Male factor + ivf success stories

[thislittlebird]

Hi all, I’m struggling to be optimistic right now about our chances with ivf in the coming months, it’s coming up to two years ttc for us. Would love to hear from anyone who has a story of male factor infertility ivf success to share. I’ve just turned 38 and DH is 39. TIA!

Hi thislittlebird,

Sorry to hear you are going through this its rubbish to say the least.

We had male factor and cut a long journey short we were trying for 2 years, went private as had two sperm test on nhs which showed 0% morphology, other numbers within range. Had our egg collection in August last year, our fresh transfer ended in a chemical pregnancy but our FET resulted in our pregnancy and am currently 34 weeks!

I’m 34 and DH is 33.

If you have any other questions i’d love to help you xxx

Thanks so much for replying @Bunintheoven111. I think we were chatting on another thread about the Lister? We now have the same consultant. Did you do any investigations for DH before your ivf or just go for it?

I really want to get on with it all but at the moment we’re doing some more I’m investigations into dh’s motility.

Hey…. Yes we were. So you liked Dr Taylor then? Thats good.

We did yes, oh has a varicocele diagnosed by nhs through an ultrasound scan. Neither nhs nor private could tell us if that was the reason for the morphology issues and nhs wouldn’t remove it for fertility reasons alone as theres not enough research to suggest it helps.

What investigations have the suggested for him?

Xx

Hey @Bunintheoven111. She was great! Feels like you’re in confident hands when dealing with her.

That’s the issue I’m worrying about right now. Whether DH having varicocele surgery will be worthwhile or whether we should go ahead and spend the money on ivf. I think I’d be tempted to do one round pre-surgery and see how it went. He’s having a COMET test today, had an ultrasound already, also having some other in depth sperm tests like dna fragmentation. Those results might help us make a decision.

Concerned about the ivf failing because of the male factor, it’s on my mind a lot right now. We’re seeing both of our private doctors again in a few weeks.

My husband had around 100,000 sperm per sample, so absolutely atrocious, and most were non-movers and abnormalities.
Shortly after this horrendous diagnosis (after 2y ttc) and ivf consultation, we conceived naturally, consultant was very surprised!
For second child, we did icsi and got a great number of fertilised embryos.
My husband has 0 sperm now (testicular cancer twice) but we still have 3 embryos left if we decide to try for 3rd child.
Mfi is the 'best' kind of infertility to have, icsi is the answer and success rate is very good. Wishing you all the luck in the world x

We spoke with Dr Taylor about having the DNA frag test and decided against it as the treatment would be to take Proxeed. I looked at the ingredients and he was already taking most of them, i then purchased the ones he wasn’t taking. Was a cheeper alternative than the dna test.

Really hard decision on wether to have varicocele surgery and i’m sure people on here will be able to give you success stories for having it and not. You need to do what you feel is right for you both.

Xx

@Bunintheoven111 I’ll check out that list two. My DH is on impryl but it hasn’t done much so far.

Yeah, we’ll wait to see what the results are, I’m just very keen to get cracking at this point.

@thislittlebird … my other half has Teratospermia (abnormal morphology). We had to have ICSI but were successful in two out of three rounds of IVF! We have a DS and a DD! Good luck x

Thank you for replying @firefly37! Which round was unsuccessful and did you have low fertilisation rates because of his issue? I’m trying to prepare myself to go into realistically but it’s so nice to hear people’s success stories.

@thislittlebird ... so our first round in 2016, we got 8 mature eggs, 5 fertilised successfully and 3 made it to 5 day blasts. One is now my son and the other two were frozen. In 2018 we tried the frozen blasts but were unsuccessful. In 2019 we did our third round (second fresh) and only got 3 mature eggs but all 3 fertilised and grew to day 5 blasts! One is now my son and I am heading back to the clinic in 2 weeks to try a frozen again! So we didnt really have any problems with the sperm in the end :) ... so stay positive!! :)

* Correction the second fresh is now my DAUGHTER LOL *

Thank you for sharing @firefly37! I’m so hoping we can have this sort of luck. Amazing that you got two children from it, that’s great. Very concerned by how my dh’s sperm fragmentation will come back but hoping we can have some success in spite of it all.

