I struggled with infertility for 16 months. Then I used my science background to invent a product for at-home insemination and got pregnant on the 2nd try.

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I struggled with infertility for 16 months. Then I used my science background to invent a product for at-home insemination and got pregnant on the 2nd try.
Jennifer Hintzsche and her family.Courtesy of Jennifer Hintzsche
  • Jennifer Hintzsche invented an at-home intracervical-insemination kit.
  • Twenty-eight babies have been conceived using the kit, she said, which is now patented.
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This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jennifer Hintzsche. It has been edited for length and clarity.

As someone with a doctorate in biology and computer science, I love data. So when my husband and I started trying to have a baby, I tracked everything.

After eight months of negative pregnancy tests, I made an appointment with my OB-GYN and brought in all the data I'd collected. I knew something wasn't right. But she told me that since I was under 35, I needed to wait a year before getting fertility help.

Exactly 365 days after we started trying, my husband and I hopped, skipped, and jumped off to the reproductive endocrinologist. I was excited to finally have answers. It was awkward having several tests done and shuffling half naked room to room, but I knew I was close to more information.

I never prepared for not getting an answer. Yet at the end of the day, my husband and I were diagnosed with unexplained infertility. Our tests were all normal, so doctors couldn't say why I hadn't gotten pregnant.

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The doctor made a plan: We would try three months of intrauterine insemination — or IUI — before discussing in vitro fertilization. Then he handed me an application for a $10,000 personal loan to start the process. That's when my scientific background kicked in and overrode my emotions. I didn't want to take on a financial burden when doctors couldn't identify a problem, let alone a solution.

I started researching to see whether the treatments were worth the cost

My husband thought I would be relieved to have a plan. Instead, I was determined to understand why doctors were recommending an IUI and asking us to fork over big bucks to pay for it. I dived into research, and that's when I discovered intracervical insemination, or ICI.

Unlike an IUI, which must be done at the doctor office, an ICI can be done at home. Put bluntly, it's the more-evolved cousin of the turkey-baster method, where sperm is inserted into the vagina close to the cervix. Members of LGBTQ communities have been using ICI for decades and pioneered a lot of the technology.

When I saw a study that found ICI had similar live-birth rates to that of IUI, my interest was piqued. Why hadn't the doctors mentioned ICI before referring me to more-expensive and -invasive options?

I turned my marriage into a science experiment

That's when my marriage became a science experiment. I told my husband we could make our own ICI kit. This was an extremely awkward conversation, but at that point, we would have done anything to have a baby. Luckily, my husband is science-minded, too, and works as a mechanical engineer.

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Since I studied microbiology, I knew there were risks to inserting anything that wasn't sterile into the vagina. And I wanted plastics that proved safe for sperm. We gathered materials and made a prototype. Then we gave ourselves a three-month deadline. During my fertile window, we wouldn't have sex but would use the ICI kit.

The second month, I took a pregnancy test and fell to the floor. I called my husband, who had left for work already, and managed to get out two words: "It worked."

I started sharing my fertility struggles

I hadn't talked to many people about our fertility struggles. Once I finally believed I was having a baby, I started to open up. I would ask people, "Do you want to hear our conception story?" while my husband reminded me that this was not polite dinner conversation. Still, I realized how many people infertility affected.

After my daughter was born, I received another shock: I became pregnant when she was only 3 months old. My children are 380 days apart. We started joking that our product, PherDal, was so good that it worked twice. While my son was a surprise, because of my infertility, I knew what it was like to think I would never have him.

Even through the exhaustion of having two babies back-to-back, I felt a calling to help other people. There's no Food and Drug Administration-approved at-home ICI kit — the kits that are sold aren't approved or sterile. So I set out to create the first. Last year, we crowdfunded more than $600,000 and patented our kit. We're undergoing FDA testing and hope to have approval this year.

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I'm done growing my family, but I'm not done helping other people grow theirs. To date, I know of 28 babies conceived using PherDal. I don't guarantee pregnancy — no one can do that — but I know that PherDal can empower couples by giving them another tool in the fight against infertility.

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