Low sperm

lylf

Hi everyone,

we’ve been struggling for 2 years and my DH tried HcG injections. They worked wonderfully. He went from have less than a million sperm to 61 million with 31% motility. However, the urologist did some bloodwork and said it messed with his hormones and discontinued treatment. 

Then he had a varicocelectomy in both testes. It’s been 2 months and since then he’s had 2 analysis. The first one said he had 4 million mobile sperm with a 16% motility rate. Actual count was higher but I can’t remember. Then we decided to do a sperm pool for an iui and 2 weeks after the first analysis post surgery we collected. The results were even worse. He had 600k sperm with a 7% motility rate. 

I know it hasn’t been 3 months since the surgery but we are really shocked to see even lower numbers than pre injections. Pre injections were at least 900k. 

Has anyone gone through this? Would love to hear your outcomes or stories or any knowledge you might have on the subject. 

I told myself I wouldn’t get my hopes up that I had given up expecting anything else. I knew if the numbers were good I would be pleased but I wouldn’t be doing a dance or expecting it to make a difference. Yet now I am crushed. 

I really just want this nightmare to be over and for DH to get onboard with adoption. My goal is one biological one adopted and one whatever. I want to be a mom. I want to adopt first and we can keep trying for a biological but right now I just feel stuck and like I’ll never be a mom. 

inthewoods23

@lylf I don't have any experience related to your situation nor do I know a whole lot about the adoption process, but from what I have heard many adoption agencies will not take you on as a client until you are fully done with infertility treatments. I don't know if that stays true if you specifically want to adopt first, but certainly something to keep in mind as you move forward.

I think a lot of agencies do that so that you don't abandon the process when you do get pregnant. I'm sure they see that as wasting valuable resources and time. And I can only imagine how difficult it would be for a woman putting her newborn up for adoption to go through the hard process of selecting a family only to be told they have to go through that all over again because the selected family backed out now that they were expecting their own biological child.

Is YH on any kind of multivitamin or supplements? Those can help help count and motility although YMMV.

There are a lot of tough conversations that need to be had going through infertility and I hope you and YH can work it out to come up with a plan for moving forward. Good luck!

lylf

thank you. Yes I figured that would be a reason that they want me to stop pursuing fertility treatment. I just to find an agency that will hear me out. I want both types of children. I wanted that since I was 14. I wouldn’t back out. Like Monica tells Chandler, “what do you mean what do we do? We are taking them home those are our babies!” I think it would be wonderful to have both grow together close in age. 

Anyways this forum is focused on TTC with infertility. Not dealing with infertility through other means. 

I’m so exhausted from all this. It’s like taking one step forward and falling down 10 flights of stairs. 

stephers620

We just found out we have make factor infertility too! Don’t have much knowledge to share but here for comments to learn more about what we may be facing 

sarah0125

We also have male infertility factor. My spouse was told there’s really nothing he can do about it but they did recommend a supplement (called conception- can order on Amazon I think about $60 a bottle). He also takes Coq10 daily and fish oil. I try to encourage him to eat plenty of fruits and veggies for antioxidant benefits. And avoid anything too hot (like super hot showers and no baths). Also no smoking/vaping/dip or alcohol. I think beyond that’s it’s pretty out of our control. We’ll know more during our IVF this month to see if any of the supplements or lifestyle changes made any difference w his count. Fingers crossed for some good strong swimmers

microlady

Hi All! We are also dealing with low sperm count and motility issues and went down the rabbit hole of trying to address that before proceeding to IVF. It takes 3 months to see any changes in sperm production, so this can be a long time to wait for many of us. Some questions I wish we had asked before we committed to this:

1. With "enter treatment here" what kind of improvement can we hope to see? (how high can we get the counts, will motility improve?)
2. How high do we need to get the counts and motility for each treatment option (ovulation induction/timed intercourse, IUI, etc.)
3. What is the likelihood we achieve the results we need with this treatment in order to do "X" (ovulation induction, IUI, etc.)?

I felt we went into this a little blind because I did not really understand how low a count of 700K was with 25% motility. My doctor did go over the numbers compared to normal numbers but there was so much information its hard to process everything immediately. So far, I have learned that there is a minimum sperm count make IUI worth a try and this count varies depending on how the sperm is washed. I have also learned that it is quite common after varicocele surgery to see an initial improvement in sperm production and then to return to low counts. I did not even know about sperm pooling as an option.

@lylf As far as your numbers for 600K vs initial 900K, I believe the doc would consider these to be equivalent. I would think of sperm counts in the sense of thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands, millions, 10 millions, etc. These are both in the hundred thousands, so similar counts (my husband's counts also fluctuate around this level). It might matter more when you are looking at millions and 10 millions to qualify for treatments like IUI.

Unfortunately, my husband tried clomid and his response hormonally was great, but the counts did not budge. We found later that he has a genetic factor that is most likely contributing to this. Maybe without a genetic factor, it is possible to see more significant improvements.

I think every experience is different because so many factors can lead to fertility issues (explained and unexplained), so it's all worth a try. It's just important to ask the right questions so that you know how to make an informed decision of what path to try. I feel many docs want you to stay hopeful, so they try not to bog you down with success rates and numbers. Personally, I like to have numbers and odds to help make a decision. Lastly, everyone responds differently, so they never know if you will be the exception!

Hope this helps! Good luck to you all :)