Starting TTC: known male fertility issues in advance

[tillopeas]

Hi all,

Am new here as I/we are only just starting out on our fertility journey - hope I'm posting in the right area! As far as I can see from looking online, me and my OH are in fairly unusual circumstances as he already has diagnosed fertility issues prior to us trying. He got checked due to receiving cancer treatment as a teen. He has very, very low sperm numbers and due to this we're planning on TTC earlier than planned - with the aim that we're eligible for IVF in a couple of years when we'd ideally like to start a family.

Another reason for trying now is that we currently live in Scotland, where you can receive 3 rounds of IVF (our most likely option would be ICSI). Ideally we'd like to move back down to England at some point in the future (hopefully with positive change in this area!). Added to that is that obviously the chances of success are better when younger and we have time on our side if we get things moving soon (in our mid to late 20s).

As far as I know I don't have any issues, apart from a long and slightly irregular cycle which seems to be stabilising slowly. I've been for scans and don't appear to have PCOS, fibroids or endometriosis, so that's good news. However, our chances for natural conception are still very low hence why we're willing to 'risk' pregnancy now, even though timing wise it wouldn't be ideal (of course, we'd work work it!).

I wondered if anyone else had or is experiencing going into this being aware of problems already, particularly on the male factor side and if it has been due to cancer treatment. If not, just getting some more info and opinions on whether our course of action seems wise would be great. Thank you

We've decided to do all the tests before ttc and found out that DH has very low sperm count. We jumped right to icsi that didn't work (1 embryo at day 3, bfn). We then took a step back and went to see MFI guru Mr Ramsey, with his help and nutritionist that he recommended Mel Brown, our next icsi we had 100% fertilization rate and 3 blasts on day 5 which was a huge improvement. I'd recommend seeing him to see how you can improve your chances. He's all for natural ttc too. Good luck!

Hi @viletta, thanks very much for your advice (sorry only just seen this now!). That's really interesting, I'll have a look into nutrition and how that can improve chances. Great to hear that helped improve things for you.

Hi @tillogen
We started our journey in almost the exact same position. My DH had cancer and sperm frozen before we met. We started ttc nearly 2 years ago knowing we where likely facing male fertility issues, but we wanted the "normality" of trying before we got tested. About 8 months in we couldn't cope with the BFN every month and it becoming increasingly likely we would need help so we got tested. He has no sperm at all so we where refered to fertility clinic.
It's been a really long hard journey. From the start being told (when I'd only had basic gp tests) that I was young, fit and fertile, and we had plenty of frozen sperm so there where lots of options, to how where our options have almost ran out. It turns out I have fertility issues too (premature ovarian aging and diminished ovarian reserve) and the frozen sperm we have is very poor quality. Our first round of IVF failed and we are trying to make some changes to improve my egg quality before we do our second.
The advice I have is all along I thought our journey would be easier than others because we knew our exact problem and as the majority of the ivf is focused on the woman I thought we would be fine. The clinic also gave this impression. My advice is go into it with an open mind, don't assume it's all going to be OK because it's male factor. You are young though so that works in your favour. I've got everything crossed for you. Cancer is a nasty game! Still causing devastation for us 10 years after he fought it.

Hi @Mseddy, thanks so much for getting back to me, particularly as your story is so relevant. Really sorry to hear things have been so hard for you and I really hope your future cycle is a success. I'm sorry you also have fertility issues despite it seeming OK for you at first. Perhaps it will be the same with me - after all, I wouldn't know after my limited investigations so far. Do you mind me asking your age when you found out? My OH also has sperm frozen but likely to be poor quality too as he was quite young at the time. So I wonder if a 'present day' sample will actually work better. It has been 10 years since he finished treatment too. Thank you for your kind words and good luck to you too.

I'm 30 soon to turn 31. Yeah our sperm is poor quality because he was poorly when he did the samples, makes sense really. He was 21 when he was diagnosed and the sample was frozen. I imagine you'll be fine from a fertility point of view, we are just bloody unlucky! It's just good to not go into it thinking it'll be plain sailing. Feel free to message me if you have any more questions or just want to talk or anything, I know how hard this journey can be and it's hard becuase out situation is quite different than other journeys so it can be hard to relate sometimes