Having a child of your own is a joy that each couple dreams of. Some of those couples get to live their dream while some of them don’t. The couples who get to live their dream are overjoyed to welcome one or sometimes more than one child in their family while those couples who do not, end up resorting to various other alternatives to help them get pregnant.
While there are some couples who cannot conceive and are happy to adopt, most couples who fall into this situation do not want to adopt but conceive a child of their own.
So these couples visit pandits to receive blessings and beg various Gods to help them achieve their dream of getting pregnant. When that doesn’t work, they turn to science. Fertility doctors and fertility clinics are their last resort.
Fortunately, with the advancement of science and technology to this age, there are many medicines, treatment techniques and procedures that can help many couples conceive whose chances of conceiving before were close to none. One of the best procedures from the various options that science and technology have provided us is IUI, i.e. Intra Uterine Insemination.
Before The IUI Procedure
The efficiency and the chances of successfully getting pregnant with IUI rely greatly upon many factors. These factors are connected with the physical as well as the physiological condition, level of ripeness and different other factors that depend on what things to do and what things to avoid after IUI procedure.
Another important factor other than things to avoid after IUI procedure is what all you should do before your IUI procedure. In order to set up for the procedure and to make your procedure a success, here are a couple of things that you can pursue before your procedure to increase your chances of getting pregnant:
Take Good Care Of Yourself
The most important thing to do before your IUI procedure is to take especially good care of yourself. To do that, you can do the following:
- Maintain a healthy diet and also start eating foods that have been linked to increasing fertility. Try to eat more whole foods and add more fruits, vegetables and whole grains to your diet. Eat one to two servings of full-fat dairy products such as milk, yogurt, or cheese per day.
- Drink lots of water to stay hydrated and toxin-free.
- Talk to your doctor and add multivitamins that contain folic acid to your diet or any other supplement according to your individual need and your doctor’s recommendation.
Try To Stay Stress-free
There is a lot of evidence and many cases that indicate that having stress can reduce your chances of getting pregnant. Even the stress of being unable to conceive or the stress that comes with the infertility problems that you might face can become a barrier to your conception and stop you from getting pregnant or trigger a miscarriage after you get pregnant.
Discover what is stressing you out and try to avoid those causes. You can also look for activities that might help you relieve your stress. Long walks or doing yoga every day are known to be great de-stressors and are a great help to many, you should also give them a try.
Try To Avoid Doing Any Strenuous Activity Before Your Procedure?
Doing strenuous activity can cause contractions in your uterine wall and that can interfere with the implantation of the egg. Light exercises such as talking walks or doing yoga are fine, they are encouraged even but high-impact exercises such as jogging, running, aerobics or strenuous exercises should be avoided. It is a good idea to take it easy before and after the IUI procedure to allow your body to relax and calm down.
These all things are necessary to be followed before the IUI procedure to increase the chances of pregnancy.
After The IUI Procedure
To make sure that the sperm that is inseminated fertilizes the egg, the patient is urged to rest for 20-30 minutes. Even though the cervix immediately closes after the procedure, lying down is comforting as well as helpful for the procedure.
Returning to your normal routine and doing normal exercises after the IUI isn’t an issue as long as the exercises aren’t too strenuous and you feel comfortable.
Despite the fact that there are no requirements for bed rest after the procedure nor are there any travel limitations, there is a certain list of things to avoid after IUI procedure and things to do after your procedure to make sure that you cover all your bases and increase your chances of getting pregnant.
What To Do After The Procedure?
This is not a list of all the activities that one should do after the procedure, per se. It is what to eat, more of a dietary and lifestyle change that one needs to practice after the procedure.
- Add as much fruit, nuts and leafy vegetables to your diet as possible.
- Eat a healthy home-cooked meal instead of ordering junk food from outside.
- Do not eat chips, chocolates or other processed foods.
- Do not eat fish or seafood which has too much mercury.
