Low sperm count...

[babylily]

Hi. (takes a deep breath..)
We have been TTC for 15 months, and following our fist fertility clinic appointment were horrified to discover that DH has a sperm count of 0.7 million, and motility, morphology are all pretty dreadful
I am ovulating fine (have had the bloods, the scans, etc).
Clinic are starting me on Clomid next cycle...
I'm kinda wondering if this is pointless with such a shocking sperm count? DH (bless him) has given up alcohol (not that he drank much anyway), we are both on zinc, brazil nuts, dates, etc etc - all the fertility rich foods but to absolutely no avail.
The ridiculous thing is we have 2 daughters, both conceived with 1st month trying. We have been pregnant together 5 times...so something pretty drastic has happened to DH sperm in the last 2 years...
We feel blessed to have our daughters, but had always planned on having another child and feel we ought to start being realistic about it not happening rather than take Clomiphine unnecessarily...
..anyone have any ideas/ experience?
xx

Sorry you're feeling so down.

Just wanted to ask whether your DH has just had 1 test? Only ask beacuse DH had 2 tests which gave shockingly bad results. He then had another at the IVF clinic that we went to as were told it was alomost impossible to get pg naturally. That one came back normal! (We now have 2 DC's).
It does seem unlikely that everything has gone downhill in 2 years unless he has been ill or had an accident etc. 15 months is not THAT long TTC- I'd definately wait a bit longer until trying anything else and get him retested too.
Good luck!

The DCs were conceived naturally btw

OMG are you me?

Me and DH have been trying for 15 months too. We went to the subfertility clinic and all tests so far showed no problems with me but DH's sperm count was low and the morphology results were dreadful

And like you our DD was conceived v easily (we weren't even TTC at the time in fact, she was a happy accident).

All I can say is don't get down about it yet. Our consultant told us that sperm results can vary over time, and you need at least 3 tests to get an accurate picture.

I also agree that 15 months isn't that long. The consultant said 9 months was average. You have been v fortunate conceiving both your DDs 1st time, this one may just take longer.

I look at it like this - it takes on average 9 months TTC to conceive 1 child and 18 TTC for 2 children. It only took me 1 month to conceive DD so maybe it will take 17 months for number 2 - to balance it out.

I know it doesn't work like this in real life, but it does help you see that, at the moment at least, you're fairly average and therefore 'normal'.

Thankyou so much for your quick replies...It's reassuring to hear that we are not so unusual after all...
DH going to do his 2nd test this week (3 months after the 1st) We have a fertility clinic appointment next week to get the clomiphine go ahead and also the results of that test...and after the dr's reaction last time (I swear she was dying to ask if he was really our DDs' father!!!)I wanted to feel maybe less hopeful if that meakes sense?
have to say though - having just read your replies to him he is looking a little more smiley than he has for a while...I think he felt like the only man in the world to have ever gone through this...
Everyone presumes it's all down to me as I am pushing 38, but at my last scan I had 2 eggs ready to drop They hadn't even wanted to test DH but we insisted and all were stunned with the result!
Here's keeping fingers and everything crossed for us all.x

babylily,

One poor test result is certainly not fully conclusive of there being a male factor problem. More tests should be done as a matter of course and at more frequent intervals. Three months between tests is too long.

And why are they considering clomid if you are ovulating?. It is usually only given to women who present with ovulation problems, it can have a deleterious effect if you are indeed ovulating normally.

I'd be asking this clinic some harsh questions re their methods and reasoning; it looks like you're being mucked about here.

I agree with Attila.

My feeling (from an admittedly male POV) is to take the pressure of DH by not going through with the Clomid. Not sure why his sperm count has crashed but having some sort of scheduled Clomid treatment plan and cranking up the expectation now is going to surely make it much worse and may damage your relationship. There is a real risk of making him feel a failure when there really is no reason for him to feel that way with two lovely DCs already.

You may also just get lucky again if you are ovulating and he is producing even a few sperm.

babylily, really angry on your behalf about the clomid and agree with atilla about asking serious questions - if scans have shown you're ovulating then clomid is a ridiculous option but fertility clinics seem to hand it out like bloody smarties . I was presrcibed clomid when I actually had blocked tubes and I know others who've been prescribed it for male factor - crazy waste of money.

I would grill them on their reasons for offering this treatment or change clinics. Is this private or NHS? Can you afford to go private and have a more thorough test of your dh and you?

Agree with others, too early to write your dh's sperm off - esp as you've conceived before.

Good luck.

aaaah - so my concerns about clomid in our case are not unfounded...It did seem to be the clinic's stock response to problems conceiving (like their initial lack of interest in even testing DH).
I had to demand another sperm count after 3 months - they wanted us to leave it until at least 5 months from the first.
I don't really want to subject either myself to the potential side-effects of Clomid or us to the stress/hope/expectation of it working when actually there really isn't anything to work on.
Thankyou all - we will ask serious questions at our appointment next week.

Had our appointment today - and saw a different doctor. DH count was even less than last time
at 0.6 million, so she said Clomid was not the way to go at all and all they could recommend was IVF/ICSI...and as I'm too old for egg donation that's at £4000 a go.
We will keep trying, but not with any expectation any more. They said it wouldn't even be worth testing sperm count again for another 6 months, but did offer post-coital test (we declined as we don't see anything to be gained from it). They were not hopeful for our chances of viable pregnancy from DH sperm.
Came home and made a mental list of all the baby stuff I've kept that will now never be needed. Mostly just so annoyed at ourselves for waiting to have another baby... So blessed to have our daughters, but had always expected to have 3 children.
Wine is called for tonight, once I get past the tears.

Hi babylily
just wanted to say dont let it get you down as u say you have 2 daughters and you dont know what your dp swimmers were like then - as my doctor told me as my dp has low count too it only takes one to get thru...it does happen...keep smiling and enjoy the trying you may be surprised!