Oh, hon! I get it! (Hopefully, not TMI) We had a consult, and decided to test. My husband had to be convinced. Even though we'd been doing the baby dance for 2 years with nothing, he wasn't as concerned as I was (we were both 31 at this point). We did and HSG and a semenalysis and my HSG was clear. He had a good count, but almost zero motility. The doctor suggested we try IUI (sometimes the counts were possibly high enough to get enough to inject). We tried four times, and every time, the semen wash failed. Four months of Clomid and attempting IUI with no result. A few times, I was even on the table, ready for the IUI when the doc had to come in shaking his head!

We're about to try IVF. What my doc (who is also awesome) told me is that they need at least 5 million motile sperm for IUI to be more effective than regular intercourse. Otherwise, they get the same percentage of results as you would get just doing a well timed baby dance. That's probably why your doctor said not to bother with IUI. It is a lot cheaper than IVF, but it might also be a waste of money if the counts are too low. Our motility was so low, that it would be a waste of money to keep trying IUI.

I know that's not the best news ever, but I hope maybe it can give some perspective.

We also did 4 unsuccessful IUI's to the tune of about 6,000 dollars. I had low ovarian reserve, and my husbands count was low. (2 of the IUI's were below the 5 million count) In hindsight, because we never completely took IVF option off the table, we should have saved our 6 grand and applied it towards the IVF. We did our first IVF with ICSI this past june and it worked on the first try. We are also having twins. We were able to take out a loan through a program called ATTAIN, and it gave us 6 cycles for a fixed price, and if it did not work we got 70% of our money back. (work means take home a baby) You can also drop out at any time, you do not have to complete all 6 cycles, and still get 70% back. It may be worth looking into. Not all clinics qualify for this program, but I'm sure you can search on the website in your area and see. To qualify, they have to have very high success rates and meet the standards that attain has. It is such a hard decision. I wish you the best of luck and don't give up hope!

I feel like you're telling my story!! We both have almost the same thing wrong with us and our DHs. We also been trying over a year. My RE did tell me that IUI was a waste of our time. He said with endo time is not on our side, that endo comes back so quickly. We currently are on IVF cycle 3, we never did IUI. We went to an RE around us for the first cycle and it cost us around $10,000 but then a friend told us about a clinic in NY that is much more affordable. We bought 3 cycles from them and it was less than one cycle with the RE near me. Also the RE there and the staff is incredible!! We do all our monitoring here but then we travel there for the retrevial and transfer. The clinic is called CYN Fertility incase you want to check it out. Wishing you the best of luck!!!

Hey! I am in a similar situation as you. I too have pretty bad endometriosis, but had a clear HSG. My husband and I have also been trying for about a year. Everything on my husband's side is fine so my doctor suggested IUI with Clomid. I am on cycle 3 with this and feel that it really isn't doing much. This cycle my endometriosis has gotten really worse and I think the Clomid has made it worse. We are meeting with my doctor in a few weeks to talk about what to do next if this 3rd IUI fails. I think we are leaning towards IVF. Good luck with your decision!

Thanks everyone for your replies. You all helped give me some perspective and much needed information. We were so surprised when the doc said he wasn't optimistic about IUI that we didn't really process it or understand why. Hearing the stories from you guys and looking into it more online has really illuminated where we are at. We're still waiting on his blood test results to see if we can figure out why his count is so low, and we've decided not to make any plans about IUI vs IVF until we have the results. It's so easy to say "We'll never do IVF" or "We can never afford IVF" when you think you have other options! Now that we're failed with the potential "IVF or nothing" scenario, it really changes your outlook!

Your husband should see a urologist who specializes in male infertility. There are treatments that can improve sperm counts. Good luck!

I have to agree with the others. I had 6 IUI's all unsuccessful, all medicated with clomid and femera. My husband had a very low count (around 1-2 million) and our chances each time of conceiving were less than 5%.
We finally went to a urologist and were told that he has a varicolcele. He underwent surgery to have it blocked, and although we were told the surgery was successful, his sperm count did not increase. We were crushed!
We finally decided to move onto IVF with ICSI. Although it cost us $10,000 it was successful the first time and are due in January.
I would skip the IUI's altogether, save the money, and spend it on IVF because it works and the odds each time are so much better!
I wish you the best of luck in your journey!

My husband has a varicocele as well, which affects his motility (his swimmers tread water, but don't swim), but not his count. We decided that, since surgery had no guarantee of being successful/helpful and since it would take over 6 months to see any real results if there were any, to move on with IVF.

I'm sorry. It was a year ago this month that we found out IVF was our only real chance, and i was totally crushed. My exact thoughts were, "this is like a death sentence." I thought, we cant afford this, nor do i want this! butttt.....1 year later and i am so thankful to be in the midst of it! just had my egg retrieval today! it turned out we have $15,000 lifetime coverage, which is a great start in my opinion. its been hard, but we have also grown so much in so many ways. actual IVF wasn't quite as bad as i imagined. by the time we go to do it, i was more than ready to get the show on the road! we did start with a urologist who gave my DH some vitamins, just to see if that helped first. it did help, but still didnt get the numbers where they needed to be. good luck!