My husband and I reached the clinic at 8:30 am, after driving for an hour. The traffic was heavy as today is the day the school starts after the 3 week break. Heavy traffic was the main reason my husband chose to produce the semen in the clinic rather than at home. He wanted to make sure his 'supply' contributed for the IUI was as fresh as possible.
Semen produced will go through a 'washing' process. Sperm washing allows sperm a higher chance of survival and hence, a higher rate for fertilization. The washing separates sperm cells from semen, which helps to get rid of dead or slow-moving sperm and chemicals that may impair the fertilization.
Since the process of sperm washing will take about 2 hours, we decided to pass our time at the Starbuck in a nearby shopping mall. I was told to keep a full bladder for the procedure, so I did not visit the ladies since 10 am.
By 11:30, we were back at the clinic. My bladder was very full but the nurse said that the semen washing process was yet to be completed. I was given the 'permission' to release half of my bladder. My husband was skeptical that I could release just half. This was actually my 1st time to do so. Yes, we can control how much volume we want to release.
At 12pm, finally we were called into the procedure room for IUI. The nurse showed us a semen container labelled with my name, to confirm that the sperm belong to my husband. After that we were left in the room to wait for the doctor. The room was very quiet. I could hear my empty stomach growling. I kept looking at my watch. The time seemed to crawl. I did not know what to expect from the procedure. I read that it was an almost painless procedure; but there were also quite a number of people who complained about muscle cramping and severe discomfort. Besides, I was also worried that I could not make it to a meeting that had been scheduled at 2pm. In fact, I knew that my husband who showed his support by accompanying me today also had an important presentation at 2:30pm. I felt more and more anxious. Suddenly, my husband miraculously received a call from his colleague, who informed him that the presentation was postponed to a later date. I could tell that the phone call had lifted a tremendous amount of stress off his shoulder.
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| I am ready for the procedure! |
At 12:15, Dr. Prashant confidently walked into the room. Holding the result of the semen analysis, he told us my husband had produce some good sperm, 50 million sperms with the motility of 3 (1 being the poorest and 4 being the best). We knew that the success rate of IUI depends on many factors, with some of them unexplained. But, at least this was a good indicator.
After that, Dr. Prashant began the procedure by inserting a speculum into me. I felt very minimal discomfort, but this was considered painless compared to menstrual pain. Next, a very thin and flexible catheter was inserted into the cervix. Washed sperm is then injected through that catheter.
"Done!" The procedure just took like less than a minute when I heard the doctor said so.
"Really? I hardly felt it." I could not believe that eveything was over.
"Yup, did you think that I was going to put in a knife?" Dr. Prashant replied with a smile.
I told the doctor that I doubt that I was going to ovulate because I did not have a vivid positive result from the ovulation test. He said he was aware about my test results and asked me not to worry as he noticed that I have thick mucus which was normally a sign of ovulation.
I lay for another 10 minutes before we left the room. I made a bee line to the loo to empty the already filled up bladder.
I was given 15 days supply of Duphaston, which I will start taking from Wednesday onwards. The Doctor said I can do a pregnancy test after 2 weeks.
Finger crossed, we hope an angel will be sent to us. But if it is not meant to be, we will try again.
Total Expenses RM 980
- IUI Procedure
- Duphaston 10 mg x 30 tablets
All in all, we have spent RM 2320 for this cycle of IUI.
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