desperately seeking male infertility success stories

[geeup]

Can anyone please post any success stories about conceiving despite issues with their DPs sperm? Mine has poor morphology (less than 2% normal) and we're trying Fertilaid. I'd love to hear that other people got their BFPs despite these issues to help keep my optimism alive! Otherwise I'm happy to support others on the same journey. Thank you in advance.

Good to hear from you Star. What aren't we trying!?! Very similar to you really. Pretty much caffeine free and lower alcohol for past three months, mainly organic diet, Fertilaid plus Pycnogenol and fish oils for him, wholefoods pregnancy support and fish oils for me. No hot showers or heated car seats for him and loose pants. Opks and sex every other day. Doesn't feel like it's doing much though. All our friends got pregnant drunk after weddings and on holiday, after months of eating rubbish and never reading so much as a mumsnet post or poas!! We'll have our private appointment with dr Ramsay and our NHS one in May and hopefully have a plan after that. I am literally at my wits end though. No longer really want to see my (nearly all pregnant and parent) friends. My husband is much nicer about it - he thinks it's just one of those things and he's happy every time one of our friends announces they're pregnant and he thinks we haven't been trying "that" hard for "that" long but he doesn't realise how much I've been reading and trying (pineapple core, mucinex, logging every time we have sex etc) and I don't want to put my panic on to him but I feel pretty much desperate. Anyways, vent over. Thanks for listening and joining. I feel your pain and am here if any of you want to vent too.

Hi geeup, I have nothing to add at the moment, but we have MFI as well - due to Mr Meh having testicular cancer and radiotherapy. We have had one round of ICSI which failed and our consultant hasn't been very optimistic about our chances. Did anyone else's other halves have a high DNA fragmentation %? We have low everything and a high DNA fragmentation. In our first cycle only one egg fertilised normally. It's all a bit shit really!

MrsDarcy
Was yours a count issue rather than a morphology issue?
I think it is quite common for the drug to be used to improve count, because it stops estrogen in the body, but unfortunately for Geeup, it wouldn't have any effect on morphology issues
It is the hardest of the 3 parameters to improve sadly

Hi ladies, could I join you? I may or may not be a success story depending on how you look at it! We have a 4 year old ds conceived after 6 months of trying. I am now beginning to think he was a total miracle baby because 2 and a half years of ttc number 2 has got us nowhere. All my tests have come back fine. DH has had varying results - 3 semen analyses and 2 rounds of IUI have seen counts between 2-12 million and morphology between 2-4%. If I recall correctly his motility has been ok. He is fit and healthy, has hardly touched a drop of alcohol since we started ttc and has never smoked. He has been taking all the vitamins under the sun and they have not changed his results. After talking to MrsDarcy on another thread we have also booked to go private and he is seeing Dr Ramsey next week. Hoping he can offer a different perspective on things.

We have no idea whether DHs count was the same 4 years ago and were just very very lucky, or if something has happened since that has resulted in a drop. So I won't patronize you with the infuriating "it only takes one" comment I have heard so many times over the last 2 and a half years!

Oh that's interesting regarding tamoxifen only working for count, I didn't realise that. DH has severe "oats" . Everything is abnormal. They think morphology is fine but there are so few sperm they can't be sure. And the few they see are not moving at all. Every sa we have here worse and worse. The first showed 4% forward profession. We're now down to a count of 0.1 million per ml and motility described as "scantily" with no percentage ale to be given. We may need to have some difficult conversations if tamoxifen Doesn't work.

Like I've said before we've only seen Ramsay once and can't say yet if he's made a clinical difference but he certainly eased our stress after seeing him, I wish we had paid and seen him a year ago.

I'm sorry you are all having such a crap time too. With male factor it seems there's so little that can be done or offered. It's so difficult.

Another success story here!

DH had poor morphology and motility. They tested his prolactin levels which came back very high. Turns out he has a hormone secreting tumour on his hypothalamus. High prolactin decreases testosterone levels hence the rubbish swimmers. They started him on medication and 8 months later I got pregnant naturally. Uncomplicated pregnancy and DD is nearly 3 :)

I would encourage anyone who has/has a partner with low sperm count to ask for the prolactin levels to be checked.

Hi, we've been for over two years now, I've had various test done which have all been clear. I also ovulate every month. My husband as had two SA done the morphology was 0.8% and then 2%. However we have always been told that would not be the reason why we can't conceive? But after reading your comments that might not be the case. They said they would try me on clomid next. Hope you get some good news soon x

Welcome to the new faces. Very happy to have others sharing their stories. It's a relief to hear we're not alone and that some people do make babies despite MFI! My husband went to see Dr Ramsay who stressed the importance of heat on morphology. My husband already wears loose pants but now when he gets back from work he changes out of his trousers and into shorts to help keep down there nice and cool. Worth trying ladies so thought I'd pass it on! Next step for us, another semen analysis...

Hi Friends. I'm a bit confused. If you ovulate every month and the infertility is stemming from your husband, why would they put you on clomid? How will that help? Is it so you release more than one egg or something? Interested to hear as hard to see how that could improve things but wondering if it could help us too. Thanks.

Meh - I'm really sorry but I don't know anything about DNA fragmentation. Maybe one of the other ladies knows more? Good luck though!

Closephene - course you can join! Love hearing about anyone's miracle! And Faithascending, good tip re the prolactin. Everything is worth checking!