- Eat 5-6 smalls, easy to digest meals per day.
- Eat brown rice, quinoa and other complex carbohydrates.
- Do not eat hot, spicy foods, or other foods that cause indigestion. Do not add many spices or asafoetida to the food.
- Grapes, papaya and pineapple are the foods to avoid because they have the ability to break down the endometrial layer and make you bleed. This can cause a miscarriage.
Things To Avoid After IUI Procedure
Rather than things to do after the procedure, things to avoid after IUI procedure are much more important. All the points mentioned in things to avoid after IUI procedure are very vital and must be avoided at all cost to not the chances of you getting pregnant be hindered.
All the things mentioned in things to avoid after IUI are not going to be activities that are going to be impossible to avoid, nor are they going to be things that one cannot live without doing, they are all doable and should be easy to avoid if one just takes care to avoid them.
Let us look at the list of things to avoid after IUI procedure:
Avoid Taking Painkillers After The Procedure
The first task in things to avoid after the IUI procedure is the consumption of pain killer medicines.
If you are wondering why this tops the list of things to avoid after IUI procedure, then it is because after the procedure it is very common for women to suffer from cramping and to avoid the pain from the pain of cramps they take pain killer medicines.
These pain killer medicines reduce the chances of getting pregnant and so that is why you should avoid taking them after the procedure.
If you are experiencing heavy cramps and cannot stand the pain then also do not take a pain killer medicine by yourself. First, consult a doctor and then only take the pain killer medicine which is prescribed by your doctor.
Avoid Lifting Heavy Objects
The second task to not do in the list of things to avoid after IUI procedure is to avoid lifting heavy objects. Any object higher than 4-5 kgs should not be lifted by the women who just went through an IUI procedure.
Lifting heavy objects can lead to causing cramps in some cases. If that happens then it can damage the uterus lining and that will reduce the success rate of IUI treatment. Thus, to avoid decreasing the chances of getting pregnant from the IUI procedure, one should avoid lifting any heavy objects.
Avoid Stress
This is one of the most important points in the list of things to avoid after IUI procedure.
It is very important to remain positive after the procedure because stress can cause severe imbalance to the hormones which will have a negative impact on your body and hinder your chances of getting pregnant. Keep yourself calm and try to be optimistic and positive.
Stress and anxiety can cause the IUI procedure to fail. Some internal functions and hormones that are released in the body after the procedure depend on your mental state and if you are not in a good mental state and are stressed out then it can harm the IUI treatment.
Avoiding negative thoughts and staying mentally fit is the way to go.
Do not keep worrying about the outcome of the procedure or stressing about the results because that will have a negative impact, instead try to think happy thoughts or do some activities that will distract you and keep you from worrying. You can read some good books or go on long walks in a park with your friends so that you can be distracted and be surrounded by happy thoughts.
Avoid Smoking Or Drinking
This is a point from the list of things to avoid after IUI treatment that has to be avoided at all costs.
Fertility is very highly and negatively affected by smoking and drinking.
Drug abuse, drinking and smoking, if done by a pregnant woman, then it will cause complications in the pregnancy or also cause deformity or abnormal growth of your child. If it is done after the IUI treatment then it may highly reduce your chances of getting pregnant.
This is why after you have gone through the IUI treatment, you need to avoid smoking and drinking.
Avoid Heavy Exercises
The fifth point in things to avoid after IUI procedure is to avoid doing any heavy or strenuous exercises. It is actually a good idea to exercise after the procedure and it also increases the chances of getting pregnant but that is referring to light exercises such as walking, not heavy exercises such as running or lifting heavy objects. Doing heavy exercises will be too strenuous on the body.
In the initial few days after that the IUI procedure, you need to prevent doing any kind of exercise that might be tough on your body. After a few days, you can start with light exercises.
This will improve the blood flow in your body and that will help you to conceive. During this period, light stretching and yoga for exercise is the most beneficial option.
