Very low sperm count and motility - feeling defeated

[ThoroughlyForumed]

een TTC #1 for 15 months now. I've had internal exam and blood tests, all very normal. Just received OH's semen analysis results showing he has very low count and very low motility. Morphology normal.

We're both very healthy, exercise regularly, neither smoke or drink, both on conception vitamins (for over a year), healthy weights etc...

I'm feeling so defeated. Will we ever conceive naturally? Does anyone have any experiences with these sort of results and ended up having children?

I've always dreamed of having a big family of 3 or 4 children and OH shares the same dream. Now knowing theres virtually no chance of even 1 I feel utterly miserable.

I know it seems impossible but it is not. We were told "no chance" and then it happened. That's not to say you shouldn't look into IVF/ICSI as well - in fact they have quite a good success rate for male-factor infertility, but don't give up hope!

Thank you for your reply Totally. Congratulations on your DC! How long were you trying before your positive? Did you do anything differently before hand or was it a lucky fluke?
We're both desperate for children so will certainly go down the route of IVF etc.. if needs be.

@ThoroughlyForumed Sorry to hear that - results like that are so disappointing! May I ask what figures they defined as low count and low motility? We did a test with my DH and his numbers also seemed low to me (as were my AMH numbers and egg count to be honest) from looking at their “normal” reference ranges, but the fertility specialist said they were “ok for our age”, whatever that means! 🤷‍♀️

You hear all the stories where it happens despite all the odds, especially if stamina and health are there 😊! 🤞 for you!

I'm sorry you're going through this. My husband came back with a low count and our consultant recommended Proxeed Plus to take.

We are still yet to get our BFP but we think this is working.

Did they recommend any supplements or treatments? X

Start ICSI asap. Do your research to find a clinic with good success rates for this specific procedure. I warn you (we did it) the woman bears the brunt of the invasive treatment - lots of drugs and hormone changes - the man just has to provide a sample. But it's SO worth it when you get DC.

Hey sorry to hear this, please don’t feel deflated. Exactly the same situation we went through, we are both into fitness and have healthy lifestyles too. After being told about my husband’s fertility issues he had weekly acupuncture which increased his super count from 4 to 17 ( sorry I can’t remember the measurement unit) however it needed to be 20 to be considered normal and we still had motility issues.

We waited about a year before exploring ivf/ icsi. The local health authority had stopped funding but had reinstated it which made it more feasible for us. I would say there are many other tests and waiting lists you need to go on if you are not having private ivf. From deciding we were going to purse ivf treatment via NHS it took six months to start due to the different tests we needed to do which at the time I found stressful as just wanted to get started!

Anyway we now have two daughters. First one was first round ICSI, 2nd daughter we funded ourselves, our frozen embryos didn’t survive thawing but we conceived her after a second round.

Please don’t despair the fact that your tests all came back with good results is great news. Good luck with it all x

Dreamcatcher - I dont have them to hand but recall the count was 1.6mil/mg and I think 15mil/mg is normal. Total count was 6mil and normal is 39mil so considered very low. Cant remember the motility level but also very low

Thank you everyone for your responses, making me feel better already :) we're lucky enough that we could go private straight away so would do as dont want to wait around. I would go through anything for a DC so even with invasive tests etc.. I would go for it. Thanks for the advice on that specific treatment too, I'll look into it a bit more.