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Original poster

Unexplained secondary infertility

14 replies

closephine85 · 28/04/2015 12:54

Hi there

Looking for some help/advice/positive vibes! :)

My husband and I have been trying for a second child for about 19 months now. We had our little boy in 2011 after 6 months of trying. I have had blood tests, HSG, ultrasounds to check lining and follicle tracking. None of which have flagged up any issues. My husbands semen analysis came back as borderline normal and will be tested again in June. However the dr said he was confident it would come back 'normal' in June and didn't think that his current levels should be hampering our fertility anyway.

Does anyone know if there any further tests that can be done or do we just accept that it is 'unexplained' and keep trying? I'm just getting quite weary with it all now and the disappointment of getting my period each month is rubbish! I also feel like a rubbish mother being unable to give my son a sibling.

Has anyone been through this and had a positive outcome after so long trying?!

Thanks in advance x

OP posts:
FrankieFrankie · 28/04/2015 13:06

We were in a very similar situation in the autumn and were about to start IVF when I fell pregnant naturally - so fingers crossed the same thing happens to you! On a more practical note my husbands sperm test had come back normal but we were advised that he should have a sperm DNA fragmentation test before we started IVF and this came back as not so good - he had 30% fragmentation when less than 15% is normal. This meant we were told we should do ICSI instead of IVF and it was given as the probable reason why we hadn't got pregnant. I also had something called the 'recurrent miscarriage blood test' even though I'd never had a miscarriage which came back with higher than normal auto-immune cell levels which could effect my thyroid and also be linked to infertility. My thyroid test had come back normal but this is a much more sensitive test apparently. They don't normally do it until you have had several rounds of failed IVF but we figured that paying for it up front was better than finding out something is wrong after very expensive rounds of IVF have failed. Hope that is helpful. Good luck - maybe it will just happen for you like it did for me!

Original poster
closephine85 · 28/04/2015 14:00

Thanks for your message - that's really helpful and great to hear you fell pregnant naturally!

I think we will look into those tests once we've had his results in June. Do you mind me asking how much they cost? I agree that it seems silly to try ivf without them. Really hoping it doesn't come to that.

OP posts:
FrankieFrankie · 28/04/2015 14:10

The sperm DNA fragmentation test wasn't too bad - about £200 I think. The recurrent miscarriage one was ridiculously expensive - more like £1000. I think it was because they test for a huge range of things. They took 10 vials of blood - it nearly made me faint!

Original poster
closephine85 · 28/04/2015 17:44

Thanks for that. Perhaps our first step will have to be the DNA fragmentation and then take it from there depending on the results of that one. Thanks for your advice :)

OP posts:
purplemeggie · 29/04/2015 20:58

First things first - do you have any health insurance? Maybe through work? Mine had an exclusion for fertility treatment, but it did cover fertility investigations and I ended up having about £7K's worth of investigations before they worked it out.

Secondly, did you have a c-section for your little boy? After 5 years of trying, that turned out to be what caused our secondary infertility. Happy to go into more detail if that might be relevant to you.

Good luck.

Original poster
closephine85 · 30/04/2015 07:09

Thanks for your message purplemeggie - no, no health insurance for us unfortunately and we don't have a spare 7k either! :(

I didn't have a c section - just a normal delivery, I tore quite badly but I wouldn't have thought that could be causing any issues now.

I ovulate quite late (day 19/20) and I always have spotting for around 3-5 days before my period starts properly. I thought this might point to a hormone imbalance (low progesterone perhaps) but my blood tests apparently were fine. It's hard because you look at every little thing for a possible explanation! Think I'm just going to have to be patient and ask more questions in June when we get my husbands results.

OP posts:
purplemeggie · 30/04/2015 07:15

That's a shame Closephine but don't let my scary £7k put you off asking questions - the bulk of that was surgery in a smart private clinic to work out what they'd done in my c-section.

I hope you get some answers - I remember desperately hoping they'd find something and it would be fixable and each time they cheerily told me the test results were normal my heart sank.

purplemeggie · 30/04/2015 07:16

Have they looked into luteal phase defect if you ovulate that late?

Original poster
closephine85 · 30/04/2015 07:44

Thank you :) I know! I'll be there hearing 'everything looks, perfect, really good, normal, fine!' And I'm thinking.... 'So why on earth am I not pregnant?!'

No, I'll ask about that. I do have 13-14 days between ovulation and spotting though and then 3-5 days spotting before period begins. I know your literal phase can be too short, but can it be too long?

OP posts:
Original poster
closephine85 · 30/04/2015 07:51

Also out of our 19 months trying I have had 2 'odd' months where I had spotting start much earlier and accompanied by funny stabbing tummy pains, much more painful boobs etc and I was utterly convinced I was pregnant. When I tried to say this to the dr he just said that we imagine all kinds of things when trying. But I have been pregnant before so I do know the signs (even if they are becoming a distant memory!) so perhaps we have just been unlucky and had 2 very early miscarriages. I really don't know!

OP posts:
14575 · 30/04/2015 20:01

I'm in this boat too unfortunately and our little boy is about to turn 5. We started trying again just before his 1st birthday. Have had all sorts of tests and a diagnostic laparoscopy which showed nothing untoward and husbands samples all okay too.

Purple meggie I'm interested to hear what they found from your investigations as I had an emergency section too with our son. Would you mind sharing please?

We're just about to start ivf at the lister

purplemeggie · 30/04/2015 21:43

Hello 14575 - no, not at all. I had adhesions in my left fallopian tube, which was also twisted around my uterus and adhered to it. This pulled my uterus out of alignment. So, I was down to one useable ovary and the misalignment of my uterus caused implantation problems. I conceived several times, but had a number of chemical pregnancies and one officially-confirmed mc at 8 weeks.

14575 · 01/05/2015 22:03

Thanks purple, sorry to hear what you've been through. It's so hard isn't it? If only they'd be able to find something wrong, fix it and hey presto eh? How did they realise what had happened to you? Was your section straightforward? My lap showed that the right tube was blocked but they think it might have gone into spasm so might not really be? Who knows? I just know it's not flaming working regardless. Hmm

pullthecracker · 01/05/2015 22:12

We had this, got pregnant with Dd1 after first month of trying, three years of trying for Dd2, Clomid, menopur injections, and the day before starting IVF, finally found out I was pregnant. Had HSG investigation, laparoscopy, bloods, scans, etc, no cause found. Dd2 is 6 now, and I still look at her and can't believe she's actually here, it is the worst time ever when you're trying with nothing every month, but it can happen. Don't give up.

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