[bbm0128]

Hello all - just looking for some other people's experiences or advice/encouragement...

My husband is a cancer survivor. He's considered "healed" for almost 10 years now. He had a form of Leukemia. Anyway, he hasn't been tested yet, but he thinks that he doesn't have viable sperm because of the cancer treatments (full body radiation) and chemo. He's going for his test at the end of May. Anyone else deal with this problem?

I've done some research on the internet, but everything I've turned up hasn't really helped answer questions or at least give me some kind of statistics where I don't get my hopes up that he will have some kind of viable sperm. Because right now, he's convinced that he doesn't and I can't bring myself to believe that - I'm a more "I'll believe it when I see it and deal with it then" kind of girl.

My way of thinking is that if he can't biologically reproduce, then let me worry about it when we find out for sure, and not agonize over it until then. He's sort of the opposite; doesn't want to get his hopes up.

Anyone else deal with anything similar to this?

Thanks in advance for any advice/help/encouragement....

~bbm

[BeckyM]

I don't have any experience with that, so I'm just offering up some hugs & I hope you get some good news with the test results in May. Keep us posted!!

[bbm0128]

Thank you! I will!

[Mommylmv]

Hi, I also have a similar situation, my husband had cancer 5 years ago and had chemo as well as lost a testicle and a kidney, I was 4 months pregnant at the time he was diagnosed, our son is going on 5 in July, we would really like to have another, me especially would like a girl nothing at all had happened in these almost 5 years, but, his doctor recently said sometimes after several years there's a chance it might happen, so now I'm excited and obsessed with trying ! Lol. Hope your get happy news after your husbands visit to the dr

[mademiev]

Hello,


My husband had testicular cancer nearly five years ago. We were told at the time by both his urologist and oncologist that we would never have children again. Well, at the end of July we were VERY surprised to find out we are expecting.

[Kellymack]

Hi bbm, this is my very first post ever but our situations are so similar that I had to speak up. My husband is a survivor of a bone cancer that he had at age 16 and like your husband had full body irradiation as well as chemo that decreases fertility. I knew his fertility was in question when we started dating 10 yrs ago but he was so wonderful that I never thought twice.

Last year we started very early stage ttc planning, and he got a semenalysis which showed a zero sperm count. It was not unexpected, but I'd adopted the same optimistic mind frame as you're talking about and it was a big blow. I cried a bunch, it was all more than I expected given how well informed I'd been for years. So, I'd tell you don't give up hope and dont stop bing optimistic, but just know that even though you have all the info, you'll still be really emotionally affected if you get actual medical confirmation of absolute male infertility. I never found the stats either - they're really poorly studied - but our doctors told us anecdotally that they were less than 10%. But your experience may be different... The different drugs and treatment have significant differences.

But it's not all bad, fast forward one year and we're just about to start our first iui cycle with donor sperm. my husband was super involved in donor selection and is fully on board and psyched now. Our re requires a counseling session for any donor tissue procedures, it was super helpful and we haven't looked back since. My husband's concerns about not being the "real" father were really eased after that meeting and he's just excited and ready for a baby now!

Okay, sorry so long, just wanted to let you now you're not the only one. There are highs and lows but you will get pregnant one way or another!

[bbm0128]

Kellymack,

Thank you for your post... I'm just now reading it. I had to stay away from the boards for awhile because we found out that in addition to what we thought would be a problem on his reproductive end, that my tubes were 99% blocked. It took me the better part of a year to come to terms and accept that I had options and it would be okay, but to be honest, seeing/hearing about other pregnancies was like a knife wound every time.

Anyways, after finding all of that out, my husband was taking some hormone treatments. We thought there might have been a possibility that he could reproduce. We found out in December that radiation zapped all of his swimmers. We decided to go the route of donor sperm but haven't had our first cycle as of yet. We are thinking of trying for the March cycle which technically begins in about 3 weeks.

We haven't chosen our DS yet... we wavered between using a family member or just going with someone unknown to us. I think we are leaning towards the unknown, but trying for someone who is relatively similar to my husband. It's a very odd process though, for me.

Thank you for the encouragement & I hope you are doing well!