Azoospermia support, stories and timelines

[Ljp2022]

Hi All,
Hoping to get a chat going with some advice. My husband and I started TTC 9 months ago but had an inkling something was wrong. We had a private fertility assessment which showed he had no sperm in his semen (azoospermia). We are incredibly overwhelmed and shocked but are keen to explore further testing.

We have gone to our GP however he has explained the wait will likely be several months until we are seen in infertility clinic. We have therefore decided to go privately. My husband has had blood tests for genetic testing and hormones this week (not sure how long it will be until we get results?) and he has a urology appointment in a month’s time for a physical exam.

Id be so grateful if people can share their experiences of azoospermia, outcomes, success stories, other options explored, tests but also timelines if private? How long does it take for tests to come back? How long until he has his sperm retrieval test? What’s next and how long?

sorry for all the questions - so overwhelmed and no one seems to have any answers…thank you in advance.

@MaleInfertilityhelp is 4 sperm also 4 bottles? My understanding it was a very low number

@BabyST glad you found this group ok!
The clinic should have advised you whether they froze one vial with 4 sperm inside or 4 vials of sperm?
There's some great tips below from the others. Sorry I don't have much to add as I don't have any experience with KF. Xx

I did thank you @lemons44

@lemons44 are you doing ok? Keeping sane during the TWW or going stir crazy?

Thinking of you @lemons44 and hope you’re doing ok

Does anyone else with Klinefelter Syndrome suffer intermittent testicular pain? Since the age of about 15 my son has suffered on and off. There’s no pattern, we have had him scanned and they come back clear. Sometimes triggers are stress other times it’s random.

GP always says go to A&E but that’s a pass the book plan

Endocrinology says go to the GUM (Sexual health clinic) they also can’t help. It’s not an STI

Pain management it’s managed most of the time with ibuprofen however on bad days he’s in bed feeling sick on moment.

anyone else in the same boat?

@BabyST im sorry but as far as I know, no one else on this thread has experience of Klinefeltners- sorry we are not more of a help. I know a dull ache can be caused by varicoceles but if your son has had scans, I presume these would have shown up. I hope he feels better soon!

@Carla2601 @IslaO sadly negative today on official test day. Feeling very sad today. We will lick our wounds for a while and then move onto round 2.

Hope everyone else is doing ok x

I'm so so sorry @lemons44 I'm thinking about you. There aren’t really any words I don’t think.

be kind to yourselves xx

Oh @lemons44 i am so so sorry and frustrated on your behalf. Take a while to do you now- drink wine, take a break from work/mini break and then, go at it for round 2. But I am just so sad it is not a congratulations today. You deserve it so much but this shitty process doesn’t follow logic. So sorry x

@lemons44 so so sorry. This journey is so cruel. I hope you can take some time to look after each other 💛

Hi all,

Hope everyone is doing ok.
I've had my second egg retrieval and ended up with 10 more mature eggs, which I was really happy with. Dh is scheduled for his mtese mid July and just starting to think what happens if nothing is found. Do we start to look at sperm donor now? What is the process of preparing my body for a transfer? Just wondering if we should have the sperm donor ready to go as well. Lots of questions, sorry!

Hi @pomdownunder1 - ten eggs is great! How many do you have in total now? How are you feeling? It’s been a while since you’ve been on meds hasn’t it? I can’t advise on your next steps as our clinic recommended the opposite way round- they wouldn’t do anything for me until my OH had his TESE and they confirmed sperm.

I started oestrogen on Sunday and so far not feeling too bad. Just want time to hurry up now though!! I’m getting anxious to know how I respond to meds and how many eggs I get.

how is everyone else? @Sleeter0893 have you started stims? @Ljp2022 hope you’re doing great! And @lemons44 I’ve been thinking of you and hoping you’re alright xx

@IslaO thanks for thinking of me! It's been a lot of up and down since we got our TESE results... I finished all steps to get a call to schedule next steps with our nurse so that should be early next week and meds for Stims will be ordered. I just had my mock saline transfer on Monday and got the not so great news that I have uterine polyps that need to be removed either prior to starting injections or after an egg retrieval and committing to a frozen transfer.. so here's to another procedure! Lol

Hi all,

Thanks for your messages and kind words - it means a lot 💗 I have been having a bit of a MN break as been a bit down about things. This failed cycle has hit me much harder than I thought. Hoping round number 2 will be end of July/start of August. Had a consultation yesterday on what will change for next IVF round and wasn't very happy with this consultant as I am not convinced he is making enough changes to my protocol. Just don't want to end up with 10 unusable eggs again so we may get a second opinion on the suggested new protocol before starting. We've been so focussed on sperm that it didn't even cross my mind that it could be the eggs that fail us!

@IslaO @Sleeter0893 @pomdownunder1 hope you're all ok.

@pomdownunder1 what did you decide in the end? Honestly keeping everything crossed for the micro tese for you 💗

@IslaO hope you're feeling ok 💗 What medication protocol have they put you on? Keeping everything crossed it all goes well for you.

