Greenie

Hi Ladies,
A little insight from all you wise women?...I'm in the very beginning stages of searching through donors and after reading through some of the message boards, I'm getting a little nervous. I had envisioned an at-home insemination without the use of complicated ovulation kits or prescription drugs. Am I naive in thinking this could be a possibility? Thank you all. I'm so glad there is a place just for "family" to communicate.

Comments

  • Hi Greenie,

    I think it certainly is possible to do it at home and do it without drugs. However, I'd strongly recommend using an ovulation kit. I'd recommend digital clear blue with the smiley face. This process is expensive (even just the sperm!) and timing is REALLY of the essence in this process. I've known many women who tried to conceive naturally without the ovulation kits and going off of just a mid-cycle calculation and it was way off. It needs to be even more precise with frozen sperm as it typically doesn't survive as long as fresh once thawed. The window of timing is really important!

    Good luck! :)
  • When I first started the process I envisioned an at-home insemination with just me and my wife surrounded by soft music and softer pillows with no help or testing at all. But, as I delved more into everything and learned more of the nuances, I opted to work with a Dr. to do IUI instead.

    It really depends on your priorities, financial situation and timeline. After spending the money on specimens from CCB, we felt like for each vial we wanted to give ourselves the best chance possible. There are some in-betweens between doing ici at home with no testing, and doing iui in a Dr's office with meds, etc.. We chose to do IUI with a Dr. so they could ultrasound us for timing, but we didn't do any fertility meds at all. In our area, there are also midwives who will come to your house to do iui, which sounded like a nice in-between.

    I know people who have tried more than 10 times, and then eventually found out that they had an issue that could've been found and fixed really easily if they had worked with a Dr. I also have a couple friends who've gotten pregnant at home doing inseminations with no meds, etc.. (they were using donors who were at their houses with them at the time - as the previous poster above mentioned, timing is more important with cryobank samples.)

    I don't think it's naive to think it's a possibility, no. But having gone through it, I'd encourage you to think about what aspects of the experience are really important to you and what your priorities are, and focus on those. If you're open to an ovulation kit, those are really really easy to use and will at least help somewhat with timing. It's generally also advisable to start prenatal vitamins while you're gearing up - at least that's what I've always heard.

    There are definitely aspects of doing it at home with no intervention that still appeal to me for sure, but I'm currently 18 weeks pregnant with a little boy so, I don't regret that we changed up our strategy from my original vision. It ended up working for us.

    Good luck to you! You'll see a million stories on here and they're all different, but they're not necessarily your story. Listen to your gut through the process and check in with yourself every so often to make sure you're doing it the way you want to do it. And in terms of getting nervous.. well, that's just part of the deal I think - doesn't mean you're not making the right decisions : )
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