Many women may choose artificial insemination at home rather than using a fertility clinic. Reasons for performing home insemination include, the reduced cost, the higher chance of getting pregnant using fresh sperm, the ability to use a known donor or co-parent , and that your partner can be involved in the home insemination process making it feel like you are ‘creating a baby together’.
Home insemination is often performed in the comfort of your own home using an artificial insemination kit, this normally contain syringes, containers for the collection of sperm and some kits also contain speculums and extender tips which enable the sperm to be positioned near to the cervix to improve pregnancy chances.
A question which many people ask Pride Angel is ‘What is the success rate of home insemination?’ This is often difficult to answer because there are so many factors which affect its success. If performed correctly and at the right time then insemination at home is as effective as ‘natural insemination’. Factors which effect pregnancy success, as with natural insemination, include performing the insemination at the right time of the month, ideally just before, ovulation. This is often performed using an ovulation test.
A woman’s age and general health play a large part in their fertility, trying to get pregnant in your twenties in far easier than in your late thirties or forties. Drinking, smoking and how healthy your diet is also greatly effects your fertility. If using a donor who has not previously had child it is also worth getting his sperm count checked out using a male fertility test such as ‘Fertilcount’.
As with natural insemination, home insemination can take several months to be successful and in some cases can take up to a year, so a commitment from your donor is needed for a minimum of two sperm samples per month.
Home insemination does carry a higher risk of sexually transmitted infection than using frozen sperm from a fertility clinic; therefore Pride Angel recommends you seek advice from your GP regarding health screening checks for yourself and your donor. We also recommend before considering home insemination that you get advice from a fertility law specialist regarding legal and parental rights.
Pride Angel