IUI - Assisted Insemination

The two most important aspects of IUI treatment? Washing the sperm to find the most active and virile sperm, and timing the insemination procedure to coincide with when you’re ovulating.

Our specialised team of scientists carefully prepare each sperm sample using a procedure commonly known as ‘sperm washing’. There are different types of sperm washing procedures depending on the quality of the sperm sample the laboratory receives.

One technique is that the sperm sample is placed at the bottom of a test tube and a culture media is overlayed on top and then this is incubated at body temperature (37degrees) for 30mins-1hour. The result? The most active sperm swim up into the culture media layer. The final sample consists of the most active and vigorous sperm concentrated in a small volume of fluid taken from the top of the test tube and then this is used for insemination.

A different technique is that sperm may be placed in a test tube on top of a different type of fluid that, after spinning, concentrates the best sperm at the bottom of the test tube and traps the non-motile sperm in the layers above. This concentrated sperm sample can then be removed using a pipette, gently washed and re-suspended in culture media to be used for insemination.

The sperm preparation method used will depend on the initial quality and appearance of the sperm sample and your highly trained science team will determine which is the best method for the sperm at the time.

Your fertility specialist will time your IUI treatment procedure to coincide with the window when you’re ovulating. However, it isn’t critical to time the insemination for the exact time of ovulation. That’s because both the sperm and the egg remain viable in the female genital tract for many hours. As a result, your specialist will time the insemination procedure within several hours of when you ovulate.

If you’ve taken hormones in the lead-up to the procedure, you may need to take daily supplemental progesterone to support the endometrial lining of the uterus. This helps ready it for the embryo to implant. The progesterone supplement usually takes the form of a capsule inserted into your vagina twice a day. Sometimes, though, your specialist may prescribe injections.