Ivf and sperm health, won’t thaw

knottiee43452356ec65a2e · January 2022

So I am curious is anyone else has experienced something similar. We are doing ivf due to male infertility, we have been told the sperm is very low count and low mobility.
We got 11 mature eggs this morning, which is awesome!!
I just got a call that they thawed two Vials from the sperm biopsy and there were only 3 living sperm and they looked like they were very unlikely to result in anything. Barley moving, pocket of something around the head of one, etc. but they recommend not even trying to thaw the other 3 vials of sperm Bc the embryologist said if they were that bad out of the two vials, it probably won’t get any better, so we are going to freeze my eggs and work more on his sperm health.

I am just confused Bc I was under the impression ivf was great for “crap sperm”, you know, the slow and struggling sperm. I thought that was the point, was to be able to do icsi with struggling sperm. Also, is it common to not even try with other frozen sperm samples??

I understood they think if we work on his sperm health for A bit more, do another biopsy, and then try the lab with them fresh, instead of frozen, they think there will be more sperm and more movement. But I am just a bit confused and overwhelmed.

Side note of context- he dosnt produce sperm naturally, that is why I am saying sperm biopsy, we did a testicular biopsy to see if there was viable sperm months ago that was then verified as seeing low motility sperm and frozen to wait for our egg retrieval.

mbradfo2 · February 2022

The major concern with sperm quality is something they can't see -- DNA fragmentation. Barely moving sperm and only -3- alive from the whole vial is a major red flag that there is something seriously wrong with the sperm, likely major DNA fragmentation. Even if they can fertilize with ICSI (and even for healthy sperm, this isn't a guarantee), there is a very high chance that the embryos will arrest at some point in development. Trust me -- you don't want to waste eggs with potentially non-viable sperm. It wouldn't have hurt to thaw the remaining vials but it would have likely been a waste of your time and theirs. It's not likely that there would have been any change in the remaining vials.

There is a tool that labs can use now to identify DNA fragmentation in sperm and separate out the good ones from the bad -- I totally am blanking on the name now though. You can always research that and consider using that plus techniques to improve sperm health -- but if he doesn't produce sperm naturally, I'm not sure how much they will help since most influence the hormones that control the production of sperm and I'm not sure how that would work for him.

inthewoods23 · February 2022

@mbradfo2 Are you thinking of ZyMot? It was mentioned on the TTGP a little while ago and I remember that being and even stricter method for selecting sperm than ICSI.

mbradfo2 · February 2022

@inthewoods23
Yep, that's it! I don't know much about it or if many clinics have access to the technology but I've heard good things from couples with MFI.

inthewoods23 · February 2022

@mbradfo2 when I googled it, it is fairly new technology (less than 10 years old IIRC). Might be a while before it's offered everywhere. Maybe someday it will become the standard as I know some clinics do ICSI as their default method for fertilization over the traditional IVF.

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