Podcast EP 17
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[00:00:00] IUI Cis, IUI, I remember doing my very first IUI and being left devastated when it didn't work. I had no idea what to expect, what the success rates were, how it was gonna turn out, but somewhere, deep down inside, I knew it was gonna work for me. Man, that wasn't my story. And for many people out there, that's not their story either.
Why is something as promising as IUI when you're being monitored perfectly? Why doesn't it work? Why are you left? Devastated, heartbroken, and then sometimes out a lot of money? Since today, we're gonna dive into everything IUI, so you can get the big picture, the small picture, the clearer picture on how the process works.
To see if it's the best next step for you [00:01:00] and if it's really gonna help you bring your baby home. This is everything I wish I knew about IUI before I did the procedure. If you're interested in learning more, keep listening. Hi, I'm Sophie Byfield and when I decided I was ready to be a mama, I thought it would be so easy.
Get off birth control. Baby dance, like no one's watching. And poof, I was pregnant. But like many of you, that wasn't my story. After months of negative tests, endless treatments, and more supplements than you can count, I realized that getting pregnant isn't about fixing one piece of your fertility puzzle.
It's about bringing your whole body. Back into balance so it feels safe enough to conceive. And this is where we focus on what really matters. Healing your whole body so that you can see those two pink [00:02:00] lines. Welcome to The Heel to Conceive podcast. This week in the tribe, we had a beautiful soul come in.
To our community asking about IUI see she had graduated from doing natural cycles to the fertility clinic and now was doing medicated IUI and had a lot of questions. A lot of her questions brought me back to how I was feeling on my journey during my first IUI and it didn't work for me. I tried up to four.
None of them worked with perfect conditions. I was left feeling defeated, heartbroken, devastated because I didn't understand why it didn't work. You mean to tell me the medication is lined up, the follicles look good, the sperm count is great. Why isn't this working? [00:03:00] So let's break down everything IUI. So you can see if it's the right next step for you.
So what is I-U-I-I-U-I is an intrauterine insemination. So basically they sperm wash or they separate the good sperm from the bad sperm and inject the concentrated sperm into your ute. It bypasses the cervix. It bypasses the vagina canal and goes as close to the fallopian tubes as we can get it. The I UI procedure cyst is one of the first medical interventions that your fertility clinic will try.
It's all about controlling timing. So if you've been following around for a while, you know that I say that there's 3.5 steps to getting pregnant. The first step is are you ovulating? Are you actually dropping an egg? The second step is, is that egg fertilizing or that's kind of like a one, a step. Number two is, does the fertilized egg [00:04:00] implant?
And step number three is can you carry a term. IUI really focuses on the, am I ovulating part of getting pregnant. You help to grow the follicles, you use medication to drop the egg, and you have the perfect timing for the sperm to be injected. But the problem with IUI and something I didn't know a lot of my clients didn't know is that your body still has to do the other 2.5 parts.
The egg still has to fertilize, it still needs to travel down the fallopian tube, implant into the lining, and then carried a term. IUI. Success rates are only 10 to 20%. 10 to 20%. I wish I knew that on my journey because I honestly believed that since it was medicated and monitored and the sperm count was there that it was going to work, it had to work.
I didn't understand that there was this whole other part of the process [00:05:00] that we weren't in control in, that my body had to take over, but we're getting ahead of ourself. Let's take a step back. What does the IUI process and procedure actually look like? So step one is baseline testing. They are going to test your FSH, your lh, estrogen, all of that to get a baseline of where you are, as well as ultrasound to see what follicles have had the spark of life.
So step two is ovulation stimulation. In this case, some fertility clinics will use Clom Med or Letrozole to stimulate the follicles to develop and grow. Not every IUI needs to use medication. You can do IUI without medication. And step number three, the trigger shot. Now most fertility clinics are going to give you a trigger shot to help control the timing of your IUI.
[00:06:00] We know that your egg will drop anywhere from 24 to 36 hours after you get the trigger shot. So taking the trigger shot really helps to pinpoint when we can inseminate. Now, if you're using fresh sperm, the day of in insemination, the sperm is collected, it's washed to separate the good swimmers from the bad swimmers, and then it's injected into your uterus.
