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After 3 failed cycles of IUI, I had more or less resigned myself to the fact that IUI was not for us, as it isn’t for many couples, and that we would have to move onto IVF for any chance of having a baby. During my 3rd cycle of IUI, I had been very positive up until the 2nd week of my 2 week wait. By this time I had a feeling that it hadn’t worked and for a few days after this I was extremely low. I just kept telling myself that everything will work out when we moved onto IVF after our next cycle.

During the previous few months I had been reading a number of books and one of the books came into my mind around this time. It was ‘Inconceivable’ by Julia Indachova and was about a woman who was basically told she would never be able to conceive without the use of donor eggs as her FSH level was too high. Basically she did everything she could to bring her levels down over a period of time and fell pregnant naturally. The more I thought about this the more I realised that I could be doing a lot more to help myself. During the treatment cycles, you are so consumed with all the technical things that are happening and the range of emotions that both you and your partner are going through that you just let everything happen and feel that it is all in the hands of the medical staff and out of your control. It was at this point I started to think that I should try and get some of that control back and to focus on what I could do rather than on the treatment I was going through.

I had cut down on alcohol for a few months previously but decided now to completely cut it out. I also started following a strict diet based on Gillian McKeith’s ‘You Are What You Eat’. Essentially, it is eating fresh fruit and vegetables, pulses and as much nutritious food as you can whilst cutting out wheat, sugar and processed food. One lunch time, while I was in Buchanan Galleries in Glasgow, I decided to POP into Dr & Herbs, the Chinese Herbal Medicine shop to see if they could give me any herbs. Once I had explained why I wanted the herbs and how I was hoping they could help me, they told me that the Chinese doctor was a specialist in infertility and would definitely be able to help me.

It was quite difficult trying to describe what I was going through to the doctor as she did not speak English and it was difficult for the translator to understand my treatment. We did eventually get there though. I was given some herbal tea to take and a course of acupuncture. They did warn me beforehand that the tea does not taste nice but this really doesn’t prepare you at all! It was not nice at all and I had to take it twice a day after meals and on top of it I was paying for the privilege of drinking it! I decided to give it a try though and suffer it as it if it worked it would be worth it. Each week I went back and they modified it slightly though it didn’t really make it any better. I also had to keep a chart of my basal body temperature for the Chinese doctor to see when I ovulated, though I did explain to her that I was down regulated, as I was taking the nasal spray, and that my ovulation would be controlled by my injections and booster injection. She still wanted me to chart my temperature, so I did. I don’t know how helpful this was to her as at one point she thought I had ovulated when I knew that I clearly hadn’t and was telling me that I should get my procedure done then! They also gave my husband, some tablets. These were to give him more energy and just help his well being in general. He was asked to take these whenever we were to ‘perform’ as they called it.

About a week after I had been taking the herbal tea, my period arrived which I knew was imminent as I had received a negative result from the hospital for my 3rd IUI cycle. As it was coming up to Christmas, the clinic did not give me a date for a scan for my next cycle until the end of December which meant that I would not start the treatment until January. After feeling a bit annoyed at the wasted weeks, I thought that this could be a good thing as it would mean that there was more time for the herbal tea to do its job.

I also spoke to my G.P about not returning to work after the Christmas break when I started my treatment. As I work away with my job a lot, I found it a little stressful not knowing where I was going to be when I need to take my injections. Also, I was conscious of not always getting hotel rooms with fridges in, which meant it was difficult to keep the injections and my nasal spray at the correct temperature. I also found it extremely difficult to take the progesterone pessaries during my 2 week wait as these had to be taken exactly 12 hours apart and once inserted you needed to lie down for half an hour. This was extremely difficult especially when I was up and down the M6 week after week. I thought that I would be able to relax a lot more if I didn’t have to think about work or travelling whilst I was going through this cycle. I was very lucky as my GP actually recommended that I stay off work during this cycle as I shouldn’t have any regrets if the treatment fails. I was signed off for 5 weeks whilst I was taking my injections, having the scans, having the procedure and the two week wait. During my time off I attended Yoga classes twice a week at my gym. After I had the IUI, I stopped my normal exercise regime and just continued with the yoga.

I had the IUI procedure on the 15th January 2006 and the outcome date was the 31st January 2005. As I was off work, I had more time to think about whether it had worked or not. Again, I decided to use this to my advantage and used a lot of the visualisation and meditation techniques that both Zita West and Alice Domar advocate. I wanted to buy a home pregnancy test to do on the day before we were due to go back to the hospital. We had done this the last two times and at least we knew what response we were going to get from the hospital when we phoned for the result. My husband was insistent that this time we shouldn’t do a home pregnancy test and we should just find out from the hospital! We were in total shock when the nurse told us it was positive, I had to ask her if she was sure as I couldn’t believe that it had worked after 4 attempts.

As we had done so many things different during this last cycle, it is very difficult to pin point one thing to say that that made the difference. I don’t know what made it work this time around but something did and whether it was one particular thing or a combination of things, we’ll never know. We are extremely lucky and we remind ourselves of this everyday and can’t wait until October when our baby is due.

Seeta and Tahir