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.

We're both taking proxeed friends - mine tastes of really strong orange squash. His is much lighter in colour and looks like it takes lemony but I've never asked! I'll ask tonight and report back. It gave him a bad stomach at first so he now waters it down much more. Fingers crossed for the post-hsg miracle. I really want my tubes checked, but my consultant hasn't ever mentioned it. How long was the wait for yours?
Closephine, we're also both taking coenzyme q10 but as ubiquinone so we're taking double the dose. Well I thought we were but we're taking 200mg /day which in the book I've got ("It Starts with the egg") is a double dose. How long has he been on the supplements for?
So it sounds like we could ask the GP to do the bloods. So we'll ask for prolactin and testosterone. Anything else?
Argh, I had two pregnancy announcements last week - one was a real good friend and I just couldn't be happy for her cos I felt so sad for me. And that made me feel even worse that I couldn't even be happy for my friend!

Friends I haven't had my NHS appointment yet but the letter says we should go to that one together.
DP went to his first appointment with Dr Ramsay on his own. We'll go together for the second appointment after he's done another SA where we talk about the plan of what next.

Star and Friends I feel your pain on the friends announcements. I'm still kind of avoiding my best friend because I simply can't bear to see her bump which is so petty but I just can't yet. I whatsapped her yesterday though as we hadn't talked since the day she told me a week ago and that's a long time for us. At the moment whatsapp is all I can face I think. My group of friends where I live all have one baby now and one of the four just told me at dinner last week she's pregnant with her second. Like you say star, we can't even get our first yet.
Keep me posted on how your all getting along. It helps to know you're all out there.

It's worth saying too that my husband said when he went to see dr Ramsay it wasn't all doom and gloom. I don't know if my husband is just being very optimistic but apparently the

So I asked my OH last night about proxeed and he says it tastes slightly orangey but not really of anything.

My partner has only just switched to boxers. He hates them! But I'm going to tell him what your dr said about morphology geeup!

Star - my DH has been on the supplements since October so almost 7 months now, really we should have seen some improvement I think. I'm wondering if he perhaps has a blockage.

Geeup - that's good to know Dr Ramsay wasn't full of doom and gloom. My DH has his appointment this weekend. I'm feeling quietly optimistic about it. I really hope they give us something different to try!

My poor DH has been wearing old man cotton boxers and having cold showers for months! He's been so willing to try everything and nothing has made a difference so far.

I have started running again this week. I had stopped after reading that it could prevent implantation/pregnancy but I've decided it's better to be healthy and exercising and it really is the only thing I have time for as I can combine it with walking the dog. At this stage I'm not sure much that I do is going to make a difference!

Hi star, they made me an appointment for hsg And ultrasound on the first appointment. ( we already had done blood, SA etc before we went) after ringing today I've finally got an appointment for the 2nd June so i will update you. (apparently I now have a new doctor so might see things differently.) thanks for the update on proxeed,will certainly try.
Totally feel you Closephine, I feel like I'm soo beyond the point of anything working now. I can't see how anything will as we've tried for soo long, and have been the best we could be but still nothing. On the otherhand when my best friend said she was pregnant the other day. I ate my weight in chocolate and then cried because I felt so guilty about it and felt like I had let myself down. Its a vicious circle.
Geeup, good luck on your appointment I hope all goes well for you.

Ex h had a sperm count of 200,000.

Fell pregnant naturally after 11 months of TTC and just before starting treatment.

Couple of years later DS 2 was conceived first go naturally.

Closephine totally know what you mean about exercise. I used to go to the gym most days but cut out everything pretty much. Thinking I'd give implantation the best shot but I've put on about a stone and still no baby. Have also started running again last week in the hope that it'll help make me feel more positive.
Expatmomma - thanks for your lovely story. Two miracle babies! Congratulations and I hope the same happens to all of us. It seems unlikely but hey, clearly it can happen!

Thanks friends123. I'll let you know how I get on. Don't feel bad about the chocolate. When my best friend told me, I went to bed and cried all evening and we had a guest over. My poor husband didn't know what to do - he ended up making a pasta supper as it was the only thing he knew how to make! I then got my period that weekend so went out and got drunk. None of it helps but nor does just pretending you don't care.

The 2 miracles are now 16 and 12. Time flies.

Ex h also had very poor quality sperm. Very few strong swimmers ..

We thought DS 1 was just a very lucky chance and were shell shocked when DS 2 happened first month.

I hope all of you will be blessed with miracles too.

We had ds naturally and easily (conceived first month of trying) but then struggled for nearly four years for dc2. Dh had low motility and less than 1% normal forms. 3% was the highest it ever got even with supplements. We had two icsi rounds where we made not so good embryos which they said could be due to sperm fragmentation. Originally they'd been very optimistic since we'd had a previous natural conception. At our first consultation they gave me odds of about 40% each cycle. We then had a donor cycle in Spain which also failed. We booked to go back last summer but in May I found out I was pregnant naturally. Dd is now 16 weeks old and I still can't believe it. I'd completely given up hope.
I never thought we'd be a success story. It's a difficult thing though because yes it might happen naturally but then it might not. The uncertainty is the worst part. Good luck fwiw I found the IVF 'easy' even though it didn't work. It erasing scary in the end, all the scans were inconvenient but the treatment was fine.

