Infertility

~~Azoospermia Check In - New Years Edition~~~ SAIF ALWAYS

This is a place for any of you who are experiencing the world of azoospermia.  Whether you were recently diagnosed and are trying to make sense of it all, or you have started preparing for IVF or IUI, or have decided instead to move on to adoption.  Please join in the group by posting! Check in is on Thursdays. 

I'd like to extend an invitation to those who have been fortunate enough to experience pregnancy, childbirth, and/or adoption.  Ultimately, all of us desire to create a family.  I believe the experiences and insight of those who have reached that goal will be quite helpful to those of us on that road. 

AZOO SUCCESS STORIES! (Whether through IUI/IVF or Adoption)

Mnj1125

Mom to Gavin, born 1/07, and Alyssa & Brady, born 8/08

If anyone has any questions for me about anything azoo related, they can contact me at mnj1125@gmail.com

 

Sarahkelly

Mom to Sadie - Born 8/1/08

Feel free to email Sarahkelly at sarahaarssen@gmail.com  to discuss donor, emotional stuff etc.

 

Zooster

Mom to Baby Abby on 10/29/08

 

~~~BIG FAT POSITIVES~~~

JennyLbride

Dx:  Azoospermia

BFP on 10/2/08 - TWINS!!!

 

Shanna&Ricky

DX:  Azoo 6/08

BFP approx 11/18/08

 s.s.girl
DX: MFI- Azoospermia
BFP on 10/9 - EDD 7/2/09 - TWINS!!!

MEMBERS ACTIVELY UNDERGOING IUI/IVF OR ADOPTION

::::BABY DUST FOR ALL::::

 

Erinann

Dx: 6/07 due to absence of vas defrens

Plan:  currently preparing for IVF#4

 

goldengirl16

dx: 10/08

Plan:  IUI # 1 on 12/17/08 - in 2ww - FINGERS CROSSED!!!  J

 

KayJayDee
DX:  azoospermia 9/07

Plan:  Gearing up to start IUI #2

 

MEMBERS IN THE PLANNING/TESTING STAGE

Amies

Dx: 2/08 - azoospermia + pcos and blocked left tube

Plan:  IUI w/donor sperm 2/09

 

Babytime25

DX: Azoospermia 8/07

Working towards 3rd IUI in Sept. 09

 

Craschi:
dx: Azoo 10/07
Plan:  All systems go for IUI - possibly  beginning of 2009 - whenever we move

 

Erin&Mike
DX:  7/08
Testicular Biopsy confirmed Azoospermia. 


Jamers125

DX:  Azoo 6/08

Plan:  Scheduling Testicular Biopsy to determine whether IVF is an option

 

k827
DX: Azoospermia - 9/08
Plan:  TESE Feb 09, planning for IVF Mar 09

Mandmsept252004

DX: in 2007

Plan:  preparing for 2nd IUI between Nov and Jan

 

Mrs.goget

Recent DX

Plan:  biopsy sched for 2/09

 

MrsNolan
DX:  7/08
Plan:  Blood work normal - testicular biopsy sched for 11/20/08; HSG on 12/1/08 showed no blockages. 

Theworms

DX: MFI NOA

Plan:  DH recovering from Orchiopexy and Varicocele Surgery 9/22/08.  Next up:  IVF w/ICSI & mTESE in March 

 

Yellow_Daisy

DX:  azoo in 5/07

Plan:  start the IUI process in Jan 2010

 

WhiteysWifey

Surgery sched for 12/9 to remove cyst on ovary.  Once done, plan to move on to 2nd IUI w/Donor Sperm

 

 PLEASE POST AN UPDATE ON YOU!

Two Questions this week:

1.  What are your New Years Resolutions?

2.  If going the donor sperm route, what characteristics do you find most important?  National heritage, height, weight, photo comparison, childhood photo, etc?  Are you/did you purchase any additional information on your donor, like photo matching, donor essay, etc?   

Feel free to recommend any questions of the week!

Happy New Year!  and have a great week, everyone! 

Re: ~~Azoospermia Check In - New Years Edition~~~ SAIF ALWAYS

  • 1. New Years Resolution:  The same as last year - take back control of my diet, and take back control of our budget.  I did great for the first half of last year, and time to get back on track.

    2.  I'm asking that question because DH and I will be in the process of selecting a donor once our house in NJ sells and we're under one roof in LI.  I'm looking at national origin, hight, weight.  I'm wondering whether we should do the photo matching instead.  I'm really interested in how other people went about making their selection.

  • Update:  We finally got the results of my husbands testicular biopsy back. The good news is he has sperm. The bad news is he has "less than 1 sperm per tubule". So now we are in the process of deciding what we will do next. We are torn as to whether we want to attempt IVF w/ICSI and mTESE and risk spending tons of money and it not working, or if we want to proceed with IUI w/DS. This is such a tough choice to make. I know you all know this. We have an appointment with our RE next week to discuss our options.

     **To those who are using donor sperm, did your husbands biopsys show any sperm at all???

     

    Two Questions this week:

    1.  What are your New Years Resolutions? Same as always...lose a couple pounds!

    2.  If going the donor sperm route, what characteristics do you find most important?  National heritage, height, weight, photo comparison, childhood photo, etc?  Are you/did you purchase any additional information on your donor, like photo matching, donor essay, etc?   I think all of the above is important, but we really haven't started the donor selection process yet.  So I guess when we start our search we will have a better idea of what is most important to us.

     

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  • 1. My new years resolution is to be more organized. It's going to be a necessity with two babies and school full time.

