[SarieP]

Hello ladies. I am very sad to be here today but at least there are people going through the same thing I am. My name is Sarah (24) DH is Charlie (30) and we have been TTC for 6 months. I have been having long cycles (as you can see in my siggie) so I went to the doc and was sort of diagnosed with PCOS.

I just found out at my drs office that DH has male factor infertility. He had a SA done last week and his count was 9.8 million with a sperm morphology of 3%. The other number was something about motility and it should be above 50 but it was 20 something. We are devestated.

My dr did not want to treat me for PCOS until we can figure out something with DH. I don't want a child with someone elses sperm but I have no idea what any of these numbers mean. We have an appt at an infertility clinic in 2 weeks

[Daisee37]

Aww, I'm sorry you're going to have to go through all this. Your story is similar to mine. We originally went to the RE because I had very long cycles and I wanted to get Clomid or something to make them more regular. Our RE wanted to be very thorough, and even though we had just started TTC, she ordered all the labwork, including a S/A. Shockingly, DH had 200,000 sperm (with like, 4% morphology and something like 10% motility). It's heartbreaking news, especially when you don't see it coming!

I can tell you what we've done, but I don't know how much that'll help you. With DH's count, IUI wasn't an option, so we did 2 rounds of IVF. First was a BFN, second was a chemical pregnancy (i.e. very early miscarriage). After that I couldn't deal with IVF any more, so we did end up switching to IUI with donor sperm and now we have our 2 year old son. I'm back here now because we're TTC #2. I was originally against the idea of donor sperm, but DH actually liked the idea, and after IVF didn't work and I really didn't want to do it again, I warmed up to the idea of a donor. But using a donor definitely isn't the best choice for everyone, and you guys are in the beginning of your journey, so you'll have some time to figure out what you want to do. There will be a lot of decisions coming up, but the ladies on these message boards are fantastic and I'm sure can help you out.

[missmaggimay]

Welcome, I hope your stay is short and you recieve your BFP very soon. I was diagnosed with PCOS and immediately went to an infertility clinic. After 3 failied IUI cycles we discovered that DH has a low sperm count. We were sent to a urologist to basically find out that don't know exaclty what is causing it. So we just started our first IVF cycle. Good Luck I know the news is heartbreaking but your on the right path.

[Hoosier Kitty]

I'm so sorry you found out. I was VERY devastated when I found out DH's sperm count was 8.2 mil with ZERO motility!
Hang in there... IVF/ICSI is best option for MFI. Good luck!

[SarieP]

Originally Posted by Daisee37

Aww, I'm sorry you're going to have to go through all this. Your story is similar to mine. We originally went to the RE because I had very long cycles and I wanted to get Clomid or something to make them more regular. Our RE wanted to be very thorough, and even though we had just started TTC, she ordered all the labwork, including a S/A. Shockingly, DH had 200,000 sperm (with like, 4% morphology and something like 10% motility). It's heartbreaking news, especially when you don't see it coming!

I can tell you what we've done, but I don't know how much that'll help you. With DH's count, IUI wasn't an option, so we did 2 rounds of IVF. First was a BFN, second was a chemical pregnancy (i.e. very early miscarriage). After that I couldn't deal with IVF any more, so we did end up switching to IUI with donor sperm and now we have our 2 year old son. I'm back here now because we're TTC #2. I was originally against the idea of donor sperm, but DH actually liked the idea, and after IVF didn't work and I really didn't want to do it again, I warmed up to the idea of a donor. But using a donor definitely isn't the best choice for everyone, and you guys are in the beginning of your journey, so you'll have some time to figure out what you want to do. There will be a lot of decisions coming up, but the ladies on these message boards are fantastic and I'm sure can help you out.

Wow, our stories are pretty similar. I'm hoping we don't have to get to the point of using donor sperm but who knows? So getting IUI depends upon their sperm count. It seems to me that I've read most couples with MFI basically have to start with IUI. I don't even know what else they could really do for him Congrats on your 2 year old though

I'm afraid of having to spend a whole ton of money on this now because of his counts. My dr couldn't tell me if we would be able to get pregnant on our own, get pregnant with help, or even get pregnant at all (with my egg and DH sperm) and that's what really scares me

Thanks for the support ladies

Hi! I'm Aimee (26) and DH is Adam (26). We found out in Aug. 2009 that DH has 0 sperm count, so we aren't in quite the same boat, but I'll still share our story with you. We tried IVF this Dec. 2009 and through a fresh sperm harvest they found 5 sperm after hours of looking, unfortunately the IVF cycle resulted in a BFN.