Not a success story but wanted to join as we are in a similar situation. TTC 2 years, we are also 38 and 39 and with first SA no sperm was present. Through a scan a varicocele has been identified. We have first consultation next week to review all results for both our tests.

@thislittlebird
Have you been given any advice on what to do next ?

Hey @Hopewishprayer

Assuming it’s your first too? Did you get referred to a urologist?

No advice just yet really, but initially was told to take Impryl because our issue is his low motility. His count is actually fine but he has a low percentage of swimmers swimming the right way.

We have seen the mumsnet famous Mr Ramsay, he has run some tests and done an ultrasound and now we’re just waiting for the results and hoping his dna fragmentation isn’t horrendous. If it is we’ll be moving to ICSI this summer I guess.

@thislittlebird yes first for us. We’ve not been referred to a urologist, we have a first meet with consultant at local infertility unit next week, I am thinking maybe from there the referral will come. I think he may need to go for surgical sperm removal.
Hope all goes well for you and you can begin treatment soon

@Hopewishprayer fingers crossed you’ll get a urology referral. At least you know surgical sperm retrieval is an option, keep us posted on their suggestions following the appointment.

And yes, fingers crossed we can! It’s just all waiting waiting waiting still.

@thislittlebird hoping I can help you a little. We had also been trying to conceive for over 2 years before been referred, we found low count and low motility and had IVF ICSI. 6 fertilised and 1 made it to day 5 which we transferred and I am now pregnant with twins! Please keep positive, it is amazing what the clinics can do. And wishing you lots of success.

@ExpectantTwinMum2022 great story, and thank you! I’m always amazed when the one embryo becomes two in ivf cases, must have been a shock. I guess it’s normal but I can’t help thinking I’ll be the person it doesn’t work for, you know? Really want to get started.

So technically we are 'unexplained' but tests did show 1% morphology for my partners sperm.
We did ivf and were successful first time (they refused to give us ICSI)
I'll be 12 weeks on Thursday :)

@willithappen amazing, congrats! I like to hear these stories because it’s keeping my hope alive while we wait and wait and wait.

@thislittlebird and everyone who's seen Dr Ramsey, did he do the ultrasound himself or send you elsewhere for it? Where or can it be done anywhere? How much did it cost?
We have an appointment in 2 weeks and have results for dna frag, SFA and hormone panels. Don't want to have to pay another consult just for that.

Hi all, no success story yet but just wanted to join in and follow as I feel like I need positive stories with MFI. @Scottishgirl85 that’s great to hear of your success, my OH has just been diagnosed with testicular cancer for the second time so it’s really encouraging to hear your story and other success stories.

@Delectable he does a physical exam himself, then sends you away and an appointment comes through for an ultrasound elsewhere (similar area though). I can’t remember the exact costs, but roughly £1k for the scan and tests, maybe £300 or £400 for the scan. So you’ve had the other tests already? If you want to avoid a consult with him then definitely look to get the scan done elsewhere, although I’m not sure if you can avoid the consult fee, not tried it.

We’re still waiting for our test results, Mr Ramsay is on holiday right now, no idea when we’ll get them exactly.

Sorry to hear about your OH @BeachPeach. We need all the success stories we can get round here!

@BeachPeach sorry to hear about the difficulties you're having. There's light even before the end of the tunnel for you as male factor is usually treatable. We on the other had are running out of time as I'm early 40s.

@thislittlebird thanks for taking the time to reply.
Yes, I've budgeted to pay for the 1st consult but as we have most tests already apart from a scan I thought to be proactive and have it done prior.