Sperm count - how low is low?

[ShayeraHol]

The internet is letting me down and refusing to answer my question - so hoping one of you can (bah, stupid internet).

Husband has been told he has a sperm count of 0.4 rather than the "normal" 20. It sounds very low - anyone know exactly how bad it is? Are we at the bottom end of a curve, or is there still a reasonable chance of catching an egg (once my problems fixed)?

And as people have mentioned it - any ways of boosting it that people have found? T'internet keeps throwing up pumpkin & sunflower seeds, but not yet found the explanation of why.

Hi ShayerHol

I hate when Dr Google doesn't give you the info you need .

My husband also has a low sperm count so I've done a bit of reading on it. A really handy website (with lots of information, including the WHO guidelines for a sperm analysis) is the male factor section of Fertility Friends - see www.fertilityfriends.co.uk/forum/index.php?board=35.0

The first thing is that his doctor will presumably want to do another sperm analysis (my own husband had several over a few months) as one sample isn't enough to be certain of the diagnosis.

The basic advice for him is: no tight underwear, no hot baths, cutting down on drinking, giving up smoking and being a healthy weight. AFAIK pumpkin and sunflower seeds are recomended because of the zinc content - zinc is important in sperm production so is generally recommended. My husband takes a multivitamin that's for men that has the necessary zinc etc. Marilyn Glenville has advice for improving sperm counts in her books (I'm not a massive fan of her books but the one I have has some good advice).

We were told it's hard to increase the number but lifestyle changes can increase the quality. This is what happened with my DH - there's not a huge amount there but what's there is good . But after trying for 23+ cycles we're now about to have IVF with ICSI as that seems like our best chance .

Lots of luck and I hope other women come along with good tips. It does only take one sperm!

The normal '20' you are refering to is probably the lower limit of the 20 - 150 million sperm per mililitre normal range that is typically refered to in internet articles. The 0.4 you refer to is therefore 400,000 per mililitre and is 'very low' compared to the normal range.

There may be a number of ways of enhancing your DH sperm production if he is short of cetain hormonal factors. I do not know the details though. However, do remember that if there are any viable sperm in your DH sample then even very low sperm count can be countered by using in vitro fertilisation of your egg outside your body then implanting it your womb.

You really need to talk to your GP and specialist though rather than imagine the problem can be solved say just taking vitamins or herbal or homeopathic supplements. As Caitni says it is hard to increase sperm count by very much just by changing lifestyle if hormonal or physiologcal factors are the cause. However, sperm quality can be undoubtedly be increased by pursung a healthier lifestyle.

IVF techniques are constantly improving and much better now than say 10 years ago when DW and I went through IVF. Again as Caitni says even 'intracytoplasmic sperm injection' (ICSI) is now possible where a single sperm is injected into the egg.

Thanks both. I think ICSI must be what the doc was talking about (DH told me it was IPSOS, but that's a market research agency ).

GP seems worse than useless, but we're in seeing a consultant in a couple of weeks so will line up a number of questions. At this point I'm just trying to figure out what my questions should be. He has only had one test, I'm assuming that consultant will suggest at least one more before he gets written off (guess that's first question!)

ShayeraHol - our experience was GPs are useless on this issue but IVF specialists were generally superb.

Yes DH will need to do another sperm sample and the count done agan and probably many more samples taking after that. DH will no doubt be feeling really rotten now and very low - even if he is not talking about it. Give him lots of love and support. I see from your OP both of you have problems so in vitro methods are probaby the route they will recommend.

I wish you all the best.

He keeps apologising at the moment - and I keep pointing out that it's a both of us issue. But I read your post on another thread about your experiences, which was a really good insight - so thanks for that. It's easy to get caught up in the me bit of it, need to stop that.

My DH was told he had low sperm count, around 9 million although numbers can vary hugely from test to test so you can't put too much weight in just one test. He took multi vitamins and the other steps already mentioned by Cainti and it did help, the next test showed he was up to 20 million. Still didn't get pregnant though, had IVF and the cycle was abandoned as sperms couldn't fertilise the eggs. We were so disappointed. We then had ICSI and got 12 embryos and it worked!! One lovely DS! Because the sperms hadn't fertilised the eggs on our IVF cycle,we were told that we would always need ICSI to conceive and that we would never conceive naturally. I have now conceived three times naturally (sadly two ending in miscarriage) but now have a six month old too.

When I was TTC everyone said 'relax', easier said than done!! But if you can try to relax it really does make a difference. Good luck

Hi ShayeraHol

We were in this position around this time last year - my DH had a count of 0.7, and most of those were deformed / immobile. Overall his SA was extremely poor.

However, in the autumn we had IVF with ICSI, and i am now 30 weeks pregnant with twins! I just thought i would share this, as we were told that basically there was no hope of us ever conceiving naturally, but that IVF/ICSI is a great way of overcoming male factor problems. So there is hope, although it may not feel like it at the moment. I found it important to take time to come to terms with things - we spent last summer trying to accept that things weren't going to happen naturally, and making the decision to go ahead with IVF.

I hope the appt with the consultant goes well - perhaps spend some time reading up on IVF / ICSI before you go, to devise some questions.