MFI support thread

[TheBeesKnee]

Firstly apologies if this already exists. I had a look and couldn't find anything.

I've name changed as I feel like I have maybe been found out under my usual username, or maybe it's the paranoia settling in!

I'm late 20s, TTC 1 year.

I have been driving myself insane: stopped drinking alcohol, started eating dairy and fish was a hardened vegan for 10 years, stopped drinking caffeine, tried Brazil nuts, fertility smoothies and pineapple cores.

Nothing worked because it turns out that DP is effectively infertile, possibly due to a historical varicocele. We thought that may have been a factor but GP waved us away with "not necessarily - and anyway, you haven't been trying that long!" So we got a private sperm analysis and the results were Not Good.

However, DP got a (relatively) speedy referral to a urologist and after a few back and forths has had surgery on the affected vein. He's recovering, but we won't see "results" for at least 3 months as obviously sperm take 70 days to produce, although the testosterone production is supposed to be fixed/affected almost immediately.

Even then, research shows that only 30-50% of men with successful surgeries went on to conceive in the 12 months following the op, so my hours are not high. I mostly just feel that I will never be pregnant or have a baby, I'm convinced that next we'll find out that something is horribly wrong with me.

DP is being great. He says that we can look at donor sperm if this doesn't work, he wouldn't deny me the opportunity to be a mother. This just makes me cry, I have been very weepy the last few months.

Anyway, I thought it would be good to speak to others also affected by MFI as I feel very lonely and isolated as no one in real life knows that we are TTC, never mind that we're having issues.

I got a surprise bfp today, very unexpected. I saw the gp and had a look at some of my previous results and looks like I have low ovarian reserve but he said it didn’t mean anything, it was for ivf purposes. I really hope this works out because it looks like ivf isn’t going to be an option for us.

@Maybe2020 no further tests here either. Im uite annoyed that there may be something that can be fixed, but I also think besides a varicocoele there's not much they can do to fix mfi anyway. You could look into seeing a urologist?

@Mistymeow amazing news. Huge congrats!

Mistymeow

Oh wow, congratulations! How many weeks are you?

I woke up to a period this morning

Thank you @namechangerextraordinaire1 and @TheBeesKnee and sorry af arrived for you Bees I'll be 4 weeks tomorrow so very early. I hope dh's sperm dna fragmentation results are ok but as our doctor keeps telling us it's very good we are conceiving considering his condition.

There is definitely a common theme of women who take a lot of energy and care to try to improve their cycles to get pregnant and it turns out to be MFI! As soon as we got the results I stuck the husband on multiple tablets a day and said to him “it could be worse, you could be eating seeds everyday!!!” 😂

@Mistymeow congratulations! I hope you have a healthy and happy 9 months! 😊

Hi! Just to give people a bit of positive news, we had our second reproductive medicine appointment today, and they gave the results of DH 2nd SA. (He has undescended testicle that wasn’t operated on until he was 6, guidelines now recommend before 1 year old)

His count has gone from 5.1 per ml to 6.2
Progressive motility 5% to 26%
Non-progressive has stayed the same at 10%
Morphology has gone from >1% to 2%

He hasn’t really changed much lifestyle wise other than eating a lot of fruit and veg. He doesn’t smoke, rarely drinks, doesn’t cycle!!
He however has been taking supplements, he has taken wellman conception, 300mg co-enzyme q10 and 1000mg vitamin c daily.
I do think these have had a really positive impact on his sperm, especially motility!

I wasn’t sure that anything could be done due to the permanent damage caused, however it has improved! (We have still been referred for ICSI but will have a better choice of sperm now!)
I hope this gives people some hope and some ideas of what supplements to put the men on!

@Embri that is great news! Thanks for the update. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻for you!
Our consultant recommended zinc too.

Hi everyone, please could I join? Similar story that after a year of TTC, and one mc, we have just had DH analysis and it's come back with dna fragmentation of 31% so not great.

Been told ICSI is recommendation, although not sure why as it doesn't actually test the sperm for dna so I am sceptical. We are trying to get an appointment with Mr Ramsey who is meant to be good for MFI. It's more cost, but my thinking is cheaper than multiple failed rounds of ICSI!!!

@TheBeesKnee oh my god, I could have written your story myself. We are in the exact same position except varicocele removal is pending. Fertility clinic appointment next month to see what our options are. Also feeling very isolated and lonely 😔

How are you getting on Mistymeow?

That's great to hear Embri - what are the timescales for your referral?

Welcome Doris19 sorry to hear you're also on this shit boat.

Scotgirl1

How freaky! Glad you're getting somewhere though.

We are waiting to see how the surgery affects him, so it'll be at least 3-6 months before we start looking at any fertility clinics I suppose. DP has taken up drinking and vaping again since his results, I think it's hit him pretty hard. I got my period yet again a couple of days ago so I'm miserable and in pain.

I'm finding it really hard as we've just bought a house and it's a very family-heavy area. You can't walk down the street without seeing or hearing kids or babies. People keep making comments that we'll be having baby now that we've bought this "huge" house. I try to laugh it off, but it does get to me sometimes.

To make matters worse, DP's sister is pregnant and is being very off with us for a number of reasons. I was enjoying living vicariously through her pregnancy and keeping in touch with updates and reading the progress of the baby each week... now I'm basically not allowed to talk to her until she gets over her issues.

Life feels very messy and out of control at the moment.

Hi! Can I join?

TTC 2.5 years - no BFP's during that time. I'm 32 and OH is 30. I've had all bloods, HyCoSy, hysteroscopy (resulting in polyp removal) and AMH test come back as normal - no issues. But OH has had number of SA's and all come back around 2% morphology so advised it's MFI/unexplained.

OH has been taking Fertilix for a few months but he's rubbish at remembering to take them (3 tablets twice a day every day) and probably only takes them once a day...hopefully that's helping? I hate nagging to remind him. We are waiting results of ANOTHER SA to see if supplements made any difference.

He's also started to go to the gym regularly. Not overweight but we both have pretty static jobs and he's a nightmare with junk food and squash in particular!!

Consultant says no reason it shouldn't work naturally but will just take longer....meanwhile a few friends/colleagues are pregnant with their second whilst we can't conceive a first

We've been advised to do IVF with ICSI and have an appointment with a local (ish) clinic on Monday next week.

Thanks for reading.

@FlapJackered that’s interesting, ours just reeled off the usual “don’t smoke, don’t cycle, eat healthily”
Did they say how much zinc or just zinc in general?

@TheBeesKnee apparently we should have our first appointment within 18 weeks of referral. I rang the clinic as well ( I am a complete control freak I know...!) and they said it usually takes 6-8 weeks for the referral to get to them, then we will have a initial appointment within 8 weeks.
This takes us to Christmas week.... not ideal with work (work in the NHS myself) so I reckon we will be in the new year.

I’m hoping that I get a nice present of a BFP for my 30th birthday at the beginning of February!!

(More likely I’m going to spend my 30th with raging hormones from injections being a complete cow to anyone who even dares to congratulate me on leaving my 29’s!!! 😂)

@TheBeesKnee tell your husband about my husbands results. My husband has permanent damage done from when he was a child and he got better results with supplements!
He has really down about the first results to the point where he was saying “what’s the point” but I did research, put him on a load of tablets and it has improved. Now he is asking what else he can do, and has agreed that for the next few months whilst waiting for IVF we are on mega healthy eating to see if they can get even better!
If your husband has the surgery and then gives it a really good go then he might see better results soon! 🤞

@Embri he didn't mention how much, he just said a multi-vitamin with vit c in and zinc are the most important. I told him DH was taking proxeed and he said that was a good one.
The zinc DH is taking is 40mg.
Fingers crossed you get that bfp birthday present! 🤞🏻🤞🏻

@JoJoTheresNoLimit welcome! Sorry to hear you're heading ivf direction.
We have had similar results to you.

We had a disappointing appointment with the nhs consultant. Apparently because we somehow managed to get a bfp in January but I miscarried, he wouldn't even consider DHs result and said if it has happened once it will happen again! At 2 years of ttc I am not overly optimistic, especially as the private SA result said 'ICSI recommended' on it. We are trying to change DHs lifestyle a bit and see if that makes a difference, otherwise we are going to go privately early next year I reckon.

Hi everyone, really pleased to see a MFI thread. My DH and I were trying for almost two years when we got a shocking "no sperm seen" SA result, which was a year ago. Confirmed by a second one and now he's on clomid to see if it makes a difference. Feels weird to be thinking about IVF/ICSI when we don't know if it's even a possibility yet... (Donor sperm isn't something we're considering)

Hi all, we had another SA and unfortunately DH results dropped right back to 2.5mil. His first was 2.5 then with lifestyle changes and supplements went to 6 then 18 but now back to 2.5 so it’s a bit disheartening for him and his efforts at being healthy! We took a few weeks off but are now 3 months away from our next IVF so back being good! @JoJoTheresNoLimit if your DH is finding it hard to remember to take the supplements Proceive max is meant to be good and it’s just one sachet a day! I’ve been researching for our next steps if we don’t have any success with this next round and we’re thinking of going abroad to Gennet as they do IMSI and some kind of special sorting of sperm.

Hope you don't mind me joining in here! I feel it's the best place for me to fit into right now!

We are very very early on in our investigations. We are both in our 20's however on the further end of it (27 and 29) and have been together five years with unprotected sex. I have fallen pregnant previously when I was 17 however end in a MMC and my partner has never had a pregnancy before. He was with his previous partner 7 years (young school relationship into early 20's) and never anything there either. She has since gone on and had two kids with her now partner.

Obviously we don't know for sure but we suspect MFI. I have had bloods, smear test etc done and nothing from that but that's all the investigation I have had my side.

Tomorrow he goes for his semen analysis. I'm so scared for the results but know we need it done to find out and be sure. I've scanned this forum and the internet so many times and ended up with the worst possible scenarios and am completely bracing myself for the worst. The wait to find out the results may be excruciating! But hey, we are taking steps right?

Thanks @AnnaSteen I'll look those up!

Meanwhile I'm being good as gold no alcohol limited caffeine for ages now.

We have a big work night out tonight and I'm tempted not to go, as everyone will be drinking and I feel too guilty to drink. Not started treatment yet but in that window of waiting for AF so "could" be a chance...even though after 2.5 years still not happened...

JoJoTheresNoLimit

Did you end up going out?

I went out on Friday and got horrendously drunk from about 5 drinks, obviously I am not used to it! I can't go without alcohol or caffeine any more, now that I know it's nothing to do with me. When I thought we were in with a "decent" chance each month I was extremely healthy and sober, etc. It's hard to keep up now that I know our monthly chances are basically zero.

willithappen

Did you get DP's SA results? What's the outlook?

My partner had this and had the surgery after 6 years ttc. 4 months later I got pregnant and I am now 23 weeks. I didn't think the stats were good and was completely shocked when we got a positive test. Good luck with everything!

Iamneverfull

Wow, 4 months?! That's incredible, that basically means it worked almost immediately given that it takes 70 days to produce sperm. Congratulations, you must be over the moon! Do you know what you're having?

Maybe I should chill out for a couple of months then jump DP when he hits the 4 month mark

So feeling a bit disheartened...had the results of OH's latest SA results after he's been taking bloody expensive fertilix supplements for nearly 3 months and if anything morphology is down and now motility is down too
I suppose it gives us more of a reason for the lack of success over the last 2.5 years but worrying.
Dr has said can refer him to andrology for further investigations but we've kickstarted the IVF route now and looking to have injection teach start of next month and begin a few weeks later. Referral and results could take ages and I don't want to wait any longer but equally if it reveals something that might mean we waste money on IVF if don't sort first!

Does anyone know of any other investigations we can do or any advice?? Thank you

@TheBeesKnee I’m doing well thanks, how are you? Where are you in your journey? I’m currently 9 weeks and we had a scan at 7 weeks and saw a heartbeat. Not out of the woods yet (we’ve seen a heartbeat before and gone on to miscarry) but it’s promising. Next step is the harmony test in two weeks.

DH got some pretty dreadful sperm dna fragmentation results- 54%. Makes me very nervous but everything is normal so far. I hope this helps anyone who is struggling that natural conception is possible with universally low counts and dna damage.

Apologies for the TMI but I would like to document this somewhere. DP had his surgery about 7 weeks ago and I can see that the consistency of his semen has changed already. He will have another SA at the 3 month mark, but I am feeling hopeful about a cycle for the first time in a long time. He's also started growing more body hair!

Changes are clearly happening, fingers crossed that we will see a difference/results soon!!