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Infertility
fallbride110406
member
Ladies that have done sperm DNA frag. test
fallbride110406
member
in Infertility
My husband and I are more than likely going to pursue this test (I've seen it called both SCSA and sperm DNA fragmentation testing) due to our miscarriage, our poor fertilization/embryo survival rate, and low morph. For the ladies that have had this test done, how much did it cost and did the outcome change your treatment decisions? In other words, if your fragmentation rate came back really high (over 30%) did you choose to keep using your husband's sperm, or did you look into donor sperm or adoption?
We're trying to cover all of the bases here with our testing before deciding what to do for our next steps and I'm trying to get a feel for how seriously I should take this test if it comes back bad. My RE seemed to brush it off as something used more to determine if you should do IUI vs. IVF w/ ICSI, but what I'm reading said that even with IVF, if the DNA fragmentation is above 30%, it's very unlikely that it will result in a live birth no matter how it's used (TI, IUI, IVF, etc.).
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Re: Ladies that have done sperm DNA frag. test
You didn't say SAIFW but I thought I'd give your our experience anyway. We had it done, I believe it was around $300 but not completely sure. Ours came back extremely high, 80%. Recommendation was still the same to go ahead with IVF/ICSI. Honestly, I'm not sure why I'd do it, good info for me to have but not much we could really do with it.
The miscarriage rate in first 10 weeks is increased because of the high precentage from what I read, our doctor (as well as the one at Cornell we saw for a second opinion), wasn't too wowed by that statistic. However our clinic told us the trick to decrease that rate is to get good quality eggs to make up for sperm issues. I was on stims for 13 days with the eggs growing very slowly and estrogen rising slowly. I got my BFP on my first IVF/ICSI.
Also, what increases your chances is PICSI to use with ICSI. Look it up and I'd suggest if you have severe male factor to find a clinic that uses it. It allows them to pick the sperm that can attach to the egg by having a substance in the dish that looks like the substance at the end of our eggs. So they aren't randomly picking what they think are good swimmers, but the ones that they actually see attach well to the substance. Our clinic has only been using it since September but their success rate is amazing from it. I think personally everyone using ICSI should have PICSI with it.
Obviously I haven't given birth but I'm out of the miscarriage time frame that would be from the DNA Frag, which again, the doctors weren't really entertaining that rate so much since miscarraige rate the first trimester is already increased due to IVF. My doctors were more concerned about the embryos not making it to transfer. Turned out they has 2 to transfer at a 5 day blast (that were literally perfect) and 3 were frozen on day 6! My advice, trust your doctors on this issue and not google as much. I'm all about researching it all, but go into it positive and find a good doctor you trust.
We did it after our third IVF resulted in a canceled transfer since all embies died. The RE actually recommended it - said it couldn't hurt and might reveal a problem. DH had readings that were better than average, so it kind of helped us narrow the problem to me. That said, I am terrified that we'll have embie problems even with the egg donor, but since DH has been so extensively tested it's likely that it was indeed just my eggs.
It's worth it for peace of mind at least, and there are ways to improve the fragmentation if it comes back high (high dose antioxidant therapy).
It cost us around $400 and was not covered by insurance. I'm still glad we did it.
GL
I am a runner, knitter, scientist, DE-IVF veteran, and stage III colon cancer survivor.
"It's worth it for peace of mind at least, and there are ways to improve the fragmentation if it comes back high (high dose antioxidant therapy). "
That's right.... I completely forgot all my husband had to do for 6 months leading up to the IVF, we had to give it 6 months for pills/meds to work. He just had so many issues I forget what went with what! Go ahead and do it, but listen to your doctors on this one not google about all the increased rates.
In addition to our other issues, the reason we're considering doing the SCSA is that my husband has been on anti-depressants for several years on and off and there are several studies that list pretty much every drug he's been on as severely altering the DNA of sperm to the point of not fertilizing or causing early miscarriage at a higher rate than average. Everything on my end was perfect as far as egg quality, stimming for 9 days, and the 3 we did have make it to day 5.
Our concern (and our RE's) is that our fert rate was *awful*, even with my perfect eggs and ICSI. Our RE kind of brushed the test off, but also said if it would give us peace of mind or more information to consider our options, that he would have no problem doing it and he has done it for those very reasons in the past. The only reason I looked into the test was because my husband's doctor that controls his anti-depressants suggested the connection between the medicine and the DNA fragmentation.
Good luck to you. I know how hard it is to go through all this. I wish you all the best.
We just had our SCSA test done and don't have the results back yet. It cost $350 to order it from the SCSA lab website, you go to your own clinic and provide the sample which gets mailed to the clinic and they send the results back.
My RE at Cornell didn't think the SCSA results would matter much, as he thinks in my particular case, the reason I have tons of eggs and embies die off quickly and nothing to freeze is that they are stimming too much and need to trigger me at smaller lead follie #s. I'm not particularly convinced, esp since we don't have our DNA results back yet, so no decisions on what to do yet.
Good luck!