As hard as it is to be patient, I recommend finding a good urologist who will look into anything and everything that will improve DH's sperm count/motility/morphology and see what can be done before you start thinking about IVF or donor sperm. I know after ttc for a long time that is hard to do and I didn't do it we rushed into IVF because we thought for sure it would work, and emotionally I had a really hard time after IVF failed. Now we are taking things a little slower and my DH is currently taking Clomid to try and improve his sperm count, we're praying for a miracle, but realistically just hoping that Clomid makes it possible to have a baby with DH's sperm.

As far as donor sperm goes, I was very against it in August, but surprisingly DH brought it up and still to this day is ready to move to donor sperm. He wants to be a daddy and will love our baby no matter what it takes to get us there. I still have doubts and feel like I'm giving up on DH's sperm if I agree to donor, but after having a failed IVF cycle it's tough to keep going. IF you guys get to the point where you are considering donor sperm, just make sure you have lots of talks about it, it's not a decision that one person can make for the both and it's a tough decision to make.

Any treatment they may want to do will take 3 months for results to show up on a s/a, so just try to remember that the most important thing is having a baby, not how fast you get there. Good luck and I am very sorry you are having to deal with this. If you have any questions feel free to ask! Sorry this post was a bit rambly.

[BeckyM]

I'm so sorry you're having to go thru these difficulties. With us, we found out after a year of TTC that DH had no spermies. He was born with a genetic condition, and even when they went looking for spermies in the testes he unfortunately didn't have any. Like several of the other ladies here, my DH too was the first to bring up using donor sperm. We took several months off to both emotionally grieve the fact we would never have children biologically connected to both of us and then we made our decision to proceed using donor sperm. We researched the various banks and found a donor with the same ethnicity as DH and many similar characteristics. We got pg with our 2nd IUI cycle using donor sperm, and will be having our little boy in early May. We realize donor sperm isn't the best option for everyone, but for us we're very happy with our decision. I hope you can get more answers from your doctor, even other opinions, and do recommend you taking some time off to thoroughly discuss and decide what is best for you and your DH. Only you two together can decide what are your best choices. Good luck & keep us posted!!

[SarieP]

Thank you ladies so much for your stories! It makes me feel a little better that there is a baby somewhere out there for us

DH is pretty upset with himself (even though it's not his fault) but he just keeps researching online and saying "well we could do this or maybe even this". So cute! He even said he would take the Fertli-Aid from early-pregnancy-tests.com We are going to continue trying and just take more drastic measures to get his guys up there.

Anyone on here ever use PreSeed?

[Daisee37]

Whether you do IUI, IVF, or other medications and treatments depends very heavily on your preferences, your financial situation, and DH's sperm count (and cause for it). In our case, with a count of only 200,000, IUI just wasn't an option. Sometimes when people have a count over a couple million, doctors may want to start with IUI. But it also depends on the morphology and motility. Furthermore, sometimes there is a correctable cause for the low count - hormone imbalances, chemical exposure, illness, or a varicocele (a vein abnormality in the testes). If the count is low from a viral infection, it may improve on its own or with meds. If it's from low testosterone or some other hormonal imbalance, that may be correctable too. Varicoceles can be surgically corrected with some success. So the route you guys go may depend on what the cause is for your DH's abnormalities, as well as what you have to work with. With a count of 9.8 million, there's a chance you might want to do IUI first. But definitely go see a urologist that specialized in male infertility so they can run all the tests and see if they can figure out what's wrong.

In our case, there was no detectable cause for DH's problems... his hormones, testes, genes, and everything else were just fine. Since it wasn't likely that we could significantly improve his S/A with meds, that's why we went right to IVF.

Hopefully you'll be able to get some answers, either from your RE or a good urologist, and then you'll have more information that you can use to decide where to go from there.

[.H.e.a.t.h.e.r.]

I remember the feeling when we found out about dh's issue. It's really really hard to take. I'm sorry you have to go through this too. I think because he does have sperm you can do IVF but I'm no expert.
For us they couldnt guarantee they could even get any if they took them directly from the testicles so we just went right to donor sperm.

I completely understand you not wanting another man's baby. I am sure that was harder for me to deal with then it was for my dh to be honest. He was the first to mention donor sperm as well.

Anyway I really hope you dont have to go that route.

[Celena]

bump