Thanks for the welcome Geeup :)

Friends123 - your DHs morphology is rather low. It seems odd that they would tell you it's not having any impact. What are the rest of his results like? Does he have a normal count?

FaithAscending - glad to hear you had success. I had a little look at my DHs blood test results. His testosterone and prolactin levels were both in the normal ranges but his testosterone was 10.3 (normal range is 10-31) so at the lowest end of normal and his prolactin was 319 (normal range is 78-380) so pretty high in the normal range. I've told him to ask Dr Ramsay about that as I'm wondering if it means anything?

Hi. Our consultant seemed more relaxed about low morphology and implied that this factor was the least important in infertility. The first test showed 5% morphology and the second test showed 0%. Count and motility were very high, so the doctors were confident that these factors would override the poor morphology. He tried to keep his laptop away from his lap, and cut down on the extreme cycling. The morphology improved to 7%. He had taken the well man stuff but not consistently. We conceived two DCs naturally; the second one very quickly. I hope it works out for you all.

Hi geeup, I ovulate on the same day every month aswel, she said clomid would improve egg quality and produce more eggs therefore more chance. She also suggested zinc and selenium for hubby.

Closephine hubby's first SA had a count of 10.5 mill with 62%progressive.0.8% morphology . His ph was 8.0 does that seem high.? His second had a count of 22.3 mill 53% motile. Ph 7.5. 2% morphology but even on the test results it says "normal but needs repeating". This will be our 26 month of tying, honestly if my doctor says one more time that it only takes one I might throttle her :-) thanks for all your comments I think I will definitely bring this up next appointment.

Friends123 your comment about throttling your doctor if you hear "it only takes one" made me laugh out loud at work. So true! It might only take one but seems like they're all swimming backwards with their eyes crossed! You have to laugh or you'd cry...

(Which of course we all have)

Hello ladies and thanks for the welcome geeop.
Can I ask where everyone's partners are getting their blood tests? Is it through your GP or a fertility clinic? NHS or private? I ask because my OH hasn't had a single blood test whereas I've had multiple and two internal scans. So I don't know what his prolactin or testosterone levels are, but I'm really interested in your experience Faith.
Meh, I don't know anything about DNA fragmentation and I don't know whether that's part of our problem has my OH's SAs have only ever shown count, volume, motility and morphology. I've also heard through a friend about anti sperm antibodies which her OH has, but they didn't find out until they were doing ivf as the clinic focussed so much on her because she has endometriosis they never checked his sperm properly! As it is there's no cure for anti sperm antibodies so they would always have ended up there but may have saved many months of hoping.
Anyway, I digress but I do feel that my clinic is a bit ivf obsessed and recommended icsi straight away without investigating the cause of our low sperm quality.
Friends, it's crazy that quality can change so much. At our first it was a count of 76 mil, 38% motility and 2% morphology, the second 3 months later was 16mil count, 16% motility and 2% morphology and that's after 3 months of no caffeine! I'm scared to test again after 3 months on v expensive proxeed.

Star my partner hasn't had any blood taken yet either although I've only just got him to a doctors to be honest! After paying for two SAs at a private fertility clinic (no consultation, much googling), he went to his GP who said he'd refer him to an NHS fertility clinic for the poor morphology but we've heard nothing in 4 weeks so doubt it's happened. We'd heard similar stories about wasting precious time on IVF focused clinics (NHS and private) so we've gone straight to see Dr Ramsey privately as he is a urologist and focuses first on what's causing the infertility. First step is another SA but I'm guessing bloods follow after that maybe. Interested to hear other stories.

Just Googled proxeed sounds interesting star. How does it taste? I had a hsg last month so I'm just hoping for the miracle pregnancy people talk about. :-/. We've also had no blood test on hubby or even any mention of any.
Geeup, both of my OH's SA took 3 months each to come back, when they finally agreed to refer us it didn't leave the doctors office for over two months. However when I went to the doctors, they told me to ring them direct,. They gave me an appointment straight away. So might be worth doing that. I've been waiting 4 weeks now for a follow up, no sign yet!

friends123 - I don't know anything about ph I'm afraid. Had a look at my DHs results and can't see anything on there about it?

My DH went to his GP after we had been fobbed off at the fertility clinic a couple of times. He did the blood tests and referred him for an ultrasound (which was clear).

Funny you say that because I have gone to my GP and had day 21 tests - all came back fine. Told him my husband had the bad SAs though and so he referred me/us to the NHS clinic and I got an appointment for 6 weeks later?!! My husband and I have different doctors. So weird.

My DH did extensive research into all the supplements. He takes something called fertilsan as it had all the same things as the proxeed but it's cheaper. He also takes coenzyme q10 but as ubiquinol which is its raw form and supposed to be better/require less (100mg I think).

Sorry crossed posts with Geeup there I think!

It's actually 300mg of ubiquinol that he takes

When I went to my first appointment I asked if I should bring OH and they said it was just an appointment for me. Which I thought was strange as to me OH samples wasn't great,as I say they always brush the low morphology off. Have you already had your first appointment geeup? maybe I will learn more on the follow up appointment, however they did say they would try clomid next. I think if this is the case I will see about going private for it as I can't cope with the painfully slow wait.

I've had news of 3 pregnancies this week all with their second child and we're still bloody trying for one. I can't even try to be happy for them anymore.