Hi, just wanted to share our story because when we had my partners sperm results last year I thought there was no hope, and I couldn’t find really any success stories of natural conception on anywhere near his sperm levels / results. So I thought I’d put it out there to guide / advise anyone else !
So my partner tried 10-15 years ago for (not sure exactly how long) roughly 3-4 years for a child with his ex. Eventually they had tests and, all he remembers is, Doc said his sperm ‘wasn’t the best’? And they were eligible for IVF based on how long they’d been trying. They eventually had their child through IVF ICSI.
Fast forward 8 years and we meet. Due to me wanting children and knowing about this past issue I asked if he’d get a sperm test. He had 2 tests last year (3 months apart). The results were sadly dreadful.
-In the first one; PH normal, 2.1 million sperm per ml, total sperm count 9 million, ‘progressive motility’ was 25% , and number of normal forms was ‘result invalid – not enough sperm to perform this test’.
-In the second one; PH normal, 1.8 million sperm per ml, total sperm count 5 million, ‘progressive motility’ was 8% (!), and number of normal forms was ‘result invalid – not enough sperm to perform this test’.
Due to this I came off contraception immediately which was about 10-11 months ago now. We started ‘trying’ but weren’t crazy about it (for example I didn’t use ovulation sticks) as I just thought there’s no hope anyway. He took Mens Reproductive vitamins and tried to drink a bit less alcohol (he does drink quite a lot tbh). But we did make sure to have sex every day around when ovulation likely is. We started saving hard for IVF icsi.
Then, only 9 cycles of ‘trying’ later……(and just when plans for IVF were really forming)…. My period is late and….. BFP!!! Literally cannot actually believe it. Took days to believe it wasn’t a false positive to be honest!!! Anyways, I’m only 6.5 weeks pregnant now so very early days, and terrified it will miscarry. But …… it is possible!!!!! (Or potentially we got UNBELIEVABLY lucky?!)
(Also, in our pre IVF tests we had just completed, the doctor diagnosed me with polycystic ovaries – but not PCOS, just PCO. PCO on it’s own doesn’t affect my fertility or ability to get pregnant, but would make IVF more complex as I’d be at extremely high risk for OHSS.)