Relationship between the Time of Intrauterine Insemination and Pregnancy Outcome, Based on Islamic Recommendations

Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is one of the methods of infertility treatment. When is the best time to do this assisted reproduction procedure? There are many Islamic narrations about the appropriate time for fertilization in order to give birth to a physically, mentally, and spiritually healthy child. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between the time of IUI performance and its consequences according to Islamic narrations.

The present historical cohort study was conducted at an Infertility Center affiliated with the Academic Center for Education, Culture, and Research of Qom, Iran using the medical records of patients who underwent sex selection IUI procedure from 2011 to 2015. The data were collected using a researcher-made checklist consisting of demographic characteristics, factors affecting the pregnancy outcome in terms of medicine and narrations, as well as the pregnancy outcome. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 20).

The findings indicated that the time of IUI performance based on Islamic recommendations and the pregnancy test result had a significant relationship (P=0.003). Moreover, the time of IUI based on Islamic recommendations had a significant relationship with pregnancy outcomes (P=0.023). The highest number of abortions and neonatal disorders were observed in pregnancies that had happened at the disapproved times according to the narrations (e.g., the end of the lunar month and when the moon is in Scorpio). Besides, the highest number of births of healthy infants happened when the insemination had happened at the recommended times (e.g., Thursday noon).

Due to the relationship between the time of IUI based on Islamic recommendations and the pregnancy outcome, it is recommended that IUI be performed based on Islamic recommendations and at times other than the disapproved times so that better results will be achieved in pregnancy. However, further studies are needed in this regard.