Real-life inspiration:
Artificial Insemination & IUI success stories

As these stories show some couples will do anything to have a baby! Be inspired and enjoy their stories, and we hope you experience their good luck.

TINA: 'The odds were stacked against us'

It was the grief of losing my baby that led to my reproductive system shutting down. Even with assisted reproduction, the odds were stacked against my husband and I ever conceiving again.

I was told I was too old, too fat and still grieving, my husband had MS, and anyway, IUI 'never works first time'.

With those far from uplifting words, we went away for a short holiday and waited…

All about me…

Name: Tina
Age: 46
Job: Full-time mum and carer
Lives: West Midlands
Significant others: Husband Karl, 42, Heidi 21, Lauren 17 and twins Max and Romy, 5
Type of treatment: Clomid, IUI
Trying for: three months

Never give up. Pay no attention to negative professionals… and take dong quai!

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Our story started way back in 1996. My husband Karl and I were delirious with excitement at the prospect of a baby boy due in early December. He was a welcome addition to my daughters, Heidi, 14 and Lauren, 10, from my previous marriage.

Considering that I was then 40, and Karl has multiple sclerosis, we felt very fortunate to be given this chance. But the day of his birth, which started in a blur of happiness and anticipation, ended in misery and desolation when our beautiful baby boy, Jake, died two minutes after birth.

Jake's death was due to hospital negligence, and we sued.

In the aftermath of such shock and misery, we both decided that we wanted to try for another baby, but at the age of 41, realised that time was not on my side. A truly cruel blow then came when my body decided to stop ovulating. After a few months of temperature charts showing a flat line, the hospital trust decided to pay for any treatment required to make me conceive.

In the meantime I consulted our local health food shop, who recommended I take dong quai tablets and my husband should take selenium tablets to boost sperm production. I would willingly have eaten horse-dung if it meant I would conceive again!

After seeing a consultant, he decided that the best course of action would be IUI, following a course of Clomid. The first cycle over-stimulated my ovaries too much, so the second month the dose was reduced by a half.

I was referred to a private clinic where I had numerous scans. I was told I had fibroids, but was also told that they had found two follicles deemed 'adequate' for IUI.

I was given an injection to ripen my ovaries and release the eggs, and the next day went back to the clinic where a frozen sample of my husband's sperm was placed high in my cervix. I was instructed to lie still for 15-20 minutes, and then told that it didn't look good. I was too old, too fat, still grieving, and what with Karl's MS and the fact 'IUI never works first time', the odds were stacked against us.

Wrong! After a short holiday while we waited until we could find out, I bought a pregnancy testing kit, and when it turned bright blue we just couldn't believe our luck.

I had a premonition that it could be twins, so went to the early-pregnancy unit where I was scanned, and yes, there they were: two kidney beans - our twins!

After a very fraught pregnancy, I went into labour at 31 weeks and delivered Max, 3lbs 10oz, and Romy, 4lbs 2oz by caesarean, who are now five years old. They're beautiful, happy and loved - and proof that IUI can and does, indeed, work first time.

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