At-Home Insemination for a Lesbian Couple

Disclaimer: This page is not intended to serve as medical advice and does not take the place of consulting with a doctor. Before following the instructions on this page, you should read through and discuss this technique and all the risks with a qualified medical professional.

There are basically three ways of doing an at-home insemination:

1. The so-called Turkey Baster Method, though it is smarter to use a needleless syringe or an oral medicine syringe.
2. Insemination using a Cervical Cap, Diaphragm or Instead Cup.
3. Using a Cervical Cap with Tube such as the Oligiosperma Cup from Milex, (Needs to be purchased through a doctor. This is a cervical cap with a tube for adding sperm after the cup is in place.(This is NOT recommended for home inseminations)

And the fourth method which should be avoided if possible is an intra-cervical insemination – it is more painful, no more effective, and your doctor needs to give you equipment and train you.

Turkey Baster Method (Needleless Syringe)

Supplies needed:

• Needleless syringe or oral medicine syringe
• Collection cup, baggy or condom
• (Optional) Saline without additives or preservatives
• (Optional) Tube to attach to syringe
• (Optional) Mild germicidal soap

You can ask your doctor for a needleless syringe or you can buy an oral medicine syringe at just about any drugstore near the children’s thermometers. Buy the syringe with a plunger, not a bulb end (not the mini turkey baster!). The syringes work pretty much the same way. One that is maybe 4 inches long, or longer, is probably best. The oral medicine syringes have about a half inch narrow tip on the end. You can attach a catheter (thin tube) to either kind of syringe but you don’t need to and it may waste more of the semen to use one.

• Take a clean or sterile glass or plastic cup, baggy, or collection condom and have the male ejaculate into it. You’ll probably have better luck getting the semen out of a cup since you could suck the baggy or condom up to the syringe and block the opening, but you may get a larger sample with the baggy or condom. You can use a tiny bit of saline, without additives/preservatives, to help get as much sperm as possible into the syringe, but you don’t need to worry too much about leaving a little behind. If you are using frozen sperm, you need to ask the sperm bank for directions on thawing.
• Draw back on the syringe once with nothing but air, then push the air out again.
• Draw back on the syringe again, but this time have the end of it in the semen—the vacuum created by pulling back on the stopper will suck the semen into the syringe.
• Try to tap out any air bubbles since you don’t want to inject air into your vagina. You can do this by slowly rotating the syringe until the opening is facing up. Tap the air bubbles to the top and them push the plunger in on the catheter just a small amount—enough to get rid of air without squirting semen out.
• Get into a position where you can either stay comfortably for a half hour or can get into the position with minimal movement. Ideal is to either have hips raised or to lay on your side making sure your pelvis is canted (usually hips provide natural angle if you hips are wider than your waist, but if your bed, or wherever you are lying, is soft, you may want to put a pillow or two underneath your hip).
• Slowly glide the syringe, or catheter, into the vagina until it is close to the cervix – but do not try to get it into the cervix and do this gently. Your goal is to coat the outside of the cervix and to deposit as much sperm as possible as close the cervix as you can get it.
• SLOWLY inject sperm. If you do it too fast, it can squirt out of the vagina or at least spray away from the cervix.
• If you are concerned about wastage in the syringe, you can use some saline, without additives… add some to the syringe, shake it a bit, get the air out, and inject. This is not necessary since there probably won’t be enough wastage to be of concern.
• Try to have an orgasm! Some suggest that using a vibrator for clitoral stimulation produces a bigger, more powerful orgasm. Use whatever method works best for you (unless it requires lots of water!). The orgasm helps the cervix dip into the vaginal pool and suck up sperm–it helps get more sperm up there, and may speed sperm travel. This falls in the can’t hurt, might help category. Avoid penetration (as in intercourse or with vibrator).
• You can use water and a mild germicidal soap to clean your supplies if they will have time to dry completely before re-use, or run very hot water over them. Otherwise you can use saline to clean everything.

Timing for this kind of insemination is the same as for intercourse, if possible. The best timing is the day before LH surge (as detected with an Ovulation Predictor Kit), day of LH surge, and next 2-3 days, the last day or two being insurance. If you don’t have all those options, the day of the LH surge and the day after are best.

