IUI, IVF or egg donation?

If you’re reading this, you are probably considering starting a family and are feeling overwhelmed by the different fertility treatment options out there.

Don’t worry, you’re not alone! Navigating the world of fertility treatments can be overwhelming, especially if it’s your first time. It can be very difficult to figure out where to start and what form of treatment is right.

When is insemination treatment (IUI) sufficient and when should you consider artificial insemination?

Have you been trying to get pregnant with a partner for a long time? Or is this your first attempt because you are single or in a lesbian partnership?

We are here to help. In this blog post, we’ll break down the most common forms of fertility treatment and help you decide which one might be right for you.

 

Insemination (IUI)

Here at the Diers Klinik, we offer insemination treatment (IUI). Insemination, specifically Intrauterine Insemination (IUI), is usually the first step in fertility treatment. It is the simplest and most natural form of treatment available.

During insemination treatment (IUI), we ensure that the number of sperm cells, which are guided into the uterus with a catheter, is optimised. Furthermore, the timing of the procedure is important. This is to ensure we treat you at the time you are most fertile.

By placing the purified sperm cells directly into the uterus, we help the sperm cells reach the egg more efficiently than through intercourse. However, fertilisation still happens naturally, making it different from artificial insemination.

Insemination treatment (IUI) is typically recommended as the first step if you have been trying to get pregnant with a partner for a while and have no known fertility issues.

Insemination treatment (IUI) with donor sperm is also excellently suited for single women and lesbians with no fertility issues. The reason for this is that there is usually no need for healthy women to undergo more invasive and expensive fertility procedures.

Insemination Treatment (IUI) with Partner Sperm

If you and your partner have been trying to conceive naturally for a while, insemination treatment would be a good approach. Unless of course you have a known diagnosis that suggests otherwise.

Before we begin treatment, we would always start with a sperm analysis to test if the sperm is of sufficient quality for IUI. If the sperm quality is a bit low, this is not a problem for the treatment. If it is very low, we would recommend another form of treatment.

We also recommend that the woman has her fallopian tubes checked in advance. This is to ensure that insemination can be successful. However, this examination does not have to be carried out before treatment can begin.

If everything is looks fine, and there is no explanation for your unfulfilled desire to have children, insemination treatment would be the recommendation for your course of treatment.

Insemination Treatment (IUI) with Donor Sperm

If you’re single or in a lesbian relationship with no known fertility issues, IUI is an excellent option.

At Diers Klinik, we specialise in this natural fertility treatment method. We carry out the treatment in your natural menstrual cycle and optimise the remaining factors such as timing and sperm quality before treatment. Our success rate with this method is around 20%, so it’s definitely worth considering. You can find out more about our current statistics here.

There is usually no need for hormones for this treatment. However, if this should be the case, it is also possible for you to get them from our gynaecologist, or from your own gynaecologist in advance.

If insemination treatment is not successful, IVF treatment may be the next step. We do not offer you this treatment method here at Diers Klinik. However, our partner, clinic Diers IVF is happy to advise you on this. Read more about whether you should consider this treatment method in the next section.

IVF/ICSI

IVF treatment (in vitro fertilisation) is artificial insemination in which the fertilisation does not take place in the woman’s body, but in a test tube in the laboratory.

IVF is recommended for women who have blocked fallopian tubes, endometriosis, or other fertility issues. If insemination treatment hasn’t worked for you, IVF also may be the next step.

With the IVF treatment method, the woman is first stimulated with hormones so that more follicles mature than would be the case in the natural cycle. The eggs in the follicles are then removed during an egg retrieval procedure. Afterwards, the eggs are fertilised in the laboratory with sperm from the partner or a donor.

An advanced form of artificial insemination is called ICSI (micro insemination). In this method, a single sperm cell is inserted directly into the egg cell in the laboratory. It is recommended if the man’s sperm quality is low.

With both IVF and ICSI treatment, the fertilised egg has to mature in the lab. Once the fertilized eggs have matured in the lab for several days, one or more blastocysts (fertilised eggs) are returned to the uterus to hopefully result in a pregnancy. If there are multiple blastocysts, they can be frozen and used for future treatments.

Low Sperm Quality

If the man’s sperm quality is too low for IUI, IVF is worth considering. The ICSI method is recommended when the number of sperm cells is very low, or they have poor motility.

If the man does not have any sperm cells at all, IUI treatment with donor sperm could be the right choice.

Tubal Permeability

If the woman’s fallopian tubes are blocked, you would need IVF treatment to become pregnant. It’s essential to have a fallopian tube permeability test carried out in advance, especially if you’ve had an abdominal infection in the past.

If the examination shows that the fallopian tubes are permeable, you should first try insemination treatment. However, if the examination shows that the fallopian tubes are not permeable, you must be prepared for IVF treatment.

Age and Low AMH Levels

If you’re a woman in your late 30’s and have had several failed insemination treatments, we recommend that you have your AMH levels measured.

AMH stands for anti-Müllerian hormone, and it gives an indication of how many eggs you have left.

If your AMH levels are very low, it might be time to consider IVF treatment. On the other hand, if your levels are good, you can continue with insemination treatments.

BMI Requirements for IVF/ICSI Treatment

At Diers Klinik, we don’t have any BMI requirements for insemination treatment (IUI). However, most clinics offering IVF treatment have strict BMI requirements for women.

The reason for this is that hormone treatment doesn’t always work optimally when you’re overweight. Egg cell retrieval can be very risky due to fatty tissue obstructing the doctor’s view with the ultrasound.

If you don’t meet the BMI requirements, it might be possible to continue with insemination treatment (IUI) if your menstrual cycle and sperm quality allow it. Feel free to contact us for more information on this. 

Egg donation

Egg donation is an alternative to IVF treatment, where the woman’s own eggs are not used, but a donor’s eggs are.

This treatment is worth considering if you’re older than 42 years old, as we see a high rate of miscarriages after that age. This is mainly due to decreased egg quality. In Denmark, fertility treatment is allowed up to the woman’s 46th birthday. So, instead of spending time on expensive IVF treatment with poor odds, the fertility clinic may recommend egg donation.

In this case, the woman doesn’t have to go through egg retrieval, and you can choose an egg donor that best suits your preferences. Check with the clinic that offers this to see what choices are available.

If you already know that your AMH levels are very low, or you’re going through early menopause, egg donation might significantly increase your chances of conceiving.

Egg donation can be carried out with both partner sperm and donor sperm. However, a double donation (both egg and sperm) is only possible if the fertility doctor assesses that there’s a medical reason for it.

Still unsure?

In this post we have given you a brief introduction to the different options.

In summary, fertility treatments are not a one-size-fits-all solution. Insemination (IUI) is a good option if you are a single woman, a lesbian couple or if you’ve been trying to conceive with a partner and there are no known fertility issues. IVF is a more advanced option that may be necessary if insemination (IUI) doesn’t work or if there are other fertility issues present.

If you have any further questions or need more information, feel free to contact us at: info@diersklinik.dk.

If you already know that you need artificial fertilisation (IVF, ICSI, or egg donation), you can contact our partner clinic, Diers IVF directly at: info@diersivf.dk.

We’re always here to help and provide you with more information about the fertility treatment options here in Aarhus.