IUI v. IVF - What's the Difference?

Alright folks, I'm back in action...sorry for the lack of updates over the past week...things have been extremely busy and I haven't made blogging a priority.  Now, on to a topic I referenced in my last post...IUI and IVF.

IUI 
IUI, or intrauterine insemination, is one type of procedure to treat infertility.  If you've ever heard the term "artificial insemination", IUI is what's being referred to.  An IUI procedure can be done as part of a woman's normal cycle or it can be performed in conjunction with fertility medications.  The procedure itself is fairly simple...a sample is provided by the male (either about an hour before the procedure or can be performed earlier and cryogenically frozen) it's then washed and concentrated by a technician.  Once the sample is ready, a catheter is inserted into the woman's uterus (at the appropriate time of the month) and sperm are injected directly into the uterus.  The intended outcome of the procedure is that the sperm swim into the fallopian tubes, fertilize the waiting egg and the process results in a normal pregnancy. 

IVF
IVF, or in vitro fertilization, is another type of procedure to treat infertility.  The process involves controlling a woman's cycle in a stop/start fashion with hormone therapies, removing mature eggs from a woman's ovaries and allowing sperm to fertilize the eggs in a synthetic fluid medium within a petri dish.  The fertilized egg (zygote) is then transferred into the woman's uterus which hopefully establishes a successful pregnancy.  One IVF cycle takes approximately two weeks.  A sub-procedure of IVF, ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) follows the standard IVF procedure but a sperm is injected directly into the egg, rather than fertilization occurring in a petri dish.  ICSI can be used for a number of reasons including low sperm count or if sperm have difficulty penetrating the woman's egg.

Additional Details
Besides the procedures themselves, the two main differences between IUI and IVF include cost and rate of successful pregnancy (and ultimately live birth).  The rate of pregnancy through IUI (depending on what study you read) is about 15% and cost is approximately $800 per procedure (before insurance).  As a young couple, the IVF success rate for Joe and I would be around 47% (live birth rate is about 41%) but the cost of this procedure is more than 10x that of IUI (~$12,000 before insurance).

The decision to pursue more advanced technology to help a couple conceive has many factors including: age, financial, medical recommendation, religion and underlying cause of infertility, among others.  Based on our process thus far, it's likely we'll end up using one of these two procedures to increase our chances.  Continued tests and analysis will help point us toward which procedure is right for us and all the while, we continue to attempt conception naturally.

No matter what our decision when time comes, we hope you will respect the process we've been through thus far and respect our decision, whether you would choose the same path or not.

If you have any questions regarding the information I've provided or our process to date, I encourage you to post them as a comment and I'll respond to the best of my ability.

*Please note*  I am not a healthcare professional...the information provided in this blog is a description of our personal process and research I've completed since we began our journey in June 2010.