Clomid for husband??

holls28

Husband had SA which showed only 6% WHO morphology (all other items were in the normal range).  Urologist recommended starting husband on Clomid for 3 months.  Does anyone have any experience with Clomid actually helping sperm quality? Should dh also be checked for his hormone levels? Urologist did not bring up blood work. Thanks!

tptbabe

Is he being seen by a urologist that specializes in MFI? (I'm going to guess likely not if they're using WHO criteria?) I'd look for somebody who specializes first, as they're the experts. (Think of it in terms of fertility: Should you be seeing an OB or RE?) They'll run the gamut of tests to see what might be causing the issue.

Clomid works for men by raising their testosterone levels, which in turn sometimes helps to increase sperm production. If his T levels are within range, it's not likely that it would help. (Which is one of the reasons to get bloodwork done.) It worked to increase DHs count (quite significantly actually), but the motility and morphology actually decreased. It meant that we had more *total* sperm to work with, which meant that there were more *total* normal sperm to work with, but not enough for us unfortunately.

holls28

Yes, it is a urologist who specializes in MFI.  It was at a fertility center too, we just moved to the Detroit, MI area from DC.  That does make me wonder if they are not using the right criteria...maybe we should look into other doctors in the area. Thank you for response, I am going to request that his doctor have his blood work done too to look at hormones!

DreadGamerWife

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Another option to consider is HCG shots for your H.  DH had known low T issues (no other MFI issues found) and was being treated by an Endocrinologist who regularly had IF patients with hormone issues (Thyroid, etc) referred to him by various REs.  Just as women can have bad responses to Clomid, so can men (same issues we have - hot flashes, moodiness, etc).   If I remember correctly, Clomid works by repressing a hormone and the male body responds by producing more T while HCG adds a hormane and the male body responds by producing more T.  Same result frequently, but it is a lot easier on the body to add a hormone than the repress one.

In our case, the Endo put DH on HCG shots 3x per week (sub Q shots) rather than Clomid pills as the HCG shots can be used for a longer time period without any of the major side effects.  In fact, the Endo was rather surprised when we went back a few weeks ago to move DH off of the HCG shots as he is used to advising male patients to stay on them until they are sure they are finished with having children (ie, several years). 

However, much like clomid, HCG only works on men with low T related issues.  

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