After IUI, How To Confirm Pregnancy?

We understand how excited you are to finally hear that you are pregnant. But, how soon can you confirm pregnancy after IUI (intrauterine insemination)? When can expect to conduct the earliest positive pregnancy test after IUI? 

Although you cannot hold back your excitement to realize that you are in the most awaited period of life, the stage of pregnancy, you are supposed to wait no matter what. But, how long will you have to wait to see whether the treatment has bought a positive impact on your fertility level or not? There is a set of IUI success symptoms that you can monitor every day to guess whether or not the infertility treatment you took has started to give its results. So, don’t you want to learn about the most common symptoms of IUI success stories? We understand how curious would be at this moment, and therefore, we want you to go through the entire article to get yourself an idea of how long you are supposed to wait before confirming your much-awaited pregnancy after IUI. So, scroll down. 

What is IUI? 

Intrauterine Insemination is one of the common treatments recommended to treat infertility especially when there is a female factor infertility. A catheter is used to insert sperm into the fallopian tube after it’s been collected, washed, and inserted. Wait for the sperm to fertilize the egg once it’s in the tube. Fertilized embryos travel to the uterus for implantation once they’re ready. The maturation of the embryo itself takes around 3-7 days. 

It’s best to do IUI just before or during ovulation to increase your chances of success. However, you cannot always expect a fruitful result. So, how can you know that you are pregnant after IUI? 

Common Symptoms to Confirm Pregnancy Immediately After IUI

After an IUI, there’s no strict rest recommended, so you’ll go home right away. Take special note to not leave behind your medications. 3 days is not a long period to start showing any noticeable symptoms to indicate pregnancy. However, you might see minor symptoms immediately after the procedure.

Given below are the common symptoms to confirm pregnancy 3 days after IUI: 

• Minor Cramping- You can think of cramping as a side effect as well as a symptom. Because most women experience a minor difficulty after the procedure. It is likely to last for a couple of days. 
• Bloating- You can’t expect your tummy to grow after IUI, but you can expect bloating. And this can be a good symptom of pregnancy after IUI. 
• Spotting- Spotting after embryo transfer treatment may look like a side effect. Spotting or bleeding is often a sign of miscarriage. However, spotting is a common symptom of implantation and it might indicate pregnancy after IUI.

Possible Symptoms 15 Days After IUI

After 15 days, in case if you are pregnant, your body will start reacting to it. While it is difficult to spot such symptoms in a class of women, they are common in others and they are as follows: 

• Fatigue- After implantation, your body will produce a higher amount of progesterone to support the pregnancy. Due to this, you will be more exhausted. 
• Breast Changes- Usually your breasts are soft. But when you are pregnant, your breasts will become more sensitive, tenderness, and swollen. These symptoms may appear within 5-7 days after IUI. 
• Missed Periods- Missed periods are one of the definite signs of pregnancy. If your period hasn’t arrived within a couple of weeks after the due date, then you may expect a pregnancy.  
• Mood Swings- Mood swings are one of the early pregnancy symptoms. It is due to the changes in the hormones.
• Frequent Urination- Due to the increased hormone production, you are more likely to feel the urge to urinate very often. Other than excessive hormone production, frequent urination may also be due to the pressure applied on the urinary bladder due to the enlarged uterus. 
• Cravings or Aversion-  During pregnancy, you might feel like eating food that you might have not loved eating before. On the other hand, you might not prefer eating the food that you once loved. This is one of the major symptoms of pregnancy. 
• Vomiting and Nausea- You must have heard of morning sickness. It is one of the common symptoms of pregnancy and will be visible in the next 15 days. 
• Increased Basal Body Temperature- Some women experience increased basal body temperature, due to following ovulation. This is considered to be one of the common symptoms of pregnancy.

In a nutshell, the symptoms after IUI is way similar to the symptoms of natural conception. So, if you were pregnant in the past, then you are likely to experience the same symptoms this time as well. However, a few of the symptoms look like side effects, so how do you differentiate between them? 

Read More:- Infertility Factors In Women And Men: Exploring The Causes And Treatments!

How to Separate Side Effects from Pregnancy Symptoms After IUI? 

Some of the symptoms of pregnancy do look like side effects. If you are able to differentiate between them, then it will be helpful for you. Understanding which of your symptoms are actual symptoms and which of them are side effects, might lower your expectations of completing a healthy pregnancy period. 

Among the pregnancy symptoms discussed so far, the following can also be side effects: 

• Abdominal Bloating- Abdominal bloating can be a good symptom to indicate pregnancy after IUI. But it acts as a side effect in most cases. It is the impact of medications used in the procedure that leads to the condition. In some cases, the ovulation medication result in producing multiple eggs. This causes abdominal bloating and is a serious side effect caused after IUI. 

• Cramps– Although cramps indicate a pregnancy, it s a painful experience. And therefore, cramping is also considered a side effect. 

Pregnancy Confirmation Tests

After around 14 days, you can take a pregnancy test. Because the pregnancy hormone HCG may take at least 14 days to raise to the extent that it can show itself in the test. Although you can test it from home, this need not always be accurate. Therefore, always depend on your fertility center to administrate pregnancy tests to confirm your pregnancy. However, a pregnancy test is mandatory to confirm your pregnancy as you cannot solely depend on symptoms alone. 

Conclusion 

Confirming pregnancy after IUI is a bit complicated. Although you may experience symptoms like missed periods, fatigue, spotting, and cravings, sometimes they only be feeling and are not true. When you are in a desire for something, you will automatically look for ways by which you can assure yourself of that thing, and the same goes here. Since you are eagerly waiting to become pregnant, you might feel like you are even when you are not. Therefore, in order to confirm pregnancy after IUI, it is mandatory to take pregnancy tests, preferably from the fertility center.