I had two “turkey baby leeks” using Amazon DIY kits and a sperm donor…and it worked the first time

• A host of online companies offer $99 DIY pregnancy kits, including a syringe
• Hanna Rewerts and her wife Kara credit the kits for the birth of their two children
• READ MORE: Men Inject Lip Filler Into Their PENIS To Add Inches Of Girth

Can you really make a baby with a turkey baster?

It’s a question that has undoubtedly cropped up at boozy dinners and girls’ nights out time and time again. You would be forgiven for thinking that the answer is of course no.

However, judging by a series of unconventional pregnancies popping up in the United States, it would seem that such a method is not inconceivable after all.

DailyMail.com has discovered a plethora of online companies offering $99 pregnancy kits; a collection of accessories – including a pipette-like tube – that claim to help distribute sperm into the vagina in a way that is likely to result in conception.

And judging by some couples’ social media accounts, it works.

Hanna Rewerts and her wife Kara, of Tampa, Fla., credit craft kits they purchased online with the birth of their two children, now ages three and one.

Remarkably, both – a ready-made kit for Hanna and one they had DIYed themselves – worked the first time.

Like many couples who choose this option, both men weren’t excited about the barrage of medical appointments and tests that traditional fertility treatments would entail.

In vitro fertilization (IVF) is the most popular method for non-sexual conception, such as for same-sex couples. That implies Eggs are collected and fertilized with sperm in the laboratory, before the embryos are inserted into the uterus. An average IVF cycle costs between $15,000 and $30,000.

Then there’s intrauterine insemination (IUI), a simpler and cheaper type of artificial insemination. During IUI, sperm are placed directly into the uterus using a small catheter.

But DIY IUI does not require any medical appointment.

It can be as simple as tracking ovulation and purchasing over-the-counter tools, including a sperm container and a needle-free syringe.

Sperm is injected into the vagina, at the time when an ovary is due to release one or more eggs, and instruments are used to hold the sperm as close to the egg as possible.

“I didn’t want to have to take medication or inject hormones,” Hanna told DailyMail.com.

“I just wanted it to be a more natural thing, because it obviously can’t happen naturally for us.”

“It was so nice to be able to say ‘we got pregnant at home,’ rather than saying it at a doctor’s office,” she added.

They found a sperm bank and chose a tall, thin, white, college-educated donor. The couple bought all of their sperm – nine vials at $900 each – because they didn’t want their donor to be able to donate it to other couples.

The vials were transported to a cryobank near the couple to be stored in good conditions, which costs them $50 per month.

When they decided to start trying, the first vial was sent home in a small nitrogen tank containing dry ice to maintain sperm quality.

Once the box was opened, the couple had 30 minutes to use the sample.

They had been tracking Kara’s ovulation for about four months, but when they received the sample, Kara, a business development manager, had not ovulated as expected.

The two were about to go on a trip, so they proceeded with the insemination and hoped for the best.

They drew up half a teaspoon of semen using a syringe and Kara inserted it, followed by a disposable menstrual disc, which looks like a menstrual cup.

The menstrual disc keeps sperm close to the cervix for a longer period of time, increasing the likelihood that sperm will swim through the cervix and uterus to the fallopian tube to fertilize an egg, while preventing sperm from escaping.

“The fit is probably the most uncomfortable thing because it’s just awkward and weird. But once it’s there, it’s there,” she added.

Kara lay on her back with her legs in the air for 10 minutes to let gravity do its work, then kept the menstrual disc on for 12 hours.

Hanna said: “I think the biggest thing that helped us was the menstrual cups because the sperm had nowhere to go. It was like, even if you didn’t ovulate that day and you did the next day, it would still be there.

Ten days later, Kara had a positive pregnancy test.

“We were very surprised. I was like, ‘Are you sure it worked?'” Hanna said.

“It was very lucky and I’m very grateful that it worked out the way it did.” For their second child, it was Hanna who became pregnant.

They performed the exact same procedure, this time using a Mosie Baby syringe – part of a $99 home insemination kit that was the first to be cleared by the FDA in December last year .

Hanna kept the menstrual disc on for eight hours after insemination and had a positive pregnancy test five days later.

Their friends and family were “delighted.” “Everyone likes to know how it happened,” Hanna said.

“For us, it wasn’t about the money. I just wanted it to be a more intimate situation. But money is also a big part of it. It’s still cheaper than IVF.

A range of these kits are available online from sites such as Amazon, ranging from $50 to $100.

But are they really infallible?

IVF has a success rate of around 24% across all age groups per cycle, meaning women often need more than one attempt.

Experts agree that artificial insemination and sexual intercourse tend to have similar success rates, around 30% per menstrual cycle.

There is “no difference” in the chances of conception through artificial insemination versus intercourse, Dr. Lora Shahine, a reproductive endocrinologist at Pacific NW Fertility in Seattle, told DailyMail.com.

However, an intrauterine insemination performed at a fertility clinic will be more likely to be successful than at-home inseminations or intercourse, she explained, because it reduces the time and distance sperm must travel. This is because in clinics a catheter is used to help the sample penetrate further inside the vagina.

In general, IVF has higher success rates than IUI, experts say.

DIY IUI can be helpful for couples who are having difficulties with intercourse, Dr. Shahine said, such as painful intercourse for the woman or erectile dysfunction for the man.

“Many people have difficulty with the ‘trying’ part of having a baby and home insemination kits allow couples to try in the privacy of their own home in a different way,” she said. -she declared.

Other motivations for the DIY method include the widespread problem of lack of access to care.

“The location of a fertility clinic, the cost of fertility treatments, and wait times to see a fertility doctor can all pose barriers. People can try home inseminations before seeing a fertility doctor or while waiting for their first appointment,” Dr Shahine said.

There are downsides, however, says Dr. Shahine.

For example, going completely DIY without consulting a doctor risks ignoring serious fertility problems that require medical treatment.

“I worry that people are delaying fertility tests or visiting a fertility clinic because they are spending time doing home inseminations,” she added.

Then there remains the question of finding a sperm donor. Cells are often obtained from a friend, or sometimes from a stranger through online forums like sperm donation Facebook groups.

But experts say unregulated sperm donation increases the risk of STIs, which could make a woman infertile or lead to an unviable pregnancy.

Mosie Baby was founded by couple Maureen and Marc Brown after struggling to conceive for over two years.

After two and a half years, they visited a fertility doctor, who told them there was nothing wrong with them and suggested they try IUI.

After undergoing an IUI at a doctor’s office to conceive their first child, the couple became pregnant with their second child after just one cycle with Mosie – a healthy baby boy named Frank, born in August 2016.

A New Jersey couple also got pregnant on their third attempt with Mosie Baby.

“We started to accept the fact that this just wasn’t supposed to happen,” they said after spending more than $5,000 on several rounds of IUI treatments.