There were no other obvious reasons on what we need to do  (other than to remove the polyp) to get pregnant naturally but our doctor did mention that i need to have the polyp removed if we are going to do the IVF. I believe in the clinic’s stand point , they also want to have higher pregnancy success rate (well, of cos a win-win situation for both of us). But i were afraid of there will be any side effect after i removed polyp thus we went ahead with our first attempt of IUI. This took place in April 2018.

Before I move on to my IUI experience , I want to mention that if you are comfortable with any doctors, i would suggest to get a referral letter from polyclinic so that your fertility checks will be subsidised by the government ( applicable to Singaporean and Permanent Residents(?) only ). My bff took the subsidised route and paid about 50% ( for the checks and IUI) of what we had paid for. And fyi, we paid almost $2500 for the tests and consultation (my spouse +me) that included the Tubal Contrast Sonogram (Layman term:Tubes checking procedure)

Since most of the blood tests and scans are actually done by the nurses thus at this stage, in my personal opinion, you do not need a dedicated doctor to handle your case. Just  another note that if you requested for male/female doctor, that will put you as a private patient as well.

For the IUI procedure:

• You will need to be legally married and of cos, the man who produced the sperm specimen needs to be the same man on the marriage certificate.
• You will need to clear off for HIV , Hep C, Hep B and venereal disease (thorough blood tests).
• My rubella vaccine had worn off so i needed to retake the vaccine.

Money Saving Tip: You could include some of the blood tests into your company-claimable medical checkup if any and you plan to do IUI or IVF so that you do not need to retake again. But bear in mind, there’s validity of how long the results can be used, HIV is 6 months and the rest are a year. 

Once you are cleared on the above, doctor would assess what kind of medication or treatment to aid you in ovulation. For my case, i took oral medications (i.e clomids) from the 2nd day of my menses and continuously for 5 days. And of course, you might have some side effects. One of friend had drastic mood swing and she didn’t like the feeling of it as she will just seems to break down out of no where. I do not feel much of the difference but B said i do. Haha oh well.

You could read it here on what will happen on the day of your IUI. 

So what happen next after the IUI?

Simply , stay relax and happy and wait till the day to take the pregnancy test. 

I’m 37 this year. Had been trying to conceive for 4 years and still no good news.

Hopefully not many of you out there are experiencing the same as me.

My best friend got married earlier than me and did not really try until she is about 33(?). We always joked that why people got pregnant so easily in TV dramas so we did not take it serious till we really try to conceive.

Initially it started with “oh , fail attempt again” (when menses came that month) during the first 2 months and same thing happen again and again. This dragged on for a year. It started to get depressing.

I started to panic. I do not wish to be 高齡產婦 (pregnant woman of aged 35 and above) and i was thinking probably stress (?) or typical women’s problem like “cold womb” etc. We started with TCM consultation but we did not continue. Cannot remember why we did not continue either.

You might be thinking why i did not go for a checkup instead. Somehow i have this fear that the problem lies in me and the inner part of me does not want to face it which is a selfish thinking.

Then the changes in our career put this temporarily on hold though we continue trying every month. Sometimes to the extent that B actually said that it feels like an “overtime” for him . Lol! Oh well… we only have ONE chance.

Another year just went by. My mother-in-law started to get anxious again maybe she was thinking we do not want any kids. We do really want but it’s not happening. And she suggested to consider adoption but personally i find it difficult to love another one’s child. I really salute to those who really could do that! The children are really blessed!

Towards the end of 2016, B and I decided to go for a full medical checkup and found that there’s no problem with B instead the scans showed that I have a polyp (growth) on the uterus wall.

“Will this affect my rate of pregnancy?”

The answer is yes, as implantation of the embryo could be anywhere on the uterus. So eventhough the polyp is small, it’s still affecting the chance. it’s like the chance of getting pregnant is about 20% if you do it naturally and now it becomes maybe 15% or even lesser.

In order to remove that , i have to be on general anaesthesia (GA). This will be my first surgery in my then 36 years.

“Will i die?”

“Will i woke up with side effects?”

“What if the GA doesnt work on me? And i could feel the pull and scrap in me throughout the operation?”

“What if …”

So many negative thoughts running wild in my head.