What is Intra Uterine Insemination (IUI)? How IUI helps in infertility?

IUI (Intra Uterine Insemination) is a very simple, safe and relatively effective method of infertility treatment. Here spermatozoa are deposited artificially inside the uterine cavity and thus by passing some factors preventing fertilization normally. The overall success rate of IUI varies from 8 to 15% per cycle depending on the age of the patient and ovulation stimulation protocol (clomiphene vs. gonadotropins ). Most pregnancies following IUI occur within the first 3 or 4 treatment cycles. Best results are obtained in young patients below 30 years having only mild oligospermia (low count of spermatozoa) undergoing gonadotropin stimulation

What is actually done with the semen before insemination?
1. most functional sperms from Ejaculate are selected
2. cellular debris and Seminal Plasma is removed from the semen
3. to increase in sperm motility some substances are added.

In which conditions IUI is performed?

1. Unexplained infertility.
2.Cervical factor.
3. Malefactor
- Insufficient production and or, altered quality of semen Oligo/astheno/teratozoospermia.
- Ejaculatory failure.
4. Endometriosis (minimal, mild)
5. Immunological factors like Anovulatory Infertility

What are different techniques of IUI?

Different techniques of IUI is applied in different quality of sperms

Layering technique - for normal and good sperm count
Swim up technique - good sperm count with 1 or 2 factors abnormal
Gradient technique - low, abnormal and high viscous semen. This method is mostly used in “in vitro fertilization” or, IVF and ICSI (Intra cytoplasmic sperm injection).

This article is also published in India study Channel