IUI Treatment Costs
The maths behind the success of “Intra-Uterine Insemination” treatment
Hetero-sexual couples
Hetero-sexual couples having unprotected sexual intercourse have around a 60% chance of becoming pregnant within the first six months of trying and 85% at the end of 1 year. On an average a young couple may have sex 2-3 times a week, we are looking at around approx 125 acts of intercourse (per couple) to make 85 babies in the group of 100 couples.
We are not working the mathematical model to it's fine details but you get the idea that, the chance of a single act of sex to get a woman pregnant is quite low, less than 1% Not that efficient, as you can see. If it wasn’t so much fun, sex for reproduction would have gone out of fashion a long time ago!
Going back to the statistics above, probably only one or two of those intercourses, every month would be around the time of ovulation. Thus 24 of those intercourses (per year) are the ones which are most likely to be "most productive" and we thus know that a single act of sexual intercourse around time of ovulation is likely to result in a pregnancy in approximately 4–6 % of cases. Latest available HFEA statistics (2011) suggests that the likelihood of success with IUI treatment in the under 35 years old woman is approximately 16% (per IUI).
Lesbian couples
For this reason, when we treat lesbian couples for insemination with donor sperm, the aim is to plan the timing to maximise the chance of success. The IUI (Intrauterine insemination) is fine tuned with the expected time of ovulation using 3D ultra-sound follicle tracking scans. In addition, Clomiphene may be prescribed to stimulate the ovaries to reliably create an egg. We have to be careful about that however, since the risk of multiple gestation (approximately 10-15%) is well worth avoiding.
In three attempts of IUI approximately between 40% and 50% of women should expect to be pregnant. Six cycles of IUI should bring the success close to the population average of 85% normally achieved over one year of unprotected sexual intercourse by hetero-sexual couples.
Most treatment centres charge approximately £800 to £1900 for a single cycle of IUI treatment. We think it can be done for less, especially if we do enough numbers.
Fertility in the Community