Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) is the process I will be using to get pregnant. This is not the same thing as In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). It’s the old gag about the turkey baster – except, of course, it’s not quite like that.

For details about IUI you can check out the TRM website. In general, when I pick my donor, they will ship the samples (via expensive dry ice and other things) to TRM and then on the date my doctor picks, based on cycles and fertility and all that stuff I’ve been tracking, I will go to the office and get inseminated via a catheter (you’re welcome Thanksgiving fans). Then after two weeks, we’ll find out if I’m pregnant. If not, we’ll do the whole process again the next month. And the next month. And after a few tries, if it hasn’t happened yet, we’ll regroup and see what the next steps are. Until then, no fertility drugs (which makes multiples more likely) or anything else more complicated than that.

For details about In Vitro Fertilization you can check out the TRM website as well. Here, you’re taking all the pieces out of each partner, putting them together in a lab dish, and then putting the fertilized egg back in the woman who is carrying the baby. In this situation, the tech has the opportunity to match the sex – for example, a friend that is currently going through this process will be taking one girl and one boy and sending them back in to hope they grow into little kiddos.

Cost is a big deal for the IVF process – this is the part where you hear horror stories about people having spent $40-$50K trying to get pregnant and still not having a baby. Luckily for me, the IUI process itself isn’t nearly as expensive. It’ll likely only be about $5k if it goes well. If the original plan doesn’t work, it’ll be more time and of course more money, and decisions will be made through the process.

So, there’s that. The more you know.