The advantage to this method is that you don’t need any fitted equipment! You don’t even need a speculum (though you can use one). The success rate is the same as with intercourse, perhaps a bit less because there are usually fewer opportunities for insemination and timing may not cover the bases as well.

Cervical Cap/Diaphram

Supplies needed:

• Cervical Cap, Diaphragm or Instead Cup
• (Optional) Collection cup, baggy or condom
• (Optional) Needleless syringe or oral medicine syringe
• (Optional) Saline without additives or preservatives
• (Optional) Mild germicidal soap

Both the cervical cap and diaphragm are items that you are usually fitted with by a doctor. The Instead Cup is actually a cup that women use to hold their period blood instead of a tampon or pad, and is available over the counter at most drugstores. They all come with directions on insertion, but I will give a little detail here. This is something you may want to practice doing to try to avoid spilling the semen.

• You can either have ejaculation directly in the cap/diaphragm/cup, or into another clean receptacle (glass or plastic cup, baggy collection condom). You may need a needleless or oral medicine syringe to get the semen from the collection receptacle to the cap/diaphragm/cup.
• Fold the cap/diaphragm/cup in half so the upper rim in closed enough to hold in the semen.
• Get into a comfortable position for insertion—standing with leg up on chair/toilet, sitting wide legged on toilet… whatever works for you. You can also have your partner insert it, but practice first.
• Once the cap/diaphragm/cup is in place, try to have an orgasm. Penetration is OK, but maybe not the best idea… As stated above some suggest that using a vibrator for clitoral stimulation produces a bigger, more powerful orgasm. The orgasm helps the cervix dip into the vaginal pool and suck up sperm—it gets more sperm up there, and may speed up the sperm travel. It’s one of those can’t hurt, might help things.
• Leave the cap/diaphragm/cup in place for at least 2-3 hours, but not more than 12 (check directions).
• You can use water and a mild germicidal soap to clean your supplies if they will have time to dry completely before re-use, or run very hot water over them. Otherwise you can use saline to clean everything.

Timing is the same as for intercourse—if possible. The best timing is the day before LH surge as detected with an Ovulation Predictor Kit), day of LH surge, and next 2-3 days, the last day or two being insurance. If you don’t have all those options, the day of the LH surge and the day after are best.

One advantage is that you can move around immediately since the sperm is place next to the cervix and held there. Disadvantage is that you need to be fitted for the cervical diaphragm.

The success rate is the same as with intercourse, perhaps a bit less because there are usually fewer opportunities for insemination and timing may not cover the bases as well.

Cervical Cap with Tube

Supplies needed:
• Cervical Cap with Tube
• Collection cup, baggy or condom
• Needleless syringe or oral medicine syringe
• (Optional) Saline without additives or preservatives
• (Optional) Mild germicidal soap

I’ve only found one such device and it is sold by medical suppliers to doctors and medical suppliers. You may need to get it from your doctor. This would be basically the same as the cervical cap discussion above, only you inject the sperm through a tube after the catheter is in place.

The success rate is the same as with intercourse, perhaps a bit less because there are usually fewer opportunities for insemination and timing may not cover the bases as well.

Preparing Donor Sperm

No special preparation is needed for donor sperm collected locally from a known donor. Shipped fresh sperm is generally sent overnight at a cool temperature similar to a refrigerator. Preparation is as simple as warming the vial in your hands or bra for a few minutes before loading into the syringe or cervical cap/diaphragm/instead cup. Another option is to load the syringe and warm in your hands before inserting into the vagina. Just be careful not to spill.

Frozen sperm should be thawed fairly slowly. The best thing to do is ask the sperm bank for directions on handling and warming the sperm. If that information isn’t provided, probably best to put the vial into a cup cool water and turn every minute or two for about five minutes. Then refresh your cup with somewhat warmer water and continue turning. Repeat until the sperm is thawed. When the vial is close to body temperature, go about your insemination with whichever method you’ve chosen. Make sure not to get the sperm too warm – definitely do not use hot water (not only could it kill the sperm, but there is the potential of breaking the vial as well).

Information published on The Rainbow Babies website is not a substitute for proper medical advice, diagnosis, treatment or care. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

Disclaimer: The Rainbow Babies provides sample contracts and legal/social health articles for informational purposes only—please do not consider it as legally-binding advice of any kind.

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