It's usually a pretty quick non-invasive procedure. You lie there for 10 minutes and then they send you about your day. Timing is key when it comes to your IUI. Now your IUI should be done 24 to 36 hours after your trigger shot. During the first part of my journey when I was handed over to the fertility clinic, I was very naive to the whole entire thing and put all of my trust in my doctors and nurses, and I am not saying all doctors and nurses are bad, but.
I do wish I knew more during that time because I would've [00:07:00] advocated for certain things for my body. So after my second IUI didn't work. I would've advocated for things like double insemination to change up the medication, look at different ways of stimulating my ovaries, learning about implantations and the foods and the things I can do to help make that a better environment for the fertilized egg to implant.
The science says that you should do four to six. I UIs before moving to IBM. During my whole journey, I truly believed that the fertility clinics and I went to three, had my best interest at heart. But you see, I didn't know anything about the procedure or what I could do to make it successful on my end, and they weren't forthcoming with that information.
I would've advocated for double insemination. I would've advocated for different medication when the protocols weren't working. I truly believed that just to follow [00:08:00] their plan, but I learned later on, and this is why I'm teaching you that they use the same protocol and plans with everybody. And unless you're advocating for more, unless you're advocating for adjustments, they won't necessarily do it.
So here are some adjustments that I would've made. Let's dive into them in detail so that you can determine if they're best to talk to your doctor about and really tailor your program to your body. So the first one is gonna be double insemination. What is double insemination? So double insemination is when you do the insemination with the sperm twice.
So one insemination is scheduled 12 to 24 hours after the trigger shot, and the next insemination is scheduled for 24 to 36 hours after that. So what you're doing is putting sperm at the top end and the [00:09:00] bottom end to really cover when the egg drops. So just more sperm inside the fallopian tube. The second adjustment I would make to my IUI procedure is changing up my medication.
There are a number of factors that are your doctor's looking at throughout the whole entire procedure. Things like follicle size, your lining, all of that. I would have a better conversation or a deeper conversation with my doctor to really understand what was going on and if my medication needed to be switched up to get the results we're looking for.
So what are some common adjustments that you can make to your IUI protocol? You can look at changing your medication. You can look at going to injectables. You can look at double inseminations. We can also look at your lining thickness and progesterone. One of the questions that I get asked about IUI is why is there a limit to four to six?
The research [00:10:00] suggests that if you do not get pregnant by your third to fourth, IUI. Then there's a diminishing return, meaning. If you reach six, there's a good chance that IUI is not gonna be successful for your body. IUI can be a beautiful path for some. I've had a few clients where they've done one IUI and gotten pregnant on that first try.
Amazing and beautiful. But IUI can also lead to heartache, pain, and devastation for a lot of us because it's not the best method for us. What I didn't know is that I needed to heal my reproductive system before any of this stuff would work, before any of this stuff would work. And I think that's the missing piece in this whole entire journey in the whole trying to conceive world in the fertility world.
A lot of us, me included, guilty of charge jump right [00:11:00] to. Either medical procedures or medication to make things happen and our body is still unhealthy. And it wasn't until I started getting my body healthy. It's not until a lot of my clients start getting their body healthy, that we truly see the difference that we see them get pregnant naturally.
That we see IUI and IVF working. So I am pro IUI. As long as your expectations are set, knowing that we want over 10 million sperm for it to be successful, knowing that we're looking for follicle size from 18 to 22 millimeters, knowing that we wanna make sure the timing is key when it comes to that trigger shot and when you actually inseminate and knowing that your body and your lining need to be as healthy as possible for it to work.
IUI is just another [00:12:00] tool in your tool belt to help you bring your baby home. But you have to create the healthiest belt possible to make everything sort of line up so you can see those two positive pain clinics. And I want you to remember more than anything, just because it didn't work the first time doesn't mean IUI isn't gonna work for you.
Sis. Just because it didn't work the first time doesn't mean IUI isn't gonna work for you. I know this journey can be super overwhelming. I know how hard it can be, but you got this. You're gonna bring your baby home and when you don't got this, I got you baby Death for all.