Xxxx

@lemons44 I'm so sorry to hear this is another bump in your path... it's amazing how strong and determined we all are and glad we can lean on each other.
I was given the final go ahead with my clinic for a nurse to schedule all appointments and medications, but also found out I have two small uterine polyps I need to have removed prior to a transfer. Hopefully that will increase our chances as uterine polyps can cut the likelihood of success in half.. it's already pretty slim so worth a try...
Please know you're in my thoughts and I understand taking a mental health break.

@IslaO well done in fighting your corner. It can be hard when we don't know all the answers but know when enough isn't being done.

Thanks @IslaO! I have 18 now which seems like a lot? but they wanted me to do 2 rounds before they'd even go ahead with mtese. I was surprisingly fine on the meds and after retrieval. Have you started your meds yet? I remember reading it was soon!

Hey, is it ok if I join? My husband doesn't have azoospermia but he does have severe oligozoospermia. We found out on Thursday and it has been very tough and I feel very alone.

@TheFanciestPants I'm sorry you feel alone! I hope everyone else agrees that you're more than welcome here :) it's pretty hard hearing that news as we're willing to do next to anything to "fix" ourselves, but no control over the male factor...

@Sleeter0893 thank you for being so welcoming. It looks like you are making good progress down the IVF track, I hope to be not too far behind. Good luck with your polyp removal, a friend has had this done and said it wasn't pleasant but could have been worse so will send you positive vibes - what we have to go through eh?!

We have been referred for NHS IVF with ICSI and have booked to see a urologist specialising in male infertility for a couple of weeks.

My husband has "too few to count" sperm (at those levels you don't get told if the 'occasional' sperm are healthy or not 😵‍💫). So I feel that the reality is probably more similar to no sperm rather than say 11 million...

@IslaO just got my start date for Stims and looks like we're June buddies! I start June 10th. Hopefully you're doing well today with starting your own :)
@TheFanciestPants TESE isn't fun, but at least they will be getting a good sample to hopefully use for IVF. Did they do any blood work yet or determine a potential cause for the low sperm count?

@Sleeter0893how exciting that you have your stim start date! That is great news indeed 👍

We did private hormone tests (raised FSH above range, slightly higher but in range LH and lower range testosterone - however done in the afternoon where testosterone should be taken in the morning - the doctor who said to go straight away did not tell us that! 🙄).
We have an appointment with a male infertility specialist privately in a couple of weeks so hoping they will be able to help.
Everything is such a fight though with the NHS, first of all they didn't bother to do our fertility referral, then after agreeing one specific hospital, they did it with a different hospital with no male infertility specialist! Cue me ringing them and saying I would really like this other hospital as the other one isn't appropriate for our circumstances, so finally have a referral to an appropriate hospital! Progress 😂

Hi everyone, hope everyone is ok. We’ve got our first appointment with the male fertility specialist this upcoming Friday. My partner also has do some a third sample. I was just wondering is there any questions you would ask about the process and the next stages that you wish you’d asked. Not really sure what to expect. My partner had zero sperm show up on last 2 analyst and we were told that he had low testosterone (8.8ml) and raised fsh.

Feeling every form of emotion right now, so pleased to have our first appointment but nervous about the next stages and what they might find. Thank you!!! ☺️☺️

Hey @Lp96, good luck with your appointment, it's always good to keep trucking forwards.
We have our male fertility appointment next week so watching with interest.
I think it's good to understand the spectrum of tests they will do. Timescales for results and next steps for treatments are always useful.
Sorry that is a bit vague, but hopefully this will give you a bump and someone more knowledgeable will be along soon 😊

Hi everyone, sorry I’ve been MIA. There’s been a lot going on and I’m trying to keep off my phone as much as possible- I’m a serial over googler and I know it doesn’t help me!

so much to catch up on. @lemons44 i completely understand your frustrations with not believing enough is changing. When you are dealt a blow the last thing you want to do is to repeat the same thing and hope for something different. However, I am (very slowly) learning that I don’t know anything about the whole process on the scale of things and other than asking the eighth questions and not just accepting things as a given, there is little else I can do other than putting my trust in the professionals. It’s so much easier said than done when you feel like all your hopes and dreams are in someone else’s hands though. Completely get that this will be impacting you really badly. We have all been so obsessed with sperm and MFI that people in our situation haven’t really stopped to think of how anything beyond that might affect them. I honestly don’t know if I have enough resilience in me to overcome any more blows on this journey!

@Sleeter0893 we will be June buddies. I was on oestrogen since the end of May and started my injections on Friday. So far so good- not painful and no side effects. Im on antagonist protocol and the injection is one called pergoveris. Will add in another one on Thursday and have my first scan on Friday. I had a little meltdown about dates and really questioned my clinic as I have technically started stims on CD6 which I thought was weird. They only let you start on Friday or Saturday because of their egg retrieval schedules which I don’t like! how are you feeling about starting?

welcome to all the newbies. Hope you are all doing ok. In terms of initial MFI appointments, I found that when I went in with my notebook full of questions, everything took a completely different route and I didn’t end up asking any of them. I would instead come up with a list of things you do not want to leave the appointment without knowing. E.g with his blood results, what are the most likely causes? How will you go about testing for and identifying the root cause? What is the projected timeline for results? What will next steps be after that?