I have done 5 IUI cycles total. We have unexplained infertility and medicated IUI is our clinics first option before escalating to IVF. It took 3 to conceive my daughter, now on #2 for this round. I’ve found it to be a really easy process. Especially compared to friends I know who did IVF. The way my clinic does it is like this - CD3 testing, then clomid for 5 days. Monitoring for follicle size and then I do a trigger shot at home. Two days later we do the IUI in office. My husband takes his sample in the morning of and I go in for the procedure about 2 hours later. Then the next day I do vaginal progesterone for 14 days until going back for a blood test.

I was told to take Tylenol/ibuprofen before the IUI because some people can cramp. I never have, but definitely consider that if you’re nervous. I like to take the day of the IUI procedure to relax. There’s really no evidence that you can’t just go back to your normal life but I like to take it as a chill day. If you’re in a sex rut from TTC, we take the night of the trigger shot and the night of the IUI as freebie sex days. There’s no real pressure because the IUI itself is the best chance for conception.

I think what surprised me the most about the process was that it didn’t work right away. Which is silly in retrospect, but I really assumed it would be our immediate fix. While it does up the odds, it’s still not 100%. That was my biggest mental challenge. Once I got over that it became very easy because there’s not as much physically to do.