Sweetelizarose thanks for sharing and congratulations on your dd! Miracle baby :)

what you say about Ivf is my main worry and is holding me back. we have been given a 50% chance of success but it seems to be based entirely on me. I don't think DHs poor count and morphology have been taken into account at all. What if none of the eggs fertilize and we are no better off and 8k down!?

I have a 4 year old ds and I keep clinging to the hope that if we've done it once surely we can do it again. But you're right... It's possible but not guaranteed. It really is the uncertainty of it all that's the hardest part. If only someone could say to me 'you will definitely have another baby'!

I've just read my last post back and I really hope it's not insensitive to those ladies trying for your first babies. I do feel very aware moaning on these boards sometimes how incredibily lucky I already am.

Closephine it's not insensitive in anyway, your hopes and dreams are just as valid as everyone else's. I'm sure the disappointment hurts just the same every month!. After joining here I've realised I'm soo lucky compared to others, I might of never achieved a pregnancy, but I ovulate every single month, which gives us a chance. I also live in a good area so i could receive up to 3 attempt at ivf ( If it come to that stage) . 50 % chance sounds pretty good going Closephine isn't conception chances roughly 33% each cycle. So better then average. When I was listening to the news the other day Manchester fertility clinic was saying they would offer free repeat trys until it worked. Not sure how true it is mind and if other clinics will follow suit.
SweetElizaRose, congratulations! gives us all a bit of hope, as I often find myself thinking it can never happen after trying for so long but clearly it can and it does. .
Geeup. Not just me then. I always seem full of hope for two weeks, depressed the next two. Then the rollecoaster starts again... :-).

I'm 42 (41 at ET). DH is 41. Successful conception and pregnancy at 6th round of IVF. DD is 5 months.

Major uterine adhesions and scarring to left fallopian tube due to surgery in my 20s to remove a renal tumour. Also fibroids. Also an auto-immune condition.

So naturally all the doctors thought mine were the issues.

DH had varicocele and hydrocele surgery in his 20s too, but no-one thought to question his SAs as the topline readings always looked so good and we had average (50% fertilisation) each time. We changed clinic for the fifth attempt and the doctor asked when our embryos stalled on each cycle. Always Day 3 or 4. Suspected DNA fragmentation. £800 of tests showed this was right - 38%. Told the recommendation is donor sperm over 30%. That cycle ended in OHSS and an ovarian torsion to my one good ovary so didn't even get to go down that road.

We then saw Dr Ramsay. DH was prescribed Doxycycline and Proxeed, and we had IMSI at the Lister with Mr Nicopoullos (who also found 2% normal sperm morphology which everyone else had ignored because the volumes were always so high). Our own egg and sperm. My gorgeous daughter is a statistical anomaly (I hate the word "miracle" - am not religious and hate the fact equally deserving people never get so lucky) but she is also proof that you shouldn't give up.

"One good ovary" because the other one was fecked after a burst ovarian cyst in my 20s (actually a massive stroke of luck as my tumour was discovered during ultrasounds for this).

Also just remembered - if you opt for IMSI, take CoQ10 200mg 3 times a day, 10000mg of vitamin D daily and keep to a very high protein diet yourself: your eggs need to be as good as they can be as the procedure takes much longer than ICSI, during which time your eggs are degrading due to oxidisation.

Da was an ICSI baby - first time lucky! He's now a teenager! Good luck.

My dd was born 28months later and she was conceived naturally so do t give up hope.

Thank you so much MMXV and makemineacabsauv. Both really helpful stories especially the advice about testing for fragmentation MMXV. We're getting that checked in the latest round of tests but good to know the advice about 30+ as a cut off.
In other news my husband was abstaining for a SA this week but luckily I was doing opks as I ovulated early - just hopefully caught the egg by the skin of my teeth. Probably nothing will come of it as usual but every month counts as a try! Can't believe we have to track all this stuff. Enjoy your weekends ladies! Xx

My DH had his appointment with dr Ramsay today. Unfortunately I couldn't go with him but it sounds like it was pretty positive. He has prescribed his tamoxifen to hopefully get his count consistent. He told him his count is very variable and he thinks that's why we are not getting pregnant. He's hoping that if we can get it up to a consistent 14million (rather than the occasional 14 million followed by 2 million the next etc) that we can try stimulated IUI and he's hoping that could work for us. It sounds like it might be quite a long process and he'll be having blood tests and more semen analyses over the next few months to see how he's getting on, but it feels like we have made progress today and are finally moving forward with a bit of a plan.

Sounds like your making good progress Closephine. Has anyone by any chance tried pre-seed? I think I might give it a try next. :)

We tried it for a few months, mainly instead of saliva for lube (sorry tmi) but sometimes if I knew we'd be BDing I'd insert a bit but it felt pretty staged! My husband wasn't the biggest fan when I inserted it as it does take away a lot of the friction but it's still nice of course and hopefully helps thins but we didn't get a bfp. I'm still using sometimes for lube but not religiously.

Closephine, sounds like a positive appointment. It's so good that there are options you can try. How long does he have to take the tamoxifen for? Really hope it has an impact soon.
I tried Preseed for a few months about 6 months ago friends. It wasn't great as it coincided with my OH getting stage fright - I think it made it so obvious it was ttc sex, the pressure was too much. It's worth a try though as I don't produce much ewcm. I then tried other things to help with reckon : 3000mg evening promrose oil daily, cough syrup around fertile time and lots of water. It did work but I've given all that up now as I think cm is the least of our problems! Obviously, still trying to keep my water intake up.