My DH and I have been trying to concieve for one year now and so far not even had a hint of a BFP. I'm 28 and he's coming up 31 so I know time is on our side but we're both gutted that we've hit the one year mark as we never expected that to be the case and everyone around us seems to be moving onto their second babies.
We saw our GP in February this year (at the 7 month mark) and she kindly offered to refer us for some initial tests as I originally thought I wasn't ovulating. It turns out all my bloods are fine, I've used OPKs every month so can see a clear pattern of when to do the deed etc. Also now had a transvaginal ultrasound and a HSG, all of which came back clear. Neither of us have ever smoked and I rarely drink and he has a few pints a week.
My DH has had 3 semen analysises done so far. The first one in February this year and the results were low - 2% morphology and 11m per ml, and a total of 55m per sample. The GP called and asked him to repeat the test 2 days later which he did and that came back at 12.5m per ml and 4% morphology (no idea why there was a difference in 2 days). We don't know the other parameters other than they were 'normal'.
Anyway straight after this his started taking Wellman conception tablets every day and changed his work habits so works shorter hours, gets an extra 2 hours sleep each night, walks 3 miles most days before work (he did no exercise before), and generally eats much better cutting out sugar and junk food on weekdays and has his treats at weekends.
I really thought these lifestyle changes would make a difference but they haven't and his semen analysis 2 weeks ago (4 months after 1st one) came back with the following:
volume - 4.4ml
concerntration - 14m per mil
morphology - 4%
motility - 66%
forward progression - 55%
I know these results aren't completely terrible but I am gutted as so far they've failed to achieve pregnancy in 12 months.
On the advice of the fertility nurse he has started taking 1000mg vitamin c, 400ui vitamin e, 5mg folic acid, and he is also taking 4000ui of vitamin d, 200mg COQ10, tongkat Ali and a few other supplements including zinc. (He's continuing with the wellman vitamins too).
The fertility nurse said she thinks that based on the above results there is a good chance of us concieving naturally but then went onto say that we'd probably get accepted for NHS funded IVF if we want to proceed with that which was quite unexpected as although we are absolutely desperate for baby now, it seemed to jump to that part of the conversation very quickly.
Does anyone have any insight into whether we're likely to have success based on the above figures in the latest semen analysis? We're due to do another sample in 3 months once the supplements have hopefully worked their magic but I'm sceptical about whether they will or not because the lifestyle changes that Dh has already made don't seem to have made a difference. Do you think it's worth waiting to see the next results before deciding next steps? We'll both be devestated if no improvement.
It's also worth adding that my Dh has had a really terrible year with stress - he was involved in an minor accident last year which caused him some injury and the recovery has been hard going on him -the injury wasn't to 'that' area so no physical damage to his parts. Obviously I am cutting him some slack as I know his health is always the most important thing but keen to know if the stress he's been under will have had a significant impact on the morphology and if now his stress is under control his semen parameters are likely to improve?
Sorry for such a great long message but if anyone has any success stories or thoughts on the above I would be so made up to hear from you.
Thanks so much in advance.