What’s the difference between IUI and IVF?

In vitro fertilization and intrauterine insemination are two different techniques that fertility clinics use when helping couples or individuals conceive. Using one technique over the other depends on multiple factors.

IUI is a procedure in which processed and concentrated motile sperm are inserted directly into a woman’s uterus. This procedure is timed according to a woman’s ovulation, and may be performed one to two times in the days immediately following the detection of ovulation. After ovulation a woman’s egg is picked up by the fallopian tube and waits there for the sperm. Since the IUI procedure deposits higher concentrations of good quality sperm close to where the egg is waiting, the chances that the egg and sperm will find one another are increased.

IVF is the most successful method of fertility treatment utilized today to help couples to conceive. The basic components of the IVF process include stimulation of the ovaries to produce multiple eggs at a time, removal of the eggs from the ovary (egg retrieval), fertilization of the eggs in the laboratory, and subsequent placement of the resulting embryos into the uterus (embryo transfer). The chance of pregnancy from IVF depends primarily on the age of the woman, the cause of infertility, and factors related to the quality of the IVF laboratory.

IUI is generally much less expensive and invasive than IVF, however, as noted above, IVF is the most successful method of fertility treatment. Your doctor will likely suggest multiple rounds of IUI first. If these are not successful, IVF would be the next step.