IUI was a bust

Well, I am officially not pregnant this month.  I had some spotting on the 25th (yeah...Merry Christmas to me!) and my period started for real today.

I am really undecided about where to go from here.  There has been some recent literature in the reproductive medicine journals suggesting that IVF may actually be the most cost effective first line therapy (from a population-based perspective) for unexplained infertility, because it has a significantly higher success rate per cycle than IUI.  It makes sense when you think of it....with an overall success rate of 25-30% of IUI per cycle, and a cost of 800-1000 dollars per cycle (if you include meds and ultrasounds), many people who have to do several cycles before getting pregnant can come pretty close to the cost of an IVF cycle.

I feel like a gambler trying to size up the odds and place my bet accordingly.   The question is...do I pony up the (rather significant) funds for the "money shot", or do I keep trying the thing with lower odds of hitting the jackpot, but with significantly lower "risk of ruin" per try? BTW, I hope the gambling analogy doesn't come across as flippant.  My fertility is not a game to me, but the parallels with using statistical odds to make a decision about the next step are striking.  There is, for many people, more to it than statistical odds, like willingness to undergo a much more invasive process, personal/spiritual reservations about the IVF, etc.  But for me, I think I am of the frame of mind that I just want to do whatever will get us to our goal as quickly as possible without ruining us financially.

I wish my RE had a shared risk program.  It would make me feel better about IVF.