    2. We used donor sperm and we?initially?went by the basic characteristics that matched my DH. Then for our top 4 choices we ordered the additional information pictures, longer essays etc. We also payed for their photo matching service where we send in an adult picture of my DH and they compare them to our choices and rank them. The last thing we did is have my aunt (Who I'm very close to) look at baby pictures of my husband and compare them with the baby pictures of our donors and then she ranked them. After all of that we went with the choice that we were most comfortable with based on this information. I really hated this process and I'm so glad it's behind us now.?

    ?We really struggled with even knowing where to start and so much of it seems so random and arbitrary. I also will tell you that we did something that most probably don't do, but we looked for donors that didn't yet have any proven pregnancies. Which I know may seem counterintuitive?but for us we were willing to take a chance for there being less half-siblings?out there. Which is just our own weird personal quirk that we felt more comfortable with for some reason. Good luck to everyone. Especially those in the middle of treatment.?

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  • Mrs. Nolan - my DH's azoospermia is caused by a missing part of his Y chromosome. Due to the piece he's missing there was no hope for any sperm production. If there had been any we would have gone that route first with IVF/ICSI. Good luck it's a difficult decision.
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  • DH and I are ..patiently...waiting for the Testicular Biopsy and Micro Tese in 2/09.  Are trying to prepare for the worse and discussing donor's and our feelings about using a donor vs. adoption.  Lots to think about, but we are still keeping our fingers crossed that the biopsy can produce enough sperm for IVF.
  • MrsNolan:

    Our biopsy also showed no sperm, so we have no other options than DS.  Actually, to be honest, since our insurance covers IUI and not IVF I was kind of relieved we didn't have to make that choice, based on the issues you mentioned.  Sometimes options are harder to deal with than than none...

    Good luck, MrsNolan!

  • s.s.girl, thank you so much for your response.  I felt the same way about the randomness of it.  Almost like buying some shoes over the internet.  When we do finally get to that point, I'll keep your post in mind.

  • 1. My New Years Resolutions are to finish paying off our debt and stash away enough money to pay for our treatments in Jan 2010.  Most importantly though I am trying to lose weight, stabalize my rheumatoid arthritis and hashimoto's disease so that when we finally have the money for IF treatments that I will be healthy enough to get pregnant.

    2. We haven't choosen a donor yet but for us we start with heritage, height, eye color and hair color.  Once we have a group then we review the free stuff, short essays, voice samples, etc.  From there we will make a list of our top 4 or 5 and purchase the baby pics, long essays and photo matching.  Physical characteristics similar to DH are really important to DH although at one point we picked a donor who was very physically similar to DH and then we listened to an audio interview and we were totally turned off and scratched him from our list. 

    ___________

    MrsNoIan- My DH does not produce any sperm, the doctor's are not sure why but are fairly certain that he has never produced sperm.  So our only options are donor sperm or adoption.  DH has said he would rather use donor sperm so that is the route we are going.  I think it was easier having no sperm because it was simple, adopt or donor.  We wouldn't have been able to afford IVF so I think it would have been hard for us to not be able to do it because of money reasons and then there may have been regrets or what ifs.  With the way things worked out we have partial coverage for IUIs and we will get 6 tries before insurance cuts us off and we have to go OOP.

    I let DH take the lead on the route we choose because I know he was devastated by the news.  He knew I really wanted to experience pregnancy and he felt that if I were pg that he would have more of a bond with the baby too.  I thought he would lean towards adoption as our niece and nephew are adopted and his brother and sister in law had a great experience with international adoption. In the end the decision (once we knew our options) was pretty easy to make.  We were totally on the same page and we knew when we walked out of the dr's office after the appt exactly what we wanted to do.  That was over a year ago now and although health issues on my end have kept us from moving forward we are still totally content with using a donor next year.

    TTC since 8/2004
    Me - DX Hashimoto's Disease, Hypothyroid, Rheumatoid Arthritis
    DH - DX Azoospermia - Sertoli Cell Syndrome
    DS-IUI #1-4 BFN IVF #1 - BFP! It's a boy!!!
    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
  • Thanks to everyone who responded to my question. I have made a long list of questions for my RE next week. Hopefully once we get some answers, we will feel more comfortable making our decision.

     You guys are the best! Smile

