To ask you about male infertility

[OneSliceIsNeverEnough]

Usual disclaimers: I've NC the bejaysus out of this one, to protect my husband (can't believe this username wasn't taken though, haha),

Posting here for traffic obvs, so please go easy on me on this one

Ok, I have one child with my husband, and have been pregnant twice.

We have been trying for our second, very much wanted, baby for a year.

We are over 35 but not much really, and every period is making me sadder and sadder.

I bought one of those Dr Pixie His n Hers Fertility kits, thinking I was too old, but it implied I am NOT in the early stages of menopause, or whatever it is exactly showing.

So we tried the male one. I was stunned that the little blue circle showed that DH has fewer than the bajillion sperm per drop that would be required. We tried the second test, after the specified wait, and it showed the same result.

DH is a typical man, and so won't go to the doctors. Our marriage is very happy, and we're very happy with DC, but DH has had some minor (non fertility related) ailments (think headaches) treated but not solved by the Doc's, so he's put off. And is probably also embarrassed, IMO.

I was due up the Doc's anyway for my PND catch up chat, so I mentioned it, and she suggested I get his sperm analysed at the hospital. DH absolutely fine with this, whoopee!

The fertility dept has a 72 hour reply policy, but I've been ringing them and leaving messages for six weeks. They must have won a syndicate lottery ticket or something because there's nobody in that office as far as I can tell.

Well I just got my period again.

What's going on? Have you got experience of improving male fertility?

Here are the facts

I've read this: www.mumsnet.com/conception/male-fertility

With DC (who is under the age of 2,) we got pregnant on the second month of trying.

DH has an ideal BMI, not fat or thin (unlike me, lol!)

DH has maybe 1 beer per week and a couple of glasses of red (over the week)

DH is a great cook and cooks tea from scratch most nights. He eats pasts with veg, home made pizza (including home made base, so no preservatives), Chicken, lentils, other beans I won't touch with a barge pole, salad, salad and more salad, brown pasta (vom), spicy sauce, a pastry or two from lidl a couple of nights a week on the way home.

DH gets a good amount of sleep, he works very hard in a physical job, but is part time. He sleeps in the spare room when he's working so DC doesn't wake him. (his job would be dangerous if he were tired)

DH does not do drugs

DH used to smoke a small amount aged 16-20. Hasn't touched it since.

He has had no chemotherapy, and as far as I know no disorders. Like I said, we got pregnant easily before.

DH has no problems with getting it up or ejaculating.

He's a bit worried about our finances, but I work hard to reassure him and show him how I'm working on it (downpaying stuff, getting work, etc)

So please help, have you

-had male infertility investigated
-what happened
-was it cured
-what was the male embarrassment factor (so I can reassure him)
-too what extent will the NHS help us seeing as we already have a child, but are both over 35.

Thank you ladies AND gents.

*please don't block up my thread telling me the world has enough people and my carbon footprint is high enough. I use reusable everything, non-bleach bleach (it's on offer at tesco right now - £1, please stock up as bleach is soooo bad for our water system!) and my plastic use is on a downward spiral. I'm trying very hard for our planet.

Hi, didn’t want to read and run. Good news that DH is willing to have his sample analysed - thats the only thing that will tell you what’s going on.
The hospitals near me (London) offer a walk in clinic for chaps on specific days/ times. The GP provides a form then the guy can go there at his convenience. Could you ask your GP if this is the case for you in your area?
Can’t help with the male infertility aspect - we’ve had IVF but that’s due to my endo/ low ovarian count.
Hope your DH is able to get checked soon. Good luck.

My husband was diagnosed with mfi issues after just over a year of trying. He had no issues whatsoever with the test itself (no issues getting it up or ejaculating) and joked about it with a number of our friends who knew we were struggling so clearly minimal embarrassment from him! He had a slightly low count but his morphology came back with 0% normal forms (needs to be above 4%). Like your DH he is the picture of health, the only thing that was possibly affecting it was stress from working in a job he hated. The few things he changed after diagnosis were no protein supplements (works in fitness) as he was warned by a Dr for an unrelated reason that they can cause hormone issues, and he started taking the very expensive proxeed supplement (told to try for 3 months as it has been shown to help with morphology issues). He also quit the job and went self employed. This was at Christmas and I am currently 22 weeks pregnant. I'm not sure the NHS will help much if there is an issue though as you already have a child?

the bottom line is your DH needs to get over himself and get himself properly checked out. Does he have any idea of how much medical probing women have to go through when they are pregnant? Do they get to 'not want to go to the doctor's' or feel embarrassed? No, they don't.

