Can someone give me a brief explaination of IVF, ICSI, IUI? DP is infertile so when we are ready we would be looking to use DS. I'm reading through these posts and my head is spinning... trying to do a little research of my own prior to planning together... where do you start?

Hey

Perhaps ask in the assisted conception section too.

But the brief rundown.

IVF is the process in which your ovaries are stimulated with follicle stimulating hormones to produce larger numbers of mature eggs. These eggs are harvested in a basic day surgery procedure and placed into dishes with the sperm and left to fertilise. The eggs that fertilise are left to develop for a number of days (depending on the clinic and protocol used at the time) and 1 or 2 of the healthiest embies are placed back into the uterus.

ICSI is a similar procedure but the egg is manually fertilised with an individual sperm that is injected into the egg.

IUI can be done on a natural cycle with out the use of stimulation drugs but many use clomid or low dose FSH to get one good egg if their cycles are not completely regular or for better timing etc. The sperm is basically washed and placed directly into the uterus at the time of ovulation and left to it's own devices.

Now this is just a really basic rundown of the procedures. For IVF and ICSI there are different protocols, different drugs are used etc. If you want more specific info have a look at some of the IVF clinic websites, chat to the girls in AC... or I can probably give you some more indepth basics if you want

What is your DP's male factor if you don't mind my asking?

Thanks Nut!

That's given me a bit of a better understanding, thank you. And I'm guessing the more complicated (IVF) the more expensive it is?

Not sure what the technical term is, but DP calls it "shooting blanks". ) Apparently whilst in the womb he never developed properly in the area which produces sperm. It's a bit of a touchy topic so I don't ask him a lot of questions, just what he has wanted to tell me. So we'd need to use a donor should we go through with trying for a child together.

Yep...

IUI is the cheapest option, cost differs from clinic to clinic but is almost always less than $1000 (I think $500 - $700 before medicare rebate is normal but don't quote me on that. I know my clinic charges around $700 if you're using FSH injections for ovulation + $200 (approx) for donor sperm.

IVF is the next step up. I know my clinic charges an upfront payment of something like $4000 (they just changed the fees so I can't be 100% sure of that) and you get 80% back because of the safety net, plus you have to pay anaesthetic and day surgery fees which are not covered by medicare (you get $60 or something back from $1200). Private health cover helps in regards to the anaesthetic and surgery fees.

ICSI is more again but at my clinic only by a few hundred.

Have a look here: http://www.canberrafertilitycentre.com.au/treatment.htm

Gives a basic rundown of the treatments provided by most clinics. Where abouts are you?

Just to add to Lisa's comment

There is a shortage of donor sperm in all states just some clinics have more, city fertility in brisbane will only do icsi I think because of there low numbers, a friend said they only had 4 donors to choose from. So you might find the same in other states so ring around, also ask on the single women donor sperm thread, they are not exclusive and have a large number of women using donor sperm

Lxx

We're in Brisbane. Probably looking to start within the next 12 months... hopefully if all goes well...

Hi there
Just joined up & saw this thread. We're attempting IVF (unsuccessfully!) at the moment. Our Dr. said that sperm donors are almost as rare as egg donors. We've got the sperm (an abundance, as DH says!)but need the eggs. Why can't all this be easier?! I'm sure our mothers never had this much trouble (mine had 5 kids!).