Part 2: Four IUIs

When we got back from Italy, I took a couple months to just let my body recover from the intense barrage of hormones. So, so necessary.

I felt stagnant, but confused that none of the medicated cycles had worked yet. I was ready to move to something more aggressive, even though I didn't think I really needed it.

We moved forward with two IUI cycles. IUI stands for intrauterine insemination, and it involves inserting a catheter into the uterus and placing the sperm directly into the uterus, hoping to catch one of my lazy eggs on its way down.

The first one was totally painless and over in a flash. The second one was very painful and the nurse commented that I had a retroverted (tilted) uterus, which makes me think the first one was not thorough enough.

After two unsuccessful IUIs, my doctor announced she was leaving UCRM and moving to UFC. I decided to follow her to UFC, but she wasn't covered by my insurance at the new clinic, so I switched to a new doctor at a new clinic.

I did one IUI with my new doctor, which was unsuccessful, and he tried to push me to move on to IVF. I wasn't ready for something so drastic. If Clomid hadn't worked, an IUI deeefinitely should have worked, so IVF was not even on my radar.

We took a year off from treatments and used that time to try to improve our overall health. We did the keto diet for about 4ish months, and moved in to my mother-in-law's basement to try to save up for IVF - just in case.

After I'd lost about 20 lbs on keto, I decided to give IUI one more shot. We went back to a different doctor at the second clinic, and she is my soulmate. I love her, but that clinic is more expensive. More on how "you get what you pay for" later. Anyway, that IUI was unsuccessful, and after 3-4 IUIs, the success rate decreases dramatically, so that was it for me.