New to blogging, even newer to infertility diagnosis

cricci05 · January 2016

Hello all. My husband and I had been TTC conceive unsuccessfully for over a year. We discovered this fall my husband has less than 1% sperm count. He did a further work up with urology and it was recommended we go down the road of IVF to conceive. We then spent a few months obtaining insurance referrals to be seen by Boston IVF. So now we are anxiously waiting for our consult on February 23rd.

I would love to hear from people about their male infertility journey and thoughts. I am finding it hard to find information on male infertility. I am hoping this is the right forum for discussion. It's easy to feel alone quickly when this is the path before you.

This journey is very new to me, I have a lot to learn. I would love to hear from others.

cmm012 · January 2016

Welcome to the infertility group. I cannot address your specific request for male factor infertility, but I know several of the women here are in similar situations. I wanted to welcome you, and I hope your first consult and IVF journey go smoothly and successfully.

tvh1982 · January 2016

Welcome!
I can't help you out with male infertility, but wanted to make you feel welcome in this group.
GL on your journey

ecb3588 · January 2016

Hi @cricci05! My situation is not exactly the same as yours, but there are similarities. My husband had a vasectomy that was unable to be successfully reversed which left IVF as our only option. He had a procedure to biopsy the sperm, and since we have a limited amount of sperm, our IVF cycle included ICSI. So in that way, our cycles will probably alike in that we are both dealing with a limited amount of swimmers. ICSI tends to have a pretty good fertilization rate, too. Do you know if your DH will be having a biopsy to get the sperm by his urologist? Any other questions I'd be happy to try and answer. So far I've been through a fresh IVF cycle and transfer and a frozen embryo transfer! I wish you good luck!

vssbrm · January 2016

@cricci05 our biggest issue thus far seems to point to my husbands low SA results, his count is ok, motility is ok, but his morphology is low, and the range has varied from very low to a bit better. His little guys do not have acrosomal caps, so they are unable to penetrate my eggs. We are hoping IVF is the trick! We will be doing ICSI to ensure that the sperm can get to the egg.

Good luck to you on your journey! Keep us posted on what the urologist says!

wifeinraleigh28 · January 2016

Welcome @cricci05! We also have a male factor infertility diagnosis. My husband has low T, which is genetic, and the supplement he was taking to increase his T levels (androgel) was causing very low sperm count. We ended up being referred to a urologist who changed his medication to clomid and then tapered him off androgel. This helped improve his sperm count, though he still has low motility at 35%.

What do you mean by 1% sperm count? Do you mean it was 1 million? It does sound like you've covered all your bases though in terms of working with a urologist. IVF is a wonderful option for those dealing with MFI. It is definitely something we are planning to do if we are unsuccessful with doing other methods.

mrsstarski86 · January 2016

Hi! Male infertility is our issue as well. We sought help after two-ish years of trying. The first urologist my husband saw diagnosed him with azoospermia (no sperm). IVF with donor sperm was supposed to be our only option.

He had repeated SAs done and they all showed zero sperm. We had to delay our IVF planning due to my father passing away. Now that we are back at it, we were referred to an urologist specializing in male factor infertility. He performs TESE procedures. He wanted another SA done and they magically found two sperm - one alive and one dead. We were thrilled to know my husband has sperm! For some reason, his body turned around and they've been able to collect a few vials of sperm for our IVF process. We will also be doing the ICSI to help the process.

I think knowing that your husband has sperm is a great thing, it was one of the hardest times for us having to have that donor sperm conversation.

In comparison, there isn't that much out there in terms of male infertility information. Read as much as you can. I found a lot of basic terms and definitions on https://theturekclinic.com/. They run a blog that has tons of information.

Good luck!

caitiemae · January 2016

Hello and welcome! Just did IVF w/ ICSI this fall due to male infertility. My husband was born without a vas deferens and had to have his sperm surgically aspirated. Even with immature sperm and very little (the lab said only maybe 15 extra sperm were still alive), we still had 7 out of 8 eggs fertilize! Since they've developed the ICSI procedure, male infertility cases have pretty high IVF success rates. Best of luck in the upcoming months!

cricci05 · January 2016

Thanks everyone for the responses! I have a lot to learn since we are very early into this process. I am so anxious for the 23rd to learn more. Not sure if we are doing ICSI. I am still nervous about the costs! They haven't told us that yet. I am pretty sure they are not extracting his sperm, it was found on the analysis. No one has mentioned on any of the SAs about morphology and motility. So I will have to ask about that.

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New to blogging, even newer to infertility diagnosis

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