We both need help!

[gabythemechanic]

Hi, long time lurker here who finally needs to ask a direct question. I actually joined years ago but have no idea what my login details are!

My question is about conception and what things mean or things that will help us both. We have been ttc for nearly 2yrs and currently with the hospital for tests and the like. Our first baby was conceived super easy (by mistake) and so when we decided to try again we naively thought it would be fine. Turns out we have secondary infertility they've said. I received a letter from the hospital to my gp and I don't understand what he's saying. I also don't know what it means for our ability to conceive. If it's something fixable I'll stick with it but if it's saying we won't have another child I'd rather know now because it's breaking my heart

At my appointment last week he said that I have pelvic inflammatory disease and my husband has only 2% sperm that aren't malformed. So my questions are:

1: is any of this fixable?
2: how were we able to conceive three years ago but not now?
3: how can we fix my husbands swimmers?
4: will the surgery definitely help us conceive? I read somewhere it can actually cause more damage.
5: the dr mentioned that because I've never had chlamydia it might have been from when I gave birth and that's why I've not known.

The swimmers can't be fixed. Not sure about the other things. 💐

@2014newme does that mean we have no chance? I don't understand what it means really as I always thought they were all the same. We conceived before so I don't know how that happened now. Maybe it was immaculate conception! My son is quite awesome

gaby I'm not clued up on how you can have chlamydia antibodies but not have had chlamydia, do you mean you've never had symptoms of chlamydia? But as regards pelvic inflammatory disease, it progresses over time, so for someone who's contracted chlamydia, the longer it's left untreated, the more damage it can do. This might explain why it wasn't a factor in conceiving the first time.

You can have icsi

But not on the NHS

@Flashinthepan I've been having annual sti checks since I was 20 as part of the screening for bladder cancer (both my parents have the same rare form as did my grandparents so it's thought there might be a risk) and didn't become sexually active till I was 23. My husband has tested negative for it so it's simply happened. The gynaecologist said it might have been a mistake in the blood testing or it might have been dormant for years and years and only activated when I had my first baby because i have a high immune system so it will have needed me to be weak as it were before it could awaken.

I asked him how it could have gone unnoticed especially as there was a five year gap in partners before I met my husband. He said sometimes these things happen.

@2014newme ok I googled isci and it's well out of our price range so I'm guessing my answer is we aren't having any more.

There is quite a lot you can do to improve the sperm quality. Loose underwear, well hydrated, certain vitamins... may not get the numbers up into the normal zone but can certainly improve things... and 2% normal morphology is still millions, so while it greatly reduces your chances it doesn't make it impossible.

@BagelDog thank you. It seems that some people say it's impossible and some don't. I wouldn't even know where to start with asking him to change them!

Oh and the surgery won't definitely do anything, but the balance of probability is that it will improve your chances. All the evidence is collected accords large populations though so your individual outcome can't be predicted, just estimated.

gaby sorry I wasn't implying that you had/didn't have chlamydia, just that that's how PID could have developed without it initially affecting you conceiving. It can take many years for people with an untreated infection to develop PID and PID can also be caused by other bacteria, which might not have been picked up.

gaby I wonder whether this thread would be better in the Infertility forum?

@SleepFreeZone oh ok. I'll start again in that one. I guess I did t want to admit I was I fertile as that's the end of the road really.

@Gaby there's no harm in posting in both. It's just that those of us with struggles conceiving can often get better information from people who have had/are having difficulties, and those people tend to hang out on the Infertility boards as well as over here. Whereas here there will be a mixed bag of people who get pregnant at the drop of a hat, and those of us who've been at it awhile. Don't give up hope