sperm analysis

[keepitgoing]

Hi, can anyone help? My husband has had a sa back, he has,a high count and good mobility, but only 3% normal. We've been trying almost a year. The gp said its borderline and the high count makes up for abnormal sperm.

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge. Will we have to go to icsi?

Thanks

[freelancescientist]

Possibly not as far as ICSI - the cut off where I work is 2% normal. However it would make us recommend IVF rather than the less invasive IUI, but different clinics have different cutoffs depending on their own labs (not drastically, and most take count and motility into consideration as well).
What age are you? Your GP should be referring you for fertility investigations soon.

[keepitgoing]

I'm 29, he's 30. I have had day 3 bloods, normal, awaiting day 21, but pretty sure I ovulate. Pct won't do more than that till we've been trying 2 years...

Is there much hope of a natural conception? We are already v healthy, barely drink, no hot baths etc, so I don't know what else we can do.

Thanks for your reply, am feeling quite devastated.

[keepitgoing]

I think the count was over 500 million

[minipie]

DH only had 3-4% normal and two doctors (GP and fertility consultant) said that was fine. He also had high count and overall quantity so maybe that made up for low ish normal forms.

I am now pregnant (without ivf/icsi/iui or anything else) so one of them must have got through...! Good luck

[wrighty2010]

Hi, when I was trying to conceive I took zita west vitafem they were a pre conception multi vitamin amogst other things, not sure it helped but I felt like I was doing something, I am mentioning it because I bought it from a website called Pride Angel and I remeber that they also did a male version so it may be worth looking into? I guess anything you can do to aid mother nature is a good thing!! Hope this helps, good luck xx

[AmandinePoulain]

My DH had similar results - high count but lowish normal forms (I can't remember the exact values sorry) but the GP said that low normal forms is not an issue - and that they've changed the criteria recently to be more 'strict' so that the majority of men actually have low results! It took us 8 months to conceive second time round but I miscarried, then 9 months for the third pregnancy (I'm now 20 weeks), so whilst it seemed like we were trying for a long time at the time, we weren't really in terms of what's 'normal'.

Dh did however have moderate 'clumping' in his first sample, and he started taking 1000mg vitamin C daily and pregnacare conception tablets. His results for all values subsequently improved so worth a try?

[HaveALittleFaithBaby]

I'd definitely get him taking a multivitamin with zinc in it, DH's really wasn't great and it improved a bit with that and reduction in baths.
In our circumstances, it turned out he had a hormone problem causing low testosterone.
Have they done bloods to look for the cause? Thyroid, prolactin? I would push them to check his prolactin levels if they haven't already. A lot of things causing problems with SA are potentially reversible. Now DH's hormones have been treated he should be in normal ranges.
We were told even if his SA didn't improve iui would be a good option, they could spin the sperm to make it more concentrated to give the best chance of conception so that may be an option. Hope you get it sorted.

[minipie]

Oh yes, DH was taking a fertility multi vit the month we got the BFP. So maybe that helped. (though I think the real difference was getting my thyroid sorted).

[keepitgoing]

Thanks everyone. He's been taking a multivit the last 8 months it so. I think we'll get the test repeated and then see about blood tests.

As they say, we only need one, and there are lots of millions of good ones...

[whereismywine]

Our first SA was 3% with high count and mobility, second was 7%. they said the first was borderline but consider the second to be fine. So they do change. I'm now on 16th cycle of trying (and god is it trying) but we also have potential fibroid issues on my side too. There are lots of people on these boards who conceive with these levels but I do think it maybe takes a bit longer so try not to think the worst or that you can't do it naturally. I was gutted with the first result but now just hope that we need more time as a couple and wont consider IVF til we have crossed the two year mark at least. There are good sperm and swimmers in there but it just needs one to reach the finish line. Actually this morning I was reading the great sperm race PDF and it does me good to remind myself just what an obstacle course the female reproductive tract is! Hopefully one month soon, everything will align as it should. All the best to you. The 10plus months board is a very friendly place to wait it out.

[whereismywine]

Oh and pine bark supplement is supposed to really help with morphology.

[kittysaysmiaow]

keepitgoing Hi, sorry you have been upset about this. Just thought I'd quickly share my story in the hope it gives you some encouragement. We were TTC since August 2010, over that time my DH had three SA's done, the morphology results were 2%, 7% and