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Natural Cycle Success?

Mom4KiddosMom4Kiddos Posts: 83
in Share Your Experience
I'm just wondering if anyone else has had success doing insemination (particularly IUI) during a natural cycle, i.e. no fertility drugs. After trying four natural cycle IUIs and one IVF with our first donor, we conceived on our first IUI attempt with a new donor during a natural cycle. We are going to be trying again in April for #2, and I am getting nervous worrying about whether or not we will be so fortunate the second time around, especially since our donor has retired and we only have six premium IUI vials and one ART vial in storage. It seems that everyone is on fertility meds, so I'm guessing I'm in the minority here. I'm 27 years old (25 when I conceived my daughter), and all my testing is normal, which is the main reason why my doctor doesn't want to put me on meds right off the bat.

I'd love some feedback! Thanks. :-)

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    MistyandCarlaMistyandCarla Posts: 720
    Well I just conceived with my very first IUI without any meds...so yes, it's possible. Plus, I'm going to be 36 in June.

    My doctor won't even discuss meds without having 3 unsuccessful attempts naturally.

    HTH's

    Misty and Carla
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    Mom4KiddosMom4Kiddos Posts: 83
    Misty and Carla, congrats! How did you time your IUI(s)? How many inseminations did you do, how far apart? When we got pregnant with our daughter, I was using an OPK in the evening, and on day 13 of my cycle I got an "almost" positive in the evening, so the next morning and the day after (days 14 and 15) we went for the IUI. I've been temping and charting, so I think I probably went for my IUIs the day before and the day of ovulation when I got pregnant the first time. As my RE says, "Don't mess with the winning formula," so that's what we're going to try to do again. However, in our case, we will only try two natural insems before moving on to injectibles or IVF because we have so little sperm in reserve and want to have a full genetic sibling to our daughter.
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    MistyandCarlaMistyandCarla Posts: 720
    mrandmrswhite@gmail.com,

    Thank you...here's what we did...first of all, we started out with regular OPK's, but it was too stressful, so we bought the digital ones and let me tell you...it takes out all of the guess work! I would highly suggest it.

    Secondly, we done OPK's several times each day...we feel that if you only test once each day, there's too much room for error and we did not want to miss our opportunity! I figured (by testing previous months) that I O'd on CD15...we started testing on CD12, twice each day. On CD14, I tested that morning, that afternoon and that evening and then again at 3:30am. I couldn't sleep because I was so worried about it...all of them were negative. Since I was pretty sure that I would O on CD15, I tested again at noon that day and guess what...BFP! So, I know that I O'd somewhere between 3:30 that morning and noon. If I had waited to test that night, I would have already been positive for 9 + hours. I really think that catching it early is helpful.

    Finally, we went in for our single insemination at 9am the next morning. (on CD16) I laid there in the doctors office for about 20 minutes and then laid down completely flat on our drive home. (2 hours) I also laid around that entire day watching movies.

    FYI...our sperm count was 27.4 million with 72% motility.

    Here are a few things I consumed every day, starting a month before I was going to try IUI...

    * ate a handful of almonds
    * MADE MYSELF drink a glass of milk (I hate milk)
    * had salad for lunch (lettuce)
    * ate 1/2 container of raspberries
    * stopped drinking sodas, etc. (only water)

    From CD1-ovulation...
    * took 81mg of baby aspirin
    * Mucinex

    About 4 months prior to that, I began a prenatal vitamin and folic acid...and here's an article to back those things up...

    http://livitician.blogspot.com/2007/12/increase-fertility-through-nutrition.html

    I can't say that these things are what got me pregnant...all that I can say is that these are the things that I did and by the grace of God, I got a BFP my very first try.

    Sorry to have rambled on...but if you have any further questions, please let me know.

    Good luck!
    Misty
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    Mom4KiddosMom4Kiddos Posts: 83
    Thanks so much! I really appreciate all the information!
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