[nelly1]

I did a search and couldn't find a good thread for those of us dealing with IUI and donor sperm.

I'd love to meet more people going through the same challenges.

Please share your thoughts, stories, successes, etc.

A bit about me...I'm 33 and my husband was diagnosed with azoospermia. We did everything we could to try and have a baby that was biologically both his and mine. Unfortunately that was not in the cards for us.

On the bright side, I have a wonderful, supportive, loving husband who is open to donor sperm and we will most likely be staring our first IUI cycle next month (as long as all of our paperwork, etc is in order). I found a great donor who is eerily similar to my husband in appearance, occupation and interests. Seriously, I never thought we'd find a match this close!

Can't wait to hear from everyone else!

[nelly1]

Also, for those using donor sperm, how many vials did you purchase?

We're thinking 6 vials is a decent number (as ideally we'd like to have 2 children from the same donor) but would hate for it not to be enough...

[tomekwa]

Hi my name is Wanessa. DH was diagnosed with Klinefelter's in August of '08. We tried to get some sperm through sx but unfortunatelly nothing was found.
We've decided to move on to DS IUI. It took us 3 tries before we were finally pregnant. We used Fairfax Cryobank and the way we did it was one vial per month. I didn't buy multiple vials at the time, just one at the time.
Unfortunatelly our little angel went to heaven earlier than we expected.
We're gearing up to maybe trying again next month or so.
Using DS is not an easy choice for most. But my husband is also very supportive and wants to be a father more than anything. Although it's been more than one year since his diagnose, it does bother him from time to time.....not as often as before.
I think that after the loss of our little one, he somewhat understood that it's not about DNA. He loved (loves) our little one more than anything and he gets that now more than ever.
There are a lot of us using DS around here. There are also lots of success stories. Just keep looking around.
If there's anything that I can do to help don't hesitate to ask.
You can PM me or email me.
Just click on my name and you'll be able to see my profile and send me messages.
I wish you all the luck in the world.

[nelly1]

Hi Wanessa,

Thanks so much for sharing your journey. I'm so very sorry for the loss of your little one.

I got teary eyed when you said "I think that after the loss of our little one, he somewhat understood that it's not about DNA. He loved (loves) our little one more than anything and he gets that now more than ever."

That just completely summed it up for me. I know my husband is a little more apprehensive than I am with using donor sperm, but he has faith that there is more to being a father than DNA.

I wish you all the best on your journey.

[tygerlilly]

Hi, DH and I tried eleven, yes eleven IUI's before going to IVF. We purchased one vial of our donor each time. With IVF we are using a diffrent donor and we had to get 2 vials.

[Logyn]

Hi Nelly, I think I sort of introduced myself to you yesterday (or was it the day before?..LOL) DH and I are in the donor sperm boat as well as a result of Klinefelters.

We are going to be starting our 5th and final IUI cycle tommorrow. We have discussed IVF, but don't want to go that route because we will end up blowing our Savings. We did get preggo on our 3rd IUI cycle, but miscarried.

I think its good that you have started this thread.

[nelly1]

tygerlilly~congrats on your TWINS !!

That is incredible! Is there a reason you decided to do 11 IUIs before moving onto IVF?

[Logyn]

Congrats on your twins Tigerlily. What a blessing.
I see you went the IVF route..finally. I just wish we could.

Nelly, I noticed that I did not address your question about the vials. Well, DH and I just buy 1 vial each time we have an IUI. It's funny because when you loook at the amount of sperm in the vials, you think to yourself, "that's it"? all that for $590 (not including the $160 for shipping) Good grief. Donor sperm is NOT cheap. We use California Cyro, they were the only ones that had DH's race.

[nelly1]

Hi Logyn!

I'm sorry I must have missed you! Was it on the azoo thread?

I wish we were cycling together...I just O'd a couple of days ago, so our IUI won't be until a month from now.

I have my fingers and toes crossed for you
I really hope this will be your month.

Can you tell me what the Beta numbers mean? I keep seeing them everywhere and I know the higher they are the better...are these blood tests?

[Logyn]

Nelly, I posted on the question you asked about individuals from San Francisco (I'm not from there, but posted anyway)

Beta is a blood test done to detect the level of pregnancy hormones(hcG) in your system. They are supposed to rise 60 or 66% within 2 days for them to be considered "normal" . Sometimes slow rising beta levels came mean a miscarriage or ectoptic. You will learn ALOT MORE about Beta's as you continue your fertility journey.

[tygerlilly]

Originally Posted by Logyn

Congrats on your twins Tigerlily. What a blessing.
I see you went the IVF route..finally. I just wish we could.

