate like you said wasn't that great for couples with unexplained infertility and my insurance didn't cover the costs either so that was out and so was IVF I gave up pretty much through the years I did fall pregnant 1 miscarriage actually prior to ttc and 2 ectopics while ttc then 1 year after my 2nd ectopic I gave it one last go and only dtd twice in my fertile window and the same month I told myself I was done COMPLETELY and bam I fell pregnant. I can say that year I had started on 81 mg of aspirin increased my exercise regimen to 6days a week and I hadn't had any alcohol in like 4-5years because of ttc. But thats all oh and I did so much praying all i can say is if you want to give up "take a break" from all the testing but keep having sex as much as possible esp during that fertile time. I know how you feel it hurts you feel cheated I felt less than a woman and completely heartbroken. Keep going hun I'm rooting for you!