IUI with MFI (looking for success stories)

wifeinraleigh28

Hi everyone.  I'm just *visiting* from the IF and T-TTC boards.  I'm feeling really down and hopeless and I'm just looking for some success stories to know it is possible.  Our only known issue is MFI (low sperm count) and our RE is recommending IUI.  Most IUI successes I hear about don't have anything to do with MFI, but rather with female issues.  If you've had success with IUI with a MFI issue, I would LOVE to hear your story!!

jesselayne8

How low is his count? If it's a borderline low count then IUI makes sense because they wash the sperm and only inject the best ones closer to the egg. Extremely low counts would make more sense to go straight to IVF. We had success but DH's MFI is low morph and low motility.

wifeinraleigh28

@jesselayne8 - his first SA showed 10.8 million with 62.5% motility (6.8 million motile sperm), and second SA showed 28 million with only 18% motility (5 million motile sperm).  Seems the first SA was actually better results even though the total count was lower because the number of motile sperm was higher with the higher motility percentage.  We don't even know about morph because they said sperm count wasn't high enough to test for it!  Our doctor is still recommending IUI though, but he's putting me straight on injectables to increase our chances.  I guess all I can do is hope for the best.  Glad to hear it worked for you!!!

jesselayne8

Good luck!!!

Gregermis

I had a BFP once when DH only had 1 million total motile after wash (he's MFI, but turns out his really didn't like the wash procedure).  It wound up being a c/p, though.

wifeinraleigh28

@Gregermis - thanks for sharing, I guess it's still good to know it is possible to conceive with low numbers.  Did you do a medicated IUI?

txb2920

@jesselayne8 - we too have low morph (1%) MFI and are doing IUI. Were you on any meds? I do my first IUI end of this week (Hod willing) and am really hopeful, but skeptical at the same time. Did you get a BFP after your first round, it did it take more than 1?

wifeinraleigh28

@txb2920.  I did a medicated IUI with follistim CD 3-8 and a trigger shot.  It didn't work though and after we found out that it didn't we met with a urologist who prescribed clomid for my husband.  I'm glad we're trying an alternate treatment because with our current numbers (we had 7 million sperm post wash at the IUI) my RE said we have less than a 10% chance of an IUI being successful.  The urologist thinks we can increase my husband's sperm count by taking him off androgel for his low T and using clomid instead.  So right now we're just in a waiting period to see if it works.  He gets another SA and blood work on the 28th.  Good luck with your IUI!

jesselayne8

@txb2920 it was our 3rd IUI with Gonal-F plus trigger.

txb2920

Thanks @jesselayne8

txb2920

Thank you @wifeinraleigh28

Vagarcia16

Hi there,

I guess I'm a little late to respond, but I wanted to share my experience with you, as my DH also had very low sperm count and motility. 

We've been TTC for about 4years with no success.  We finally decided to see a fertility specialist in February last year.  After lots of tests, we learned that I had mild PCOS (which didn't seem to be the cause of our fertility problem because I had been ovulating regularly) and my DH had very low sperm count and motility (only 5M with 15% motility). 

I have Kaiser health insurance, so we started there with fertility treatment.  My RE at Kaiser let us know that we could not even try IUI until DHs sperm count was at least 10M, as success rates are extremely low with sperm count less than 10M.  DH was recommended to take Fertility Aid supplements (vitamins) to increase his sperm count and was referred to a urologist.  The urologist couldn't find anything wrong, so he just kept taking the supplements.  The supplements worked! DH sperm count went up to 12M after 6 months.  ((Side note: my RE found that DH also had a lot of mucus in his sperm which was slowing down the motility.  RE recommended that DH take Mucinex for 2 weeks before IUI, that also worked! his motility improved!  Who would have thought that Mucinex could help with fertility?!))

We did our first IUI with Clomid, and the trigger shot.  Because sperm count was our issue, my RE recommended that we do two inseminations 24 hours apart.  We did get a positive pregnancy test, but it ended up being a chemical pregnancy.  We did our second round also with Clomid and the trigger shot, and again two inseminations 24 hours apart.  We got a positive test again.  Now I'm 13weeks pg, and through dna testing everything is looking normal and we learned that we're having a girl!

Don't give up!  Even with fairly severe MFI, we were able to get pregnant with IUI.  Good luck!  I hope you see that BFP soon!

wifeinraleigh28

Thank you so much for sharing your story @Vagarcia16!  That's amazing that you actually became pregnant with both IUIs, and that the 2nd is a healthy, viable pregnancy.  We actually just did IUI #2 on Saturday.  Post wash count was 9M, so 2M more than our first IUI.  He had a total count of 51M at our IUI but only 9M made it post wash due to low motility and morphology.  So it seems that the clomid that the urologist prescribed my DH did increase his sperm count, but motility is still an issue.  I'm not expecting a BFP but obviously very much hoping for one!