Nelly, I noticed that I did not address your question about the vials. Well, DH and I just buy 1 vial each time we have an IUI. It's funny because when you loook at the amount of sperm in the vials, you think to yourself, "that's it"? all that for $590 (not including the $160 for shipping) Good grief. Donor sperm is NOT cheap. We use California Cyro, they were the only ones that had DH's race.

Thanks, yeah we made the jump into IVF lol. I cannot tell you how blessed I feel right now. Not only to have a husband who is willing to use a donor so that I can experience pregnancy, but with twins... I am blown away right now. I still feel like this really can't be happening lol.

I know what you are saying about the cost, and whats funny is when we did IUI's in VA it was only $180 per vial!!!! My IVF vials were $250 a piece after they told us $150 (they also told us we only needed one vial with the initial consult... no we needed two so 2 days before the transfer we had to come up with $500)!

[tygerlilly]

Originally Posted by nelly1

tygerlilly~congrats on your TWINS !!

That is incredible! Is there a reason you decided to do 11 IUIs before moving onto IVF?

Mostly cost... at the time it was easier to drop 200 bucks a try than the 7 grand (the military pay's for 1/2 of the IVF cost) to do IVF. We figured why not try until we could afford IVF. Then I took a two year break (ugh medications lol) and we got very lucky. I can tell you quite a bit about IUI's lol.

[tygerlilly]

Originally Posted by Logyn

Nelly, I posted on the question you asked about individuals from San Francisco (I'm not from there, but posted anyway)

Beta is a blood test done to detect the level of pregnancy hormones(hcG) in your system. They are supposed to rise 60 or 66% within 2 days for them to be considered "normal" . Sometimes slow rising beta levels came mean a miscarriage or ectoptic. You will learn ALOT MORE about Beta's as you continue your fertility journey.

I believe it is actually supposed to double, but you are right, certain percentages do lead to certain prognoses. If you go to The BetaBase you can see the median (not the average) of the BETA numbers... but do not put to much into the numbers... mine were exactly in line for singleton.

[lisa_kev]

Hi! DH and I are using donor sperm also. It was a long road in the begining (TTC for over 9 years). DH was diagnosed with azoospermia due to having cancer at the age of 3. DH was the one that brought up using a donor, he wants a child just as badly as I do and he feels that it'll be 1/2 of us and that's enough for him. It's not an easy decision, and not for everyone. I am truely blessed to have DH in my life and he wanting to fullfill my dreams of becoming a mother.

As far as how many vials to purchase, its a personal decision. I would recommend contacting the sperm bank and inquiring on how many vials the donor has. If you're attached to that specific donor and his quanity is low, then I'd purchase more. If you're fine with the possibility of having to choose another donor then order less.

In our case, we had 2 months of IUI's (back to back) each time. One in April and another in May. Sadly though both resulted in a negative result. Since then, we've taken part of the summer off to prepair for our 1st IVF. I begin STIMS next week and ER is sometime mid-September. We're using the same donor and thankfully, that donor has had more vials come into service.

When we paid for our IVF cycle, I asked my nurse how many vials I should purchase, she didn't say. Just that it was a personal choice and worst case if we only ordered one, there wouldn't be an extra vial to fall back on and the cycle would be out and all that money invested would be doomed. We ended up buying 2 vials.

The cost of our donor sperm is $485 plus $160 shipping. We're using Xytex out of Georgia. The sperm is higher (they have some for $300) but we chose a donor who had identity release. Not for the reason of our future child contacting the donor, but because we were able to see both childhood AND adult photos of the donor.

Oh, and I wanted to mention that DH picked our donor and the resemblence is so close, we were so blessed to be able to find a donor who resembles DH so much.

Good luck to you and your TTC journey.

[nelly1]

tygerlilly, if you don't mind me asking, was you and your DH infertility strictly male factor?

BTW, I love how you've named them "blip" and "speck"! TOO CUTE!


lisa_kev, thanks so much for posting your story.
Cancer at the age of 3 sound so scary! Your DH sounds like a wonderful man. Going through this I have come to realized what a truly loving and selfless man my husband is. He actually told me he would understand if I felt like I needed to leave him (WHAT???) because he "failed" me.

Good luck to you with IVF. I'm going to look into Xytex too. We've pretty much decided on our donor, but the sperm is $490/vial and we want to buy enough to be able to have 2 children. $4000 is a lot of money to spend on just the sperm...Also I noticed you are doing IVF w/ICSI. How did you decide on doing ICSI? was it just to get the best possible chance? I just thought typically with donor sperm you wouldn't need ICSI.