Avoid Skipping On The Prescribed Medicines
To improve your chances of fertilization and to improve your success rate of IUI treatment, your doctor will prescribe you some medicines. That is why it is an important point in the list of things to avoid after IUI procedure.
These medicines are very important in increasing your chances of conceiving which is why you have to make sure to not skip even a single dose of that medicine. You need to make sure that you follow all the instructions that your doctor gave you on when to take the medicines.
Take the medicines exactly at the prescribed time and in the prescribed manner to increase your chances of getting pregnant. Along with taking your medications, you should also visit your doctor as directed.
Avoid Swimming
Even if the success of an IUI procedure has no connection with swimming, it is an important point to keep in mind from the list of things to avoid after IUI procedure.
Pool water especially must be avoided after the treatment as there are high chances of getting an infection from it. Even if you are planning to swim in water that is not pool water, swimming should still be avoided until 48 hours after insemination at all costs.
Avoid Exposing Yourself To Harmful Radiation
The eight-point in the things to avoid after IUI treatment is staying away from harmful radiation. If the woman who just went through the IUI procedure works where she is exposed to harmful radiation then she should avoid going there.
It is very important to avoid handling chemicals and high radiation after the IUI treatment or even after conceiving.
Even after pregnancy, one should keep away from any form of radiation as it can be quite harmful to the baby in the mother’s womb.
Exposure to direct sunlight as well as heat for long periods of time can decrease the chances of getting pregnant as well.
Avoid work hazards and exposure to harmful radiation. After IUI treatment, you should stay away from working with chemicals or high radiation machines. Even after you have successfully gotten pregnant, we suggest you keep away from any form of radiation. Exposure to long periods of direct sunlight or heat can decrease the chances of pregnancy as well.
Avoid Missing Doctor’s Appointments
Your doctor may need to monitor your hormone levels to determine your chances of getting pregnant or avoid any complications. That is why it is a vital point on the list of things to avoid after IUI treatment.
Monitoring you after the IUI procedure allows the doctor to assist you in providing hormonal support when needed to improve the chances of getting pregnant. After a week of your insemination, it is important to meet your doctor and schedule appointments for future checkups.
Also, visiting the doctor regularly will also allow you to be informed of your progress and you will immediately know when you get pregnant.
Avoid Long Nights
It is very important after the IUI procedure to stay as physically and mentally healthy as possible. To avoid physical and mental exhaustion, avoiding losing sleep is a very important point from the list of things to avoid after the IUI procedure.
It is vital to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep every night to avoid exhausting your body. As the period after embryo transfer is quite important, it is vital to get enough rest in bed. Not getting enough sleep or enough rest can hinder your chances of getting pregnant.
Avoid Too Much Caffeine Intake
The last point on the list of things to avoid after IUI procedure is avoiding too much caffeine consumption. You need to reduce your tea, coffee or caffeine intake to about two cups a day or less. Too much caffeine should also be avoided if you do not want to decrease your chances of getting pregnant.
3 Days After IUI Procedure- What To Expect
Some women might experience spotting immediately after an IUI procedure. This can happen when the delicate tissues of the cervix and vagina get irritated, not because of implantation. Implantation bleeding doesn’t occur this early, it usually occurs one week after the procedure, when the egg gets implanted on the wall of the uterus.
The initial spotting should stop about after three days. Contact your doctor if you are still bleeding, cramping or are in any pain because it is not possible to be pregnant so soon after the procedure and that is why the symptoms you might be experiencing are not pregnancy symptoms.
You can keep a list of symptoms that you might be experiencing the initial days after the procedure so that your doctor can get an idea of what is normal for your body and can help you decide what is and isn’t a pregnancy symptom later. For example, immediately after the procedure, you are experiencing tenderness in your breasts then your doctor will know when you experience it after a month too that it is a normal symptom for you, not a pregnancy symptom.
