My dh has retrograde ejaculation because of type I diabetes - he has no biological children of his own. I have two children (DS & DD) from a previous marriage. I had my tubes untied October 2006 and since then we have been actively ttc naturally, until June 21st when we had our first natural IUI. Yesterday AF showed her ugly face :mad: - My heart is broken to say the least, but I feel optimistic that we will conceive. Maybe I am naive, but hope is all I got at this point and besides (as my dh says) "the greater the fight, the greater the victory." :bouncing: :bouncing: :bouncing:

I found this site and was hoping to hear from someone who has had a natural IUI with success. How many cycles did it take? My RE has given us the choice to use med's, but I'd rather go natural for now.:)

jody,


sorry to hear that af showed her ugly face. you must be gutted!nothing worse when you need her to show she doesnt when you need her not to she does.
how long you giving natural iui then before moving on to meds?
hope it doesnt get to that stage!

xx

My dh and I decided to give it 3 tries without med's. My dh usually has a good sperm count after the washing, but this last time I ovulated earlier than expected so he didn't do the 3 days of abstaining before the IUI - his numbers were not as good. He had 13 million total sperm with only 2.5 million sperm with good motility (the RE said they like to have at least 5 million sperm with good motility). Our RE said we were a very unusual case, but he feels confidant that we will succeed.

I am sorry that you are going through all this...it must not be easy. I have not done IUI myself....but we have had few BFPs with IUI here. I am sure that the other ladies will be able to answer your answers.

Wishing you all the best.

Amy

It is very difficult :( . Actually, it is the most emotionally draining experience of my life, but it will be soooo worth it when we have our precious bundle of joy. My heart goes out to all the ladies who are years into ttc - 9mths for me have been pure hell. Every month I build up my hopes only to have them coming crashing down the second AF shows up. I feel blessed to have two children already, but it doesn't diminish the pain that the 3rd is not as easy to come by. My heart is deeply trouble for those who have no children. I sometimes feel guilty that I want another when others are desperately trying for just one. But like I said earlier - the greater the fight, the greater the victory. :)

Hang in there Jody, as you said it will be worth it in the end.

Hi Jody, sorry your iui was not successful. I know how devastating it is each month when af arrives. Wishing you lots of luck for the next cycle.
Lizzie

salut Jody!
I am so sorry about your IUI :( I know it is hard to have you hopes crashing down month after month. I feel for you right now, cherie. :angel: But at least, to look on the bright side, you have a new cycle to work with :) What are you plans for this cycle? And if you don't have any right now, that's ok cherie. Sometimes getting back on the horse after falling off is tough. Like, really super hard. Mais, we are here for you, thick and thin, so please keep up updated as to how you are feeling cherie.

****BABY DUST*****

Thank you Princess - I plan to do the same thing this cycle - we are preparing for our 2nd unmedicated iui for sometime between
7/16 - 7/18:bouncing: :bouncing:

Hi Jody:wave:

My DH also has retrograde ejaculation due to Type 1 Diabetes. I wasn't able to find many people in that same boat here, but found all the other information very useful. My DH does not have as good of counts as yours does. I was wondering if his diabetes is very tightly controlled, and if you know what his A1C's are (not sure if that's how it's written out, I only hear my DH talk about it). But we know that is part of our problem, diabetes not tightly controlled and too high A1C's.

Also, does your DH take a prescription to help with the retrograde. My RE has prescribed Imiprimene and Sudafed for my DH, which has helped, but things are not great in that department. Sorry if that's too many questions, just a little excited to find someone with a similar situation. Any info. would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Christin:D

Sorry Jody, I have a quick qusetion....what does unmedicated IUI mean? :confused:


*****baby dust******

Princess to answer your question: An unmedicated (natural) IUI means that I am not taking any medications to induce ovulation. My IUI's are scheduled according to my natural LH surge that is detected using OPK's.

And, twinkie it is very nice to meet you. I've been lurking around the net for months now trying to find someone that is in the same boat as me and my dh, so it is a real pleasure to have finally found you. To answer your question, my dh does take bronkaid to help reverse the retrograde ejaculation, but even with that, only a few drops of sperm come out. My dh is doing a better job of controlling his diabetes since we got married, but he didn't do such a good job before (hence the retrograde ejaculation) his A1C's are usually between 7 and 8 (mostly right down the middle). Also, to increase my dh sperm count before the washing (iui procedure) my husband also takes the bronkaid - for some reason it increases the amount of good sperm in his urine. The RE can't explain why, but it does work. He also has to take sodium bicarbonate (baking soda 1tsp or 1 pill) the day before and the day of the iui procedure (it alkalizes his urine to make it more sperm friendly).

Also, I have found some info on the net that might be helpful to you. In a 3 year study of 8 couples who suffered from infertility due to retrograde ejaculation who were treated with IUI from sperm gained from the urine and ovulation was predicted with LH surge (no med's) 12 pregnancies occurred; 2 women became pregnant twice and one 3 times. The pregnancy rate per cycle was 44.4 %. In 7 couples pregnancy was achieved within 3 cycles. 4 ended in spontaneous abortion and 5 ended in the birth of a healthy baby and 3 pregnancies were continuing at the time this study was concluded.

Simply put - we have a really good chance of conceiving within 3 cycles. I hope this info has helped you - I know it has made me feel more confidant. Good luck and lots of baby dust:)

Here is the website for the info above if you would like to read it yourself:

http://www.medscape.com/medline/abstract/1727570

Wow Jody,

This is great news. I am going to look that up (just so you know in the future, we're not allowed to post websites), but I've jotted it down to look into it. My RE looked at two SA's from my DH, and determined the quality and quantity that were "good" was too minimal to try IUI, but maybe this info will provide me with something that I can try to fight for, and also ask about the medication your DH is taking. IUI would be so much less expensive (and I am still fairly young, and pretty healthy). My DH was able to provide his samples in the normal fashion from his prescription, so he did not need to take the sodium bicarbonate because they did not take and check on a urine sample. Your DH sounds like his diabetes is doing pretty well. The best my DH's A1C's have been have been in the high 8's, but little by little, he sees how serious I am taking all of this, and is trying to do better. We won't be going forward with any procedures until the new year, and in the mean time we are trying as naturally as possible, him taking his prescriptions, and me really following my cycle. I hope to stay in touch with you, and I hope everything works out for you and your DH soon. Keep us posted:D

Christin

Oops :eek: I didn't know I couldn't post website references - I do apologize . Anyhow - I have talked with one other person who's husband has retrograde ejaculation and she said that her and her dh were able to get pregnant by taking Sudafed, but it took a long time and unfortunately it ended in a m/c. They ended up giving up without ever trying an iui. I am wishing and praying for your ttc journey to be short and successful:) :bouncing: :bouncing: :bouncing:

Hi again:wave:

I looked up your info, and I plan to take this to my RE. I also wanted to let you know my husband take Imipramine (I spelled it wrong the first time). In case you want to look it up, or check into it for your DH. My RE prescribes my DH 20 pills (1 a day), and that's when they scheduled him for his SA. However, my DH has the best response around day 5-6, so for now, he's taking his prescription w/Sudafed appx. that many days ahead of when I should ovulate. Now I feel more confident that IUI may work for us, so I'm planning to get all my info together and speak with our RE again. Thanks again for all your help:D

Christin

You are very welcome - let me know what your RE says and say a prayer for us as we approach our attempt at a 2nd iui. :)