Hey Babe, Nice Mucus

On Saturday, March 22, I got a smiley face on the ovulation predictor. This meant that, for the first time, I had to call and have the "infertility doctor on call" paged. When she called me back, she scheduled our 3rd attempt at intrauterine insemination (IUI) for the next morning - March 23, Easter Sunday morning.

Here's how it all works:

The ovulation predictor shows when you have a surge in luteinizing hormone (LH), which indicates that ovulation will occur in the next 36 hours or so. The IUI is scheduled for the next day. The guy goes in first to give his "sample." The semen sample is "washed," which takes about 45 minutes or so. Washing means that the lab separates the sperm from semen, and separates motile sperm from non-motile sperm. The woman then comes in an hour or so later. A speculum is inserted and then the doctor inserts a thin catheter containing the sperm through the cervix and into the uterus. The sperm is then injected directly into the uterus. This part of the process only take a few minutes. While most doctors say the sperm can't fall out, they have you lie down for 15 minutes or so. This is kind of nice especially when you're feeling a bit of discomfort.


In my experience, IUI is more "uncomfortable" than painful. At the first one, I had a bit of cramping during the procedure and for a couple of hours afterward. The second one was much harder - I was very uncomfortable during the procedure, had some spotting afterward, and cramping for a day or so. This third one was the easiest yet, very little discomfort (aside from the speculum, which I'm never a fan of) and no cramping that I recall.

There's a lot of debate about the success rates for IUI - anywhere from just under 6 percent and as high as 26 percent per try. There are many variables that affect the success rate: the amount of follicles, the sperm count, etc. Also, there's a 23-30% chance of multiple pregnancies with each try.

For IUI, they like to see 3-5 million sperm in the sperm count. Average sperm count is 20 million. Average motility of the sperm is 60%. My amazing husband had sperm counts of 50 million, 92 million, and 88 million for the 3 tries we did. Even the nurse was amazed at the 92 million. After the first try, Depressionista started referring to my husband as "50 Mil" (ala 50 Cent). His motility has been between 79-86% each time. I know he's doing his part.

As for me, for every try, the doctor has said my cervical position looked good and the mucus looked just right for ovulation. This last time the doctor said I had "nice mucus" and that the sperm would hopefully see the nice mucus and find they would like to live there (yes, she really did).

For this third try, everything seemed to line up just right - the third try on the 23rd day of the 3rd month - which also happened to be Easter and the birthdays of two of my close friends. And the day I got the positive ovulation test, 3/22, was one of my best friend's birthday, too.

I'm trying to be hopeful - the first 2 tries haven't been successful and I was getting dicouraged, so I'm working on not being stressed and staying positive.

As one of my friends said, the Easter bunny really did bring us EGGS for Easter! Thanks Easter bunny! Bawk Bawk!