HyCoSy: worth pursuing now?

[cannonball8726]

I am 32, been TTC for 7 months(although in Cycle 9). Cycles are regular. Had a fertility MOT last week and husband's sperm quality found to be reduced (poor morphology, concentration and progressive motility). He is now on Proxeed and he is exercising more, eating well, has cut down on alcohol and caffeine etc.

My transvaginal ultrasound showed likely pelvic adhesions between my uterus and ovaries. consultant thought these were related to previous appendicitis (with perforation). He said it isn't possible to know about tubal patency without further investigation. He advised to keep trying naturally and have HyCoSy in 3 months if not successful.

I have been wondering, though, if I should just pay for a HyCoSy now and not wait. Surely it's better to know whether my tubes are patent sooner rather than later? Or are the risks of HyCoSy such that it's best to avoid unless truly 'subfertile' (I.e. after 12 months of unsuccessful TTC).

Would really appreciate your thoughts. I'm feeling really anxious about all of this. Thank you!

How bad is your husband’s sperm? If it’s bad, you might need IVF anyway so hycosy might be irrelevant. If his sample is a bit below average, you could consider the test.

Hi JoJo, the results were unfortunately pretty poor

Concentration: 7 million
Total count: 23.8 million
Motility 40% (progressive motility 25%)
2% normal forms

The consultant advised lifestyle measures and vitamins, with a follow up semen analysis in 3 months. I'm unsure how much scope there is for his sperm count and quality to improve. I guess if they don't, then you are right and we will be looking at IVF anyway.

Tbh, lifestyle and supplements can make a big change. However, the current parameters are MFI on every single front so I doubt it’s possible to make enough of a change to avoid IVF. Given that it would take a bit of a miracle to conceive naturally, I probably wouldn’t bother with hycosy. The only reason to bother with hycosy would be if you’re dead set on trying naturally and wouldn’t consider IVF any time soon. In that case, you could do it to make sure there aren’t other obstacles to natural conception however unlikely it might be.

I would advise you do get the HyCoSy if it won't be a huge financial strain. My reasoning is that we were successful naturally after five years (two years of real, focused trying including one failed ivf and one failed fet), the second month after my HSG. I would have preferred HyCoSy but I have adhesions from previous surgery and a retroverted uterus so they said HSG was necessary to see properly. My tubes were both clear in the end, but only after she had applied a lot of pressure which forced the liquid through. She said there could have been some debris dislodged. We were also using proxeed male and female, and lots of other supplements.

My other reason is that both me and my best friend have fallen pregnant naturally despite poor semen analyses. Her husband had 0% morphology in one analysis. He started proxeed and they both lost weight with a personal trainer and ate lower carb due to his weight and her pc ovaries.