Tomorrow…
Tomorrow morning at 7:30am, Brett arrives with his (ahem) sample at the lab where they perform magic tricks over it and then I will show up at 9am where I will become intimate with various utensils and the (ahem) sample will be inserted.
I actually have no idea what they do with the sperm. They told me they do something like “clean it up” and they mentioned the word “debris.” Who knows what Brett’s got floating around in there. Let me see if I can find something. Ah, here we go. My beloved Google found something at iVillage!
Semen is made up of sperm cells, seminal fluid and debris (dead sperm, white cells, mucus and fat globules). When we do intrauterine insemination (IUI), we are most interested in getting motile, healthy sperm cells into the uterus.
However, we can’t just shoot raw semen right from the cup directly into the uterus. The sperm swim in a liquid called seminal fluid, predominantly produced by the prostate gland, which contains chemicals called prostaglandins. … When semen enters the vagina during sex, the prostaglandins cause no problem. But if we injected raw semen directly into a woman’s uterus to try to get sperm to the egg, she would experience severe pain and perhaps even vascular collapse and death.
Hmmm, kinda yucky. Who knew that this stuff could kill you.
Anyway, I like to think about Brett’s sperm being in a happy, pristine, totally girl-friendly environment and all of this talk about “debris” and “vascular collapse” doesn’t exactly get my engine running. Fortunately, the very nature of an IUI does not require any sort of engine running whatsoever. This is a totally clinical thing where words like “debris” are entirely appropriate.
The stats for someone with one follicle (I had one big follicle at yesterday’s ultrasound, a few little ones but they triggered the one) are only about 6% success, so I’m not exactly hepped up about this but I welcome good thoughts none the less.
Good luck!
When I had my IUI, it was explained to me that “sperm washing” entailed putting the semen sample in a sort of centrifuge, and separating out the good sperm from the fluid, white cells and dead/slow sperm.
I guess by the time you read this, you will have already had the procedure done so I doubt I’m telling you anything new. But I’ll tell you my experience anyway (though I guess others on your infertility list have probably done the same already!). I was surprised by how little sperm they actually injected, and I was terrified of the syringe they used to inject it! Just a warning that the syringe looks really scary, especially if you have a fear of needles. It didn’t particularly hurt to have the insemination itself done, but after the fact I was sort of crampy for the rest of the day and tried to rest as much as possible.
FWIW, I only had one good follicle the month I conceived with Clomid/IUI. It can happen!