  • Hi there.  I haven't posted over here since Zoogster ran this but I always look for and read the posts when I find them.  I hope you don't mind me chiming in and if anyone has any questions for me, you are always welcome to contact me.  I don't post a lot but I'm lurking on SAIF most of the time.

    Two Questions this week:

    1.  What are your New Years Resolutions?  I don't have official resolutions, but I do want to try to work on my patience and I want to try to get more organized within my home.

    2.  If going the donor sperm route, what characteristics do you find most important?  National heritage, height, weight, photo comparison, childhood photo, etc?  Are you/did you purchase any additional information on your donor, like photo matching, donor essay, etc?   We used donor sperm for both our DD and for our current pregnancy (same donor).  DH really got to be the one to take the lead on choosing the donor since he was essentially choosing a "stand-in" of sorts for himself.  I was surprised that he wasn't as concerned about matching based on his own physical characteristics, knowing that we'd be faced with "where did he/she get those eyes" or other uncomfortable questions.  (As it turns out, DD looks VERY much like me but I'm shocked to still hear people say "Oh, she's got xyz feature from her daddy".)  DH's first criteria was medical history; he wanted someone with limited history of major issues in the family medical history so he eliminated anyone who had lots of cancers in the family or other major diseases.  He also chose a donor based on intelligence/career pursuits.  He wanted a tall donor (6'5"), even though he himself is only about 5'8" (his way of giving our children traits he wished he himself had?).  The donor we selected didn't have baby photos so we really could only go by his own description and the comments from the people at the clinic about his physical characteristics.  When we had narrowed down the choices to two, we bought the additional information and made our final selection.  We opted to "buy in bulk" so we'd hopefully have units left over for other biological siblings if we chose to have more and we're glad we made that decision.  Now we're wondering if we want to hold on to our remaining units in case we opt for a third child (not likely considering my AMA) or whether we should sell them back (some banks will buy them back for half price if they were stored at their facility the whole time).

    I think the poster who said they chose a donor who didn't have proven pregnancies has a very good point to consider.  At the time, our donor didn't have any proven pregnancies.  Since then, through the donor sibling registry, we've found out that our DD has two half sisters out there.  I've got to say, while on a rational level, it's not a big deal, it is still an odd feeling to know that she's got biological relations out there that neither DH and I are connected to.  However, the upside is that if medical issues arose, there is the possibility that we could get in contact with the parents of those half siblings to share information/help our children out.  So again, we also have to consider whether we really want to sell back our unused units knowing that in doing so, we increase the chances of more half siblings.  How big of an issue is this to us?  Is this a selfish consideration?  We don't really know the answer to these questions for us at this point.  I think we'll end up selling them back but who knows.

    Good luck to all you ladies!  I know what an emotionally challenging process IF is and then the azoo aspect (and donor sperm aspect) adds a whole different level of complication that often makes us feel like we don't know anyone else in the same boat.  I'm so glad for these sites that allow us to connect and share our experiences.  I wish nothing but the best for all of you and hope you see your dreams achieved!

     Mrs. Nolan, I answered your XP on SAIF.

    Sorry to everyone that this was such a long reply!

    imageimage Both children were conceived with assistance after a MFI DX of Azoospermia. DIUI. Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
  • SAIF Ladies ~ 

    Thank you so much for participating and sharing your experiences in this process.  I really appreciate you ladies who have gone through this coming back to TTC and telling us what you and your husband's thought processes were. 

    It's so helpfull and reassuring to know that we're not alone.

    Thanks again!

    Craschi

  • Two Questions this week:

    1.  I have a whole slew of "to-do"s for 09: I'm not calling them resolutions, just in case they don't happen: Create a tighter budget and save more, read the bible in a year, get the nursery finished.

    2.  We are using a donor. The most important things to us were: Ethnic background (German, Irish, etc), hair color, eye color, height, weight and skin coloring. We did purchase an extended profile and medical history. Our cryobank had a special last summer to get some extra stuff (child photo) free...so we did.

    To answer other questions: My husband's biopsy showed absolutely no sperm production at all.

    PS. I just had DIUI#2 this past Saturday and am currently 2 DPIUI

    Wife. MoM {1G + BBG triplets}. DIY'er. Quilter. 

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