Insemination

Insemination means the transfer of sperm cells into the uterine cavity by means of a thin catheter.

Insemination is performed:

• if there is a slight reduction in the quality of the sperm.
  Insemination becomes senseless if the reduction in the sperm quality is so severe that the sperm are no longer capable of fertilisation, and can therefore no longer fuse with the egg cells;
• if the sperm cannot climb out of the vagina into the uterus.
  This is tested by the post-coital test. The morning after intercourse on the night of verified ovulation, some mucous is taken from the cervix with a soft catheter and instantly examined for the presence of moving sperm.
  A reason for the sperm’s inability to climb into the uterus may be a reduced mucous in the cervix, as is formed in the case of scarring resulting from surgical procedures at the mount of the uterus for example. However, it is often not possible to precisely determine the cause.

Preparation of the ejaculate obtained:
The rapidly moving sperm are extracted from the ejaculate through washing and centrifugation, concentrated in a low volume of liquid and transferred through the mouth of the uterus into the uterine cavity with the insemination catheter.
This procedure is painless and has no side effects.

The success rate of insemination treatments is, unfortunately, not very high.
In a large-scale Germany-wide study, a pregnancy rate of just under 10 % was registered after more than 70,000 inseminations. Even fewer for patients over 38 years of age.
In the individual case, we check very precisely whether the prospects for a pregnancy can really be increased by insemination.