Understanding infertility

[Jen1992]

Hi all,

My husband (34) and I (30)just got diagnosed with unexplained infertility and have been referred to a fertility clinic. I’ve had bloods and swabs and my husband has had sperm analysis showing that there are problems on both sides. I’m not ovulating as I should and he has low spent count with only 2% any good

my question is - what does the process look like and how long does it normally take? And given my husbands issues, would we be fast tracked to IUI/IVF as trying naturally with or without medication isn’t likely to be successful?

I thought I was educated but this whole TTC is so confusing, why isn’t it like the movies!? Even the abbreviations blow mind mind.

TIA X

@Jen1992 so your diagnosis now isn't unexplained infertility. I know lots about the male side of things, someone else will have insight into ovulating.

How long have you been trying? Presumably to have had tests done (if on the NHS) it's been around a year. If this is the case, depending on your location, you're likely to be referred for an appointment to discuss your options now. IUI won't be for you. You're likely to be recommended IVF with ICSI which is a process where they select the sperm and insert it directly into the eggs collected from yourself. Just IVF would mean essentially leaving the sperm to meet the egg naturally in the 'petri dish'... so ICSI is like an add on typically recommended where there is a male factor issue. In the meantime, your OH should tighten up any lifestyle factors that may be causing the low sperm count and poor morphology and he should take supplements to try to improve things. You need to work out why you're not ovulating regular or 'as you should be' as that's obvs going to make things very tricky too.

There is no such thing as fast-tracked in my experience. You can only have testing done on the NHS once you've been trying for a year and some CCGs (like your local area) won't provide