The right type of IVF healthy Female, very low sperm count male

[Bells3032]

Hello all,

Spending my lockdown time doing some research and I am so confused by all the different types of IVF.

My husband has been undergoing treatment for hormone definency due to a brain tumour damaging his hypothalamus. His sperm is very very low with pretty much zero motility etc.

I am a 31yo healthy female and no prior infertility issues.

I have worked out that we will likely need ISCI (and poss microTESE depending on how well he responds to new drugs they've given him) but I am unsure about natural v mild v cycle v everything etc

Anyone with male factor that can advise. Thank you.

If you don't have low reserve, and age is on your side, ignore mild and natural. It's a numbers game. More eggs = more numbers, in this case.

The clinic and doctor will advise the best course of action for you, either long or short protocol.

@Bells3032 hello, we have similar stories! We have MFI as my partner has CF. I am also 31 with no previous fertility issues. We had our first round of IVF in January and it failed, they thought it was due to the sperm being poor quality. We have also been researching since and have now decided to look at mild IVF instead. I found the whole process of our first round quite difficult with the injections (I’m a wimp!) and also there are questions over whether over stimulation can affect the quality. Therefore I am keen to try and ensure my eggs are the best quality they can be so thinking mild IVF may be the way forward. It means more than likely less eggs but to me quality is better than quantity?! I don’t know, it’s a difficult one to decide. I think from what I’ve read the general consensus is the more eggs the better but I’m not sure if that’s necessarily always true? Especially in cases like ours where we have male factor. X

Thank you. Its also nice to know I'm not alone. I am trying to look at all options open to us atm as not sure the sperm count will even let us. Not sure ivf will even be an option but I just like to know all the options and they are so so so confusingm

@Bells3032 it’s hard isn’t it, especially if you’re paying for it, you obviously want the best outcome possible and not to have to go through it again if possible. We didn’t know if they’d get any sperm until DP had his SSR, and then didn’t know how poor it was until we actually went through IVF. You also won’t really know what works until you actually do it either, so it might be that you respond well to the usual type of IVF and get loads of eggs and then embryos. We actually went to see a sperm specialist in London and he’s been so supportive. I know our situations are different with reasons for infertility but he said sperm quality can be improved with a few changes - absolutely no cycling, no hot baths or heated seats, a diet high in anti oxidants and to take a supplement called impryl - alcohol is ok in moderation as long as you don’t go over your units. X

What @physicskate said. You don’t want mild or natural IVF. You need normal
IVF to get as many eggs as possible as it is a numbers game. You’re young so quality is unlikely to be an issue.

Natural/mild IVF is normally for people who don’t produce many eggs with normal IVF or for people in whom quality is an issue with normal IVF (which you’d only know after having a cycle of IVF). There is nothing to suggest quality or number of eggs with normal IVF would be a problem for you so you want to maximise your chances and more eggs= more chances of success.

When I say you’re young in post above, I mean in IVF terms they’ll consider you young.