There is a lot you can do even if your DH is healthy. Mine was similar to yours except he never smoked. He still improved his count from 1mil to 5mil to 18mil by cutting down on gluten and dairy, Cutting out caffeine and alcohol completely, taking proceive Max supplements, eating lots of nuts and lots of greens like broccoli and spinach. Cutting out chocolate and sweets. Still not getting pregnant though but it has improved.

Oh and re embarrassment, none. He wants a baby as much as I do and he will do whatever he has to for that. He did find it difficult to ‘produce’ in the clinic. Said he could hear other men and there were old porn mags etc so he was grossed out so for his other samples we booked into a hotel near the clinic so he could do it and give it to them five mins later. I know this is an expensive option but we were able to afford it.

Thank you very much indeed ladies for your suggestions. I've already snipped and whatsapped the advice to DH! He does drink more coffee than he used to as he's developed a taste for it, where he used to be a green tea man so I'll try to encourage him back into the tea flock.

I've got him on the probiotic (forgotten the brand - it's the main one) his and hers supplements but i will definitely look into the supplements suggested here, thank you so much - I was starting to despair with the fertility clinic being so unresponsive and everything.

We aren't well off but i would go without a treat to get the supplements.

He hadn't seen the rush really, hoping to be "surprised" like with the first (even though i read up on it and did everything i could to make it happen from my side) but I'm getting older etc and if he needs a top up or whatever and we're still waiting for our "surprise" in five years' time I'd be too old (and far too poor) for ivf.

Thank you again so much and I hope more people will share their experiences and advice and hopefully me and PP Annasteen can revive this as a zombie thread with pics of babies! So happy to hear you're at 22 weeks flibbles 😍

Xxxx 😘😘😘

Those tests are not reliable at all. You could have underlying thyroid issues - even mildly elevated TSH can stop you getting pregnant (anything over 2.5), cysts, blocked tubes, anything.

The problem could be very much on your side as well as his.

You need to go for proper investigative tests. Low sperm numbers don't mean much. My husbands was randomly very low at the last test, my tsh level dropped as a fluke (which we figured out afterwards) and we got pregnant that cycle, after 13+ years ttc.

We went through this too. My husband had a varicocele which could have contributed to the low count but even when fixed his count never improved.

Help is a bit of a post code lottery but I don’t think in any county you would be eligible for funded ivf as you have a child already. If you have the money you could go ahead and self fund a cycle of ivf in the future if that’s a route you want to go down.

Most embarrassing bit for dh was due to where he had to produce his sample - walls were extremely thin and he could hear the guy next door clearly enjoying producing his own sample 😂

We had 6 ivf in total and had one child from that. We also went on to adopt our second child. No regrets

Truly wish you good luck

Some guys just have bad sperm. My hubby is fit as, the pinnacle of good health and his sperm is terrible. Not enough, not swimming in the right direction, DNA fragmentation etc etc Why? Who knows!

Whiterose can you explain some of those medical terms? What's tsh and can I do anything About it myself?

is he going to go to the doctor's the get a proper investigation done?

Well where we stand is the doctor advised going to the fertility clinic as the first step but like I said they aren't picking up the phone.

I agree most areas wont fund ivf if you have a child.
Also bear in mind that at 35 the ivf success rates start to drop (and they dont start high anyway)
I agree with PP about avoiding protein drinks etc as it is often soy and can affect both men and women.
What headache medicine and is it new. As ibuprofen can have an effect.

As others have said, you need proper investigations (both of you, ideally). Only then will you know what the problem is and how to tackle it.

You can't really "cure" male infertility. A lot of the time, it just is. DH has a zero sperm count. We took his and hers supplements (Viabiotics), and he quit alcohol, caffeine and exercise bikes for the best part of a year while we did IVF (starting 3 months before treatment began, ie no booze from that point onwards). Also, no laptops on the lap or phones in the pocket (no idea if that makes a difference, but it's not a difficult thing to do).

Then he had a surgical sperm retrieval and he had to have 2 of these, but on our third IVF cycle we were successful.

So I would say that if we can do it, you definitely can. But since you already have a child, you won't get funding, as others have said.

I don't think his count is zero as we have a baby. I do want to get this checked out and am trying to.

No, OP, tsh is thyroid stimulating hormone. If you have antithyroid antibodies (common after having a child) and a tsh of over 2.5 then you will be put on levothyroxine to bring it down. Doing it naturally is not really an option.

Your GP should've ran all your bloods there prior to the fertility clinic. They should be doing cycle day 3 & day 21 bloods, and a fertility blood panel.

That's normal process afaik so the fertility clinic have all your results prior to the appointments.

Thanks whiterose. I'll mention it when I go xx