Sperm DNA fragmentation

[twinkledag]

Anyone had any success in lowering levels of sperm dna fragmentation?

[Cariad2017]

Twinkle - I’ll need to come back to you on this. DH has taken a course of antibiotics in the hope of improving his results (as analysis suggested that the higher than average levels of fragmentation could have been caused by an infection). He gets the results of the subsequent SA next Friday.

We’re seeing Dr Jonathan Ramsay in London for MFI, and so far he’s been excellent.

[hoping2018]

Hi @twinkledag , no luck lowering but we did surgical sperm retrieval on our second cycle to try and overcome the dna problem and it seemed to make all the difference. (Fingers crossed)

Cycle 1 we got no good quality blasts on day 5, cycle 2 with sperm retrieval I am 6+6 pregnant and awaiting scan on Monday and have two Frosties too. Cost almost £2000 but so worth the money!

[twinkledag]

Thanks both and congrats @hoping2018!

We got 5 blasts last time but ended up with a MC and a BFN. So wondering what the problem is. DH's fragmentation was just over 20 which isn't even that bad

[hoping2018]

Hi @twinkledag my husbands was only 19.8! I was surprised they agreed to do the SST!

[twinkledag]

That's interesting - thanks hoping. Which clinic are you with?

[hoping2018]

Bath fertility clinic.

I read a few papers before hand - no massive data on it but small studies there are show SST helps.

[twinkledag]

Fab - thanks

[Cariad2017]

Twinkle - DH’s results weren’t great initially but he managed to reduce the fragmentation from 32 to 24 as a result of a combination of a dose of antibiotics for a potential infection; cutting out processed and red meat as much as possible; adopting an “Eastern Mediterranean” style diet with lots of superfoods (including kale) and reducing the amount of time between samples being produced.

His caffeine/ alcohol intake was already pretty low at the point of the first sample (although reducing both of those and taking the usual array of male vitamins caused his morphology to improve from 1 and 2% last Summer to 7% this Spring). Count and motility have always been very good.

I have no idea whether this will make a jot of difference to our first ICSI attempt later this Summer but I am encouraged that his metrics are now back within the normal range, and within a range where ICSI and IVF success are more likely (whereas they weren’t previously).

[Cariad2017]

Hoping - Congratulations on your pregnancy. That’s really interesting re: SST. I think we’ll have a shot at ICSI initially, but if that fails, may well look into SST. From what we’ve been told it is likely that sperm production is normal but that something is happening after that which causes the DNA to fragment at a higher rate than average, so I can definitely see why SST might be a good option in this scenario.

[twinkledag]

Thanks @Cariad2017 and good luck to you