does sperm count fluctuate?

CLaNa · February 2012

Hi Ladies,

I had my first IUI this morning (we were just doing TI the last few months) and the doctor informed me that my husband's sperm count was low. It was 1.6 mil post wash. They gave him an A+ after his semen analysis so now I'm worried about what's going on. She said it could just be a fluke, but I can't help but wonder if the analysis was the fluke and this is the norm. I responded really well to the clomid and didn't get pregnant. Does sperm count often fluctuate? Should I push for another semen analysis? The doctor (my RE's partner) said that we will see how it is at the next IUI, but I don't want to go through the expense of another injectable cycle and deal with all the needles if there is another problem we need to address.

Thanks

meganfauer · February 2012

It absolutely can fluctuate. Men reproduce sperm every 90 days. And in my experience my husbands 4 SA's were all different but the 1st one was catastrophic. The 1st one was what made us go straight to IVF and since then his last 3 are actually average, minus a low sperm count (but not terribly low). Stay positive.

I am not a big all natural person but I will say that my husband takes alot of vitamins and super foods that help with count, motility and morphology. We thought what do we have to lose, so I would recommend looking into that.

CLaNa · February 2012

meganfauer:

It absolutely can fluctuate. Men reproduce sperm every 90 days. And in my experience my husbands 4 SA's were all different but the 1st one was catastrophic. The 1st one was what made us go straight to IVF and since then his last 3 are actually average, minus a low sperm count (but not terribly low). Stay positive.

I am not a big all natural person but I will say that my husband takes alot of vitamins and super foods that help with count, motility and morphology. We thought what do we have to lose, so I would recommend looking into that.

Thanks for your response. I will look into it. I'm so lost as to how he can get an A+ at his analysis and now have it so low. They said we were very close to having to cancel the IUI.

KdgTeacher · February 2012

What was his count for the SA? I know MH had a "huge drop" from that to our IUI (160mil at SA to 20mil at IUI). However, they are only keeping the best sperm, so that would explain some number dropping.

Honestly, I'm surprised they didn't cancel you with those numbers

CLaNa · February 2012

KdgTeacher:

What was his count for the SA? I know MH had a "huge drop" from that to our IUI (160mil at SA to 20mil at IUI). However, they are only keeping the best sperm, so that would explain some number dropping.

Honestly, I'm surprised they didn't cancel you with those numbers

I don't remember what his count was at his SA, but I left a message for my nurse asking her to call me with those numbers. I just know they said he had "excellent" results and an "A+". I'm so frustrated because they didn't even consider doing an IUI for the first three treatment cycles since his numbers were so good. Now that I'm reading everything online, I'm also surprised they didn't cancel. My RE is out of the office for the next couple of days and I'm so upset about this. I wish I could talk to her about it.

Temp423319000008365 · February 2012

Sperm cycles about 90 days or so, so depending on what was going on 90 days ago, counts can definitely fluctuate. From my research, caffeine and alcohol can really affect counts. My DH has stopped caffeine, alcohol and started eating some "superfoods" and taking a whole concoction of vitamins and it appears to be helping. I would definitely do another SA before you do another IUI. No sense in wasting money!

CLaNa · February 2012

Rebecki1414:
Sperm cycles about 90 days or so, so depending on what was going on 90 days ago, counts can definitely fluctuate. From my research, caffeine and alcohol can really affect counts. My DH has stopped caffeine, alcohol and started eating some "superfoods" and taking a whole concoction of vitamins and it appears to be helping. I would definitely do another SA before you do another IUI. No sense in wasting money!

My husband is definitely going to stop drinking caffeine and alcohol now that we got these results this morning. He takes a daily vitamin but that's about it. I am just so stunned that it could drop so dramatically in such a short period of time.

weddinginbloom · February 2012

We went to a top urologist last year and he told us that sperm count naturally fluctuates in cycles over a year or so. He said that DH's sample was great but that he recommends freezing sperm because of the natural fluctuation. We haven't done that, but I thought it was an interesting point.

Gregermis · February 2012

Definitely, our pre-wash sperm counts (Tot Motile post wash if done) were something like

15,

11 (1),

21 (6),

6(2.3),

15 (6),

15 (10),

21 (??)

CLaNa · February 2012

Thanks for your responses! My nurse finally called me back last night and she gave me additional information that the RE filling in for my RE didn't bother to mention. His pre-wash count was normal (~40 mil) with 47% motility (a bit low) but he lost almost everything in the wash resulting in the 1.6 mil. So frustrating! We are going to do another semen analysis with a test wash. I don't understand why they didn't do a test wash the first time.

does sperm count fluctuate?

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