Doctors recommend specific treatments for infertility based on: test results, how long the couple has been trying to get pregnant, age of both the man and woman, the overall health of the partners, preference of the partners.

Various fertility medicines are often used to treat women with ovulation problems. It is important to talk with your doctor about the pros and cons of these medicines. You should understand the risks, benefits, and side effects.

Doctors also use surgery to treat some causes of infertility. Problems with a woman’s ovaries, fallopian tubes, or uterus can sometimes be corrected with surgery.

Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is another type of treatment for infertility. IUI is known by most people as artificial insemination. In this procedure, the woman is injected with specially prepared sperm. Sometimes the woman is also treated with medicines that stimulate ovulation before IUI.

IUI is often used to treat: mild male factor infertility, women who have problems with their cervical mucus, couples with unexplained infertility.

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Recovery

Another reason why timing is so important in IUI is because sperm used in this procedure is washed. Normally, unprepared sperm can live for as long as five days in fertile cervical mucus. However, washed sperm is thought to live for no more than 24 hours, with six to 12 hours being the average. Because washed sperm has such a short life span, performing IUI as close as possible to the time of ovulation will help increase the chances of success with this procedure.

Since the exact timing of ovulation can often be somewhat difficult to pinpoint, your fertility specialist may suggest performing a second IUI anywhere from 12 to 48 hours after the first insemination. This can improve your chances of success by ensuring that sperm is placed in your uterus close to the time of ovulation. Some fertility doctors may even recommend you further boost your chances by having intercourse at home in between inseminations.

The amount of active, healthy sperm in a man’s semen sample is often one of the biggest influences on IUI success. Not surprisingly, the higher the sperm count, the more likely it is that the procedure will be successful. However, there does not seem to be much difference in success rates between men with good-average sperm counts and men who have high sperm counts. In general, IUI done with a good-average to high sperm count carries a success rate between 15% and 20% per cycle.

While some couples will do IUI without the aid of fertility drugs, others will choose this option either out of necessity or to increase the number of egg follicle they develop in a cycle. Using medications can boost your chances of success, as there will presumably be more eggs available for fertilization, but it doesn’t always guarantee success.

If you are using fertility medications during your IUI cycle, you may want or need to try a few cycles using oral drugs, like Clomid, before moving on to injectable infertility drugs. However, if are still not able to conceive after three or four cycles using injectables, it may be time to consider IVF.