IUI fails when your ovulation is predicted inaccurately, you have an unexpected biological response to stimulation, fertilization doesn’t occur due to issues in egg or sperm quality, or the embryo forms but fails to implant.
Why Does IUI Fail? Common Reasons for IUI Failure
Intrauterine Insemination, or IUI, is often the first fertility treatment that a fertility specialist in Mulundmay advise for couples who have been struggling with infertility. When conservative treatments fail, your fertility specialist may look for ART procedures to help you conceive.
One of the less invasive, short, and helpful treatment approaches is IUI. While it may help many couples become pregnant, it doesn’t always guarantee a successful pregnancy. In other words, IUI can fail, and there can be many reasons contributing to its failure.
What is IUI?
IUI is a carefully planned ART procedure in which washed and prepared sperm are placed directly inside your uterus to minimize the amount of distance they need to travel to reach the egg.
Unlike IVF, IUI doesn’t involve fertilizing the egg outside a woman’s womb. Everything—from fertilization to embryo development—happens normally.
Reasons Why IUI Fails
When an IUI fails, it’s not necessarily because the procedure wasn’t done accurately. Instead, many biological processes happen after the sperm is introduced into the uterus. For example, the sperm still has to swim through the reproductive tract to reach the fallopian tubes, where it may find an egg. It must fertilize the egg.
Now, this fertilized egg has to keep developing to form an embryo, which must travel through the tubes and attach to the uterine lining. The entire process should happen in the exact sequence.
Advanced Maternal Age
Age-related changes in the egg quantity and quality can negatively affect your IUI success rate. You may have adequate ovarian reserve, but egg count doesn’t equal egg quality.
An egg may be released in an ovulatory cycle, but it may not be capable of getting fertilized or developing into an embryo. That’s why advanced age is a common reason why IUI fails.
Inaccurate Ovulation Prediction
IUI treatment in Mulund depends on ovulation. Your fertility expert will monitor follicular growth with ultrasounds and administer a trigger shot when follicles have developed. It’s administered 24-36 hours before insemination, so that sperm can be present in the uterus around the time the egg is released.
Despite the trigger injection or regular tracking, user errors can occur. Sometimes, eggs and sperm may not meet at all because of unexpected biological responses, which cause ovulation to occur too soon or too late.
Blocked Fallopian Tubes
If you have tubal blockage, the sperm may not reach the tubes. This can cause IUI failure. IUI cannot bypass fallopian tubes, which is why tubal evaluation is needed before intrauterine insemination is recommended.
Underlying Fertility Issue
IUI can be an effective treatment option for unexplained infertility, certain ovulation disorders, and mild fertility issues. It may not work if you have an underlying issue that cannot simply be reversed by placing the sperm into the uterus.
Many things can go wrong during IUI. For example, fertilization may occur, but the gametes may not have the potential to turn into an embryo; a fertilized egg might travel normally but do not implant.