If you’re one of the many people who’s trying to start a family and what you’re doing isn’t working or you only need help starting sperm out on the path to the egg, then you’ve probably found your way into chatrooms that cover all sorts of DIY options. While at-home insemination is pretty well known in some communities, a lot more people are now learning about this method and wondering if it really can work if you’ve been trying to conceive.
My daughter is here today because yes: at-home insemination works! Thanks to recently patented technology, it can be privately performed at home safely and effectively. Understanding what is safe and effective is the key to your success with at-home insemination. As a PhD in Biology who has been through infertility—I chose at-home insemination as my first step before IUI but I was by no means an expert. I was intimidated at first - after all no medical devices were ever in my ‘conception plan’.
After learning more about the science behind why at-home insemination works and how it was no more intimidating than a tampon—I decided to give it a try and I’m now a proud advocate for people exploring if this is a good method for them to try too.
If you want to know if at-home insemination really works—but also don’t want to waste another month doing what isn’t working - you’re in the right place. Here is everything you need to know about how to get pregnant with at-home insemination.
Ditch the Turkey Baster
After spending time in these chatrooms myself, I’ve seen some things that I’m here to help you steer clear of right from the start. For instance—lube launchers? Yeah. So they’re a thing. These incredibly cheap needleless syringes are designed to draw up personal lubricants and insert them into all the places. While I can’t decide if this is an upgrade or downgrade to a turkey baster—its ability to improve your chances of conception is about the same - next to zero. While they technically make it possible to insert a fluid into your body, that’s about all it can promise.
Have lube launchers worked for some people? Yes. If you’re in your early 20s, in perfect health, and have started trying to conceive and just need to get the sperm inside, it may get the job done. But the simple fact is, there’s a giant difference in the effectiveness and safety of a tool that can shoot lube into your lady bits and one that’s clinically validated to help people struggling to conceive.
Having been through my own infertility journey, I wouldn’t risk using anything that was made of plastic that could mutate and kill sperm, give you an infection from the dirt off the factory floor, and hasn’t been clinically tested to be safe to be inserted in my body for anything.
Effective at-home insemination should always be done with clean and sterile tools that protect your biology and sperm sample You deserve a safe, clinically validated, and dedicated product that gives you the best possible chance of achieving success in the privacy of your own home. And if you’re one of the 11% of women who are trying to overcome a physiological fertility challenge with an intracervical insemination kit, a lube launcher is going to be a waste of money.
So how does at-home insemination work? Let’s launch into it.
The Science Behind ICI
For a lot of people, at-home insemination is now a legitimate first-line option for addressing infertility issues while also letting you take some control back in your journey before turning to more expensive in-clinic procedures to treat infertility like intrauterine insemination (IUI). Self-insemination kits facilitate what’s called intracervical insemination (ICI), also sometimes referred to as intravaginal insemination (IVI). This safe and effective method involves filling a sterile smooth-tipped applicator with semen and using it to bypass the vagina entirely.
This is where a high-quality ICI kit outperforms a basic plastic lube launcher. Not only are lube launchers unsterilized and covered with bacteria, but the plastic itself can damage sperm. Also, BPA plastic remnants left in your body can mimic estrogen and have a negative impact on your hormonal balance.
Since 99% of sperm cells in a typical ejaculation never make it into the uterus, an ICI needleless syringe is ideally designed to align with your cervical opening and deliver over 90% of a sperm sample to the opening of the cervix, pushing it into the uterus. IUI is similar except that a doctor inserts a catheter of washed and processed sperm all the way through your cervix—for a few thousand dollars in a clinic. Does IUI get even more sperm through? Yes, but the fact is…
… for many couples, it might not be necessary. A simple non-invasive option like ICI may be just the boost your fertility journey needs to succeed. And unlike a lube launcher, ICI kits are required by law to be FDA-cleared, and there is only one option available that’s manufactured and packaged to be 100% guaranteed sterile—just like the tools used in the clinic. That ensures you never have any issues with bacteria hitching a ride along with a device when you’re attempting to navigate this beautiful and life-changing moment!
Other Important Details
So, does at-home insemination work? It definitely can, especially if you pick a kit that takes a methodical and sterile approach to fertility. There are several things you’ll want to look for in a kit to make sure it’s working to increase your chances of conception, not an infection. Every kit is required by law to receive FDA clearance—which is a huge step forward for the industry—but a great IVI kit needs to go a little further.
You’ll want the contents to be 100% guaranteed sterile just like in the clinic, give you the right number of attempts for an ideal IVI strategy, and be backed up by the ovulation tracking support you need to use them at the optimal moment.
Insist on 100% Sterility
ICI kits typically include a certain amount of needleless syringes or applicators, plus collection cups for the collection of sperm. These tools should be completely sterile so that no chemicals or foreign substances from the manufacturing process are introduced that can alter your microbiome or damage the sperm. Your unique microbiome needs to stay as balanced as possible in order to get pregnant, and everything in your kit should be operation-room clean to ensure its contents stay neutral when they’re interacting with your body.
After all, PherDal is the only kit that gets past the reproductive microbiome and delivers sperm just one inch lower than its clinical counterpart IUI. And the closer you get to the functionality and sterility of in-clinic processes, the better.
The Three-Attempts Strategy
Your body releases an egg during the ovulatory phase of your menstrual cycle. However, there is only a 24-48 hour window where you are at the absolute peak likelihood of being successful with an ICI kit. Sperm can live inside some people for up to 5 days. This means a strategy of insemination right before your peak and the following two days after are the best times to utilize an insemination kit.
Any kit you use should support this strategy, and that means providing the tools for three separate, 100% sterile attempts so there’s sperm present the entire time when an egg is released. One should be the day before your optimal day, the second is the day of, and the third is the day after. That way, no matter when the moment comes for your egg to be released in that window, you’re ready.
Align It with Your Cycle
Finally, to hit that critical fertile peak, you’ll need to do some dedicated ovulation tracking to get the data you need. There’s no shortage of ways to track ovulation, but I prefer our straightforward ovulation workbook.
I’ve got a PhD in Biology and I’m also a software engineer, but there was so much about ovulation tracking that I had to teach myself. In fact, those lessons led to our patented method for ovulation tracking, because I wanted to use my skills and background to give all the hopeful parents out there a science-backed process that lets you gather consequential, measurable data on your body. Our ovulation tracking method ensures you’ll be able to find that perfect moment to use your PherDal ICI kit confidently and effectively.
Try ICI with PherDal First
If you’ve been wondering, “Does at-home insemination work?” I’m here as a scientist, the founder of PherDal, and the first PherDal mother to verify that it really does help you conceive.
After my unexplained infertility diagnosis, I took my fertility into my own hands and invented the PherDal ICI kit which is how my daughter was born! My partner and I wanted to share the kit that enabled us to start a family, and we’ve perfected it since then by constantly listening to our customer’s feedback to ensure we are accommodating all families in their conception journey.
Our patented clinical-grade ICI kit is the only 100% sterile kit cleared by the FDA and made entirely in the US using IVF-quality materials that are designed to maximize your chances at conception.
We’re proud to be the first and only kit that’s both 100% sterile and FDA-cleared, making it the safest and most effective of its kind. PherDal is proving that not every answer to infertility needs to be clinical and invasive. It also needs to be backed by science, and using the right kit to increase your chances of conception is key. But If you’ve been waiting to see if at-home insemination works, try it for yourself and if you need anything at all, we are here to support you—always.
Take your fertility into your own hands and find out what an ideally conceived and designed at-home insemination can do for you by trying the PherDal kit on your next cycle.
