IUI in Bengaluru, Karnataka

IUI, intrauterine insemination, is often the first assisted treatment a couple is offered. Sperm from a partner or a donor is washed and concentrated in the laboratory, then passed through a fine tube into the womb at the time of ovulation. The procedure takes a few minutes and is usually done without anaesthetic. It can be timed to a natural cycle using ultrasound scans, or combined with mild medicines that help an egg mature. Fertilisation then happens inside the body, which is the main difference from IVF.

Because IUI is the one treatment India's ART Rules allow a Level 1 clinic to carry out, it is offered by both Level 1 and Level 2 clinics. In Bengaluru, 19 listings on this directory name IUI on their own website: 12 are registered at Level 2 and 4 at Level 1, and 3 carry no level in the registry extract. The city has 54 Level 1 registrations and 117 at Level 2 among its 201 listings in this directory, so a good number of clinics able to offer IUI do not mention it on a page this directory holds. Use the city page if you want the wider set.

IUI needs at least one open fallopian tube and reasonable sperm numbers after preparation, so a tube test and a semen analysis normally come first. The IUI explainer on this directory notes that the UK regulator does not consider it suitable for blocked tubes, severe endometriosis, a low egg reserve or significant male-factor infertility. Where donor sperm is used, it comes through an ART bank, and 3 of these 19 listings hold an ART bank registration themselves.

Practical questions to ask: how many scans a cycle includes, whether medicines are used and which, whether sperm preparation is done on site on the same morning, and at what point the clinic would suggest moving to IVF. This directory has no doctor recorded against these listings yet. Each listing below opens to its registry record, which shows whether it is one of the 12 at Level 2 or the 4 at Level 1.