One year+ TTC part 3

[BritInNZ]

Hey ladies - new thread here we come! Changed it from 9 months+ seeing as we're pretty much all over a year of TTC now (boo!)

Feel free to add anyone else I may have forgotten 😊

@Carla2601
@lemons44
@LucyAnne34
@NatW2021
@Indianna2006
@KatieLooLa
@Hoping43
@Flyonthewall89

Newbies welcome too! Just a bunch of lovely ladies going through a tough time TTC and having a good old time venting and supporting one another 😊

@lemons44 i am so so sorry about your brother that is horrific news. Sending love to you and your family at such an impossible time.

Ive actually been thinking about you a lot as I knew your appointment was right around the corner but I didn’t want to pester you for an update so I’m so glad you’ve shared and that it’s (cautiously) good news. Will you have Mr Ramsey do the retrieval? I will be keeping everything crossed for you both - now more than ever it sounds like some positive news would be super welcome.

Glad you’re back but sorry it’s been such a hard time x

Hi @lemons44 I've been thinking of you wondering how you are. Knew you'd pop back on eventually and give us an update. 💕

I'm so sorry about your brother, that is so sad. What a difficult time for you.

I'm really pleased to hear you've gone through a few steps now and I have everything crossed for some sperm to be found surgically. Do you when he will have the surgery?

Big hugs and look after yourself. Xx

@lemons44 oh gosh. I am so so sorry for you loss hun ❤️ Sending you lots of love.

good news about the potential obstruction though 🤞🏼

@BritInNZ yep the worrying NEVER stops 😂😂 you think oh they’ve arrived safe it’s okay.
nope my baby was a brilliant sleeper. But spent at least first 6 weeks taking it in turns with me and my husband of bolting upright in middle of night panicking we’d left her in the bed and the sheer panick 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

it’s all worth it though ❤️

@lemons44 - i am so sorry for your loss💗 such devastating news. I have been thinking of you foo, glad to hear you have progressed and have ruled a few things out xx

Thank you all for your kind messages 💗

Whilst we were at Dr Ramsay's DH also did another semen sample and they did a test on it (can't remember the name of this test) where they spin it really fast and any odd sperm will clump together. DH didn't have any sperm on that test either, which Dr Ramsay said is consistent with obstruction too. So we are just keeping everything crossed 🤞🏼

He said our next two options are either:

1.	Have a standard, normal surgical sperm extraction at our local fertility clinic.
2.	Have a more intense/detailed surgery with Dr Ramsay where they can really get in and have a good look, as well as trying to collect sperm.

He was very honest that the cost of option 2 would be a fair bit and that we would then need to transport any sperm back to a clinic closer to us, so he recommended us doing option 1. He is writing to our local fertility clinic with his advice and has said if we have no luck then we can go back to him. If it turns out not to be an obstruction he said it would be maturation arrest, which from Google does not look good. We have a consultation with our clinic in 2 weeks and then will get the retrieval booked.

Hopefully it is definitely a blockage!

@lemons44 that sounds really sensible - have you got all your funding in place now too? Might not take too long from here and good luck with the retrieval. My OH said it wasn’t as bad as he was expecting and he managed to go on a stag two days later 😂😂

@Carla2601 I was going to ask you about the funding. I have no idea how to get it or how it works. For now I'd just assumed we would pay for the sperm retrieval privately. Do you know who we have to contact to ask about the funding? X

@Carla2601 and thank you 😊 that's good that the procedure wasn't too bad! How long was it until your DH could drive?

@lemons44 so I think now your GP should be referring to a fertility clinic with the results from Mr Ramsey and the NHS should in theory provide all of it. We did it all privately for speed (and because they messed up my funding proposal it went in in Jan and literally came back last week!!). I don’t think they mentioned not driving and from memory he had it on Thursday and drove three hours on Saturday but I’ll double check that tonight for you x

@lemons44 yes funding in general is done for you by the fertility clinic you've been referred to so Chelsea and Westminster did ours and it took a around 2 weeks I think to come back so not long at all!

@Carla2601 @FlyOnTheWall89 thanks both.. so just to check I'm not getting confused. It needs to be the NHS fertility clinic and cannot be a private fertility clinic who applies for the funding?

We have only seen a private clinic for the initial tests so far 😬 not even been referred NHS fertility team yet! I've just rang my Drs to ask for a referral so our Dr will hopefully call us within the next few days (ours are still doing phone appointments 🙄).

To be honest we are lucky in that we can afford to do the surgical sperm extraction ourselves so it won't delay that aspect.

I've been so busy mentally preparing myself that we might not be able to have children that I hadn't thought about funding until today.

@lemons44 i think if you’re going to use NHS at all it’s worth using them for all of it as getting the sperm quickly then waiting for the IVF won’t really help you? With a sperm retrieval and working first time with most basic drugs for me we spent circa £18k if that helps at all budget wise I don’t mind sharing.

The referral process was also quick for me but I think I live quite close to @FlyOnTheWall89 and I know that hasn’t been the case for others so might be worth waiting and testing the waters but of course you need to do what’s right for you just wanted to share from our side. Also worth saying that was at the lister and with mr Ramsey so maybe a bit pricier than out of London but I’m not sure.

keep us posted I have everything crossed for you!!!

Hi ladies

I’ve been at a family wedding in Portugal so just catching up.

@lemons44 I am so so sorry to hear about your brother, that is so incredibly sad. sending you lots of love! X

I am still being monitored for my ectopic, as my hcg levels are declining so slowly! I have another blood test tomorrow so hoping it’s gone below the 20’s at least so that I don’t have to have the Methotrexate injection. 🤞🏼

We also got quite a shock today when we received my husband’s SA results, as it has come back with low motility & morphology ! Need to do some research into whether this could be the reason for my miscarriage & ectopic but have any of you girls had the same results for your hubbys and if so, do you know of any way we can improve on this?

Just feels like one thing after the other at the moment 😔

Hope everyone else is doing OK xx

Thanks for sharing @Carla2601 and it's a really good point about doing it all together.

I think I am just so tunnel vision at the minute on finding out if DH has sperm or not that I'm struggling to think past the sperm retrieval stage 😬 I will speak to my Dr about how quickly the NHS referrals are in our area but I still think in the meantime we may do the private retrieval just to get that peace of mind 🤔

My only worry is whether doing that sperm retrieval surgery privately would then invalidate our eligibility for NHS IVF and also how we would get sperm from A to B or if we'd just do a second extraction with the NHS, or if they would even allow this. It's so confusing. I don't know what to do for the best.

All I know is I need to know if there's sperm there as soon as possible because I can't spend much longer not knowing it's driving me crazyyy 😓

Sorry to hear about your OH's results @Koalie I don't know if it will help but there was a thread on here about a lady who improved her OH's sperm with vitamins. I'll see if I can find it for you. I can't remember which elements it was that he was trying to improve but I know that their vitamin regime really helped.

@Koalie it's this one xx

How we increased DH's morphology and sperm count with supplements 📈 www.mumsnet.com/Talk/conception/4462432-How-we-increased-DHs-morphology-and-sperm-count-with-supplements

Thank you so much @lemons44 I’ll take a look! X

@lemons44 it shouldn’t it didn’t for us so hopefully they’ll tell you the same in your area because I totally get that need to know thing. You shouldn’t wait long at all privately a couple of weeks maybe I would think. Loads of good luck your way!

@Koalie im really sorry to hear you’re having such a torrid time! I think @FlyOnTheWall89 has some really good results from supplements and I think they really can make a difference

@Koalie yes yes I do! So I think you'll find varied answers online re miscarriage, particularly at a very early stage and it's link to morphology. I have certainly read both sides of the argument.

Re supplements:
My OH had 0% morphology but always very good motility.
I believe impryl may be better than Proxeed for motility but google them both.
My OH took:
Proxeed 2 sachets daily
Pycnogenol
Ubiquinol
Omega 3 (vital DHA by Zita West specially)

By 2 months in, his morphology jumped to 9% but this was alongside tightening up lifestyle stuff. It's also worth noting that a high sperm count counter balances a not great morphology result so depends on your OH count. You need to look at % of progressively (I think that's what it was called - basically where they move forwards, not go round and round in circles) motile sperm from total sperm count to see what numbers you're playing with. Poor results in any parameter are going to mean it might take longer but if there is sperm, there is a chance. Oh and lastly, remember only maybe a small amount of sperm out of millions will have been looked at sooooo they say morphology is really hard to be accurate with.

Sorry you're having a hard time. Hope this helps!!! X

Amazing @FlyOnTheWall89 !! Thank you so much … I’ll get the hubby straight on those ready for when we’ve sorted the ectopic 🤦🏻‍♀️ X

Hi @FlyOnTheWall89 .. me again :) please could you tell me how much Pycnogenol, Ubiquinol & Omega 3 your OH was taking? And was he taking any other vitamins or was that it?
My hubby has already cut out alcohol and social smoking for the past two years and he exercises regularly - I think the only other thing he can do is cut down on caffeine so I’ve managed to persuade him to do that as well 😆 x

@Koalie ye Dr Ramsay was actually quite strict on keeping coffee to one a day.

Pycnogenol 200mg
Vital DHA by Zita West - 1 tablet a day (not 2)
Ubiquinol 100mg
Vitamin D 1000 (he always takes this)
Floradix (he always takes this too)

You should be taking vitamin D and obvs folic acid. I also took ubiquinol and Vital DHA.

Hope that helps. It's all quite expensive but it felt better to do something than not take them.

@FlyOnTheWall89 gosh it’s all very expensive 🤦🏻‍♀️ Cheaper than IVF though I guess!
re the vital DHA - I can only seem to find One for pregnancy and breastfeeding? Is it a specific male one?
re the Pycnogenol - did your OH take two tablets a day? Most that I’ve found are only 100mg.
Sorry for all the Qs xx

www.zitawest.com/products/vital-dha - this is for preconception too. If you look at the ingredients, it's fairly simple and probably can be bought more cheaply. It's mostly omega. @Koalie

www.amazon.co.uk/Vitamin-Supplement-Absorption-Cholecalciferol-Softgels/dp/B07442P34Y/ref=mpsa13?crid=393RFY1T7C7O9&keywords=vitamin+d+1000&qid=1657165513&sprefix=vitamin+d+1000%2Caps%2C79&sr=8-3

www.amazon.co.uk/Solgar-Pycnogenol-100-Vegetable-Capsules/dp/B00CQ7UIMA/ref=mpsa15?crid=3PST2LE4WU3AJ&keywords=pycnogenol+200mg&qid=1657165389&sprefix=pyc%2Caps%2C86&sr=8-5 (I think it was actually 100mg looking at my Amazon order)

www.amazon.co.uk/Nordic-Naturals-CoQ10-Ubiquinol-Capsules/dp/B00C30J31W/ref=sxtsrps10?content-id=amzn1.sym.2132928c-85bc-4373-9689-b31e59e5ad5f%3Aamzn1.sym.2132928c-85bc-4373-9689-b31e59e5ad5f&crid=SO75J3TEY6UC&cvctcx=ubiquinol&keywords=ubiquinol&pdrdi=B00C30J31W&pdrdr=b09c5a91-f333-4d35-a2bf-8b9cf5da18a4&pdrdw=O9SZN&pdrdwg=r6Rfv&pfrdp=2132928c-85bc-4373-9689-b31e59e5ad5f&pfrdr=GDX4GN59EHKRNAFFXAW7&psc=1&qid=1657135124&sprefix=ubi%2Caps%2C69&sr=1-1-9d35b2fb-722c-404c-ae6e-16ef63349c57

Hope this helps!

It really does @FlyOnTheWall89 thank you so much xx