Zero sperm...

[Mctm123]

Bit of a long story sorry 😐
So we have a naturally conceived little boy who’s just turned 5. Trying since he was born for the second no success. In the meantime, partner was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and was put on medication.

Since then we have had Ivf 3 times (one cycle 2 Fets, all worked but miscarried every time) we couldn’t understand why were losing the babies but I did suspect it was something to do with his crohns meds - we investigated this and our clinic ended up agreeing and have kindly offered to repeat our cycle (great news!) my partner is off his crohns meds and is doing really well, thankfully.

I am under the miscarriage clinic but they have cancelled my app and changed it to a later date something to do with the consultant being off.

So in the meantime, we have both took loads of supplements and are going to abstain from alcohol and try to be as healthy as possible for the next 3 months before our last attempt. Anyway, partner has had a sample done last week, the results have come back today worse than they were when we started all this. They wrote zero sperm found (last time was 35 million) but then it did say 20% motile (increased by 4% from last time) so there was clearly some sperm for them to test the motile ones. I called the clinic and they said if it’s under 1 million they just write zero? But she said there was ‘some’ and not to worry as ICSI is still possible. He has gone from having a moderate problem to now severe.

So basically of course, I am still worried mainly because even if they find the odd sperm, I feel like it’s likely I am going to miscarry again as the sperm isn’t strong enough?

What are your thoughts/anyone had a similar experience. Not really sure whether to just plough on an hope for the best with the treatment or explore other options first 🤷‍♀️

Anyone?

Hi there, weird that they write 0, when it's under 1M. Ours was 400K and they said in various clinics that it's too small sample to confirm motility. We went to Mr Ramsey, male fertility guru before second IVF. He said in our case numbers probably won't increase but we need to concentrate on quality. Did dna fragmentation rest as well and it was okay. After supplements and life style changes second cycle went much better, ended up with 3 blasts and the third one worked for us. If you have funds I would highly recommend Mr Ramsey.

@Viletta thanks for your reply. I have heard about how good mr Ramsey is. See, the fact it’s worked for us through Ivf 3 times is obviously a good sign but I can’t help but think the cause of the miscarriages is because of ‘poor sperm’ and I wonder if this can actually be improved. One side of me just wants to get on with it, then the other is saying wait longer an try an get the numbers up but I wonder if it’s pointless 🙈

Depending on how many embryos you normally get you can try PGS testing to see if embryos have good dna. It's not 100% accurate but might help. I think as you are going IVF route quality is more important than quantity for sperm. I'd probably also research clinics that address miscarriages specifically to check other factors like your thyroid hormones, adequate support after transfer, etc. At the end of the day it's also down to luck. I hope it works for you the next time!

Thanks @Viletta I don’t think we will PGS although it does make sense logically it’s a lot of money and I think as you say a lot does come down to luck! I think we will probably just go for it an hope for the best! In the end, there’s no guarantees with this whole thing is there! Fingers crossed xx

Fingers crossed! Do discuss with your doctors though to see what they think they can do differently next time if anything!

My partner is in a similar situation. He has colitis. He has zero sperm but a few found with SSR. We have only recently been told he should try coming off the meds. He is having a final SSR in a couple of weeks. He has only been off the meds about 6 weeks so I hope it is long enough. I don't know if anyone has actually had success after coming off the meds it would be good to know. Good luck, its a stressful situation to be in.

@Rd12 oh yes very similar position to us then! What will be your plans going forward? Are you going to try naturally an see if the fact he’s medication free it may improve or do you think you will do ICSI? X

@Mctm123 we have 22 eggs frozen. I am currently doing the meds for FET but we have to have the SSR in time for ICSI and transfer so the sperm doesnt need to be frozen. There is no guarantee any will be found or that the quality will be good enough. Last time after freezing there were not many usable sperm left. This time we have a urologist doing the proceedure, last time it was NHS and it was a gynacologist. He has also been taking proxceed and he was also told to eat cooked tomato. Its our last try as its about 4 years after first going to the docs. With NHS waiting times and other delays i'm nearly 40 now. Its so expensive too. I can let you know how he goes in a couple of weeks. x

Oh yes please keep me posted @Rd12 an wishing you lots of luck for this round. That’s interested about the cooked tomatoes!!!

We’ve decided to just crack on now and I will be stimming again in a couple of weeks! So I’ll keep you posted too x