What is Ovulation Induction

Ovulation Induction and Intrauterine Insemination: With ovulation induction, medications are given to a woman to help her make more eggs during her cycle. Intrauterine insemination involves taking a sperm collection and putting it directly into the uterine cavity.

What is ovulation induction and intrauterine insemination? Dr. John A. Schnorr: If you have enough eggs and if you have enough sperm and if the fallopian tubes are opened, one first step of infertility treatment is called ovulation induction and intrauterine insemination. Ovulation induction means we give you medications to make more than one egg every month. If generally a woman ovulates one egg every month, we can give you medications to make you ovulate two to three to four eggs. And by making more than one egg, we double your pregnancy rate. The second thing we can do is even if the sperm count is normal, we can take a sperm collection, we can wash it up and put just the best sperm into the catheter and put the catheter through the cervix into the top of the uterus just like doing a pap smear, it doesn't hurt. And by putting the sperm into the center of the uterine cavity we again double pregnancy rates. So adding the egg making to putting the sperm in the uterus gives us now a fourfold increased chance of pregnancy versus what their normal pregnancy rate would be as a couple coming into CS. Most couples coming in with infertility have a one, two, three percent chance of getting pregnant on their own without help, by doing these techniques to get multiplications of pregnancy rate, we end up with 15%, 20%, 25% chance of pregnancy per try with treatment of making eggs and putting the sperm in the uterus, and that's called ovulation induction and intrauterine insemination.