What is the difference between IVF and IUI
IVF (In-Vitro Fertilisation) and IUI (Intra-Uterine Insemination) are the two most common fertility treatments used to help people struggling with infertility have a baby.
With IVF the woman’s eggs are grown and collected and then brought together with carefully prepared sperm in the IVF lab. The sperm are either placed around the egg, or injected into the egg. The next day the eggs are checked to see how many have fertilised. Once the egg is fertilised by a sperm, it becomes an embryo, a microscopic ball of cells that is the first stage of human life.
The embryos are kept safely in sophisticated incubators. They are watched for between two to six days and then the best one or two embryos are chosen for the transfer procedure. At the embryo transfer, the selected embryo or embryos are placed gently inside the womb. If an embryo latches onto the womb lining and starts growing, then you have achieved a pregnancy.
With IUI treated sperm are placed inside the woman’s womb close to the fallopian tubes at a time when an egg or eggs are being released. It is often performed with fertility drugs to increase egg growth. It can also be performed in a natural cycle, without the use of fertility drugs.
So a key difference between IVF and IUI is that in IVF, fertilisation of the egg takes place in the lab outside of the womb, while in IUI fertilisation takes place inside the woman’s fallopian tubes, with a little help.
Another difference is that IVF is more expensive than IUI treatment. An IVF cycle can cost five to 10 times the cost of an IUI cycle. There are very good reasons for the higher cost of IVF.
IVF is costly because of the sophisticated equipment, staff expertise and quality control that are required in the IVF lab. Special fluid is needed for the eggs and embryos. All the scientific equipment that touches the eggs, sperm and embryos must be non-toxic and specially produced. The incubators, microscopes, flow hoods and air flow must all function to extremely high levels of safety and efficiency. The earliest part of human life starts in the IVF lab, and this requires exceptional care.
IUI on the other hand, allows fertilisation to happen naturally inside the woman’s body. There are no procedures needed to collect eggs or to transfer embryos. The sperm are made ready with some cleaning and filtering in the lab before being used in the IUI procedure. The lab setup needed to prepare sperm for IUI has much simpler requirements than for IVF treatment. IUI treatment also does not require the expensive fertility medication used in IVF to grow eggs.
The third difference is that in many cases IVF is the more successful fertility treatment. Overall IVF has higher success rates for most people when compared to IUI treatment. However, that does not mean IVF is always the first choice. Each fertility case is unique and some couples will have a very good chance with IUI, perhaps just as good as with IVF success.
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