Community- other women's experiences

It's been nice to talk to other women who have had kids through IUI. I know two friends who have done it, and 2 friends of friends. They are all in lesbian couples, so it's a different situation in some ways, but physically they went through the process I'm going through. The best lesson from these other women is that it is unlikely to work the first or second time, but it will likely work eventually. These ladies were all 4-8 years younger than I am now, and yet it still took them 7-13 IUIs to get pregnant. This doesn't mesh with what I've read online. The medical lit, you know, websites that seem to know about doctor stuff, say it should work in the first 1-3 attempts, or it is unlikely to work ever. Well, statistically that may be true, but my sample size of 4 does not reflect that. Another interesting thing about the people I've talked to who have done assisted reproduction, and this is 8 people, they have all had girls. I wonder if it has something to do with the way IUI is timed and sperm speed?