IUIs ins & outs

So here's what I needed to do so far in getting pregnant.

Last 2 years - IUIs

GHI (City of New York) required me to go through 3 IUIs before starting IVF. To start the IUI cycle, I needed my period to begin. Once my period begins (I got a progesterone shot to stimulate my period because my cycle is so irregular), between the 1st - 4th day, I needed to go in to the fertility clinic and have blood withdrawn (you'll get use to this) and a baseline sonogram of my ovaries. I picked a clinic close to my workplace because every 7am, before work for 2 weeks, I have blood withdrawn and did a sonogram of my ovaries.

To multiply my eggs, I have to take Bravelle. Around  the 5th day, I was told to give myself (my husband actually administered the shot) a shot in the stomach for about 2 weeks. During this time, every other day for two weeks, I got blood withdrawn and was sonogrammed in the mornings before work. My clinic was good. I got everything done in 15 minutes and off to work I go. Emotionally & mentally, I was drained. Sometimes I cried because of the stress but I think it was due to the extra hormones I was given. Some woman don't have to take medication for IUIs. Depends what the doctor prescribes.

The Bravelle shots, even with insurance covering most of it, cost me $198. When I went in to withdraw blood and sonogram, the co-pay was $30 ($15 each procedure).

After about 2-3 weeks, they told me to give myself a "trigger shot" and that releases the egg.  The trigger shot in the stomach isn't painful at all. The needle is finer. In 36 hours, they inseminated me with my husband's sperm. Oh, on the day of insemination, my husband was driving with me holding his sperm in a sterile cup (clinic provided the cup) under my arm an hour before insemination. They had to wash his sperm before inserting it in me.

I'm on the table and the insemination feels like a pap smear. I rested for the rest of the day. On all tries, an hour afterwards, I had intense cramps for 7-8 hours afterwards. On the 3rd IUI, the trigger shot gave me flu like symptoms and I had a fever but still went through with the insemination.

I was pregnant on my first IUI, but the embryo didn't have a heart so I had a miscarriage. The other two IUIs were unsuccessful.  All this time, I was seeing an acupuncture for fertility once a week. Between IUI treatments, I also managed to get pregnant naturally (probably due to acupuncture) but all of them ended in miscarriage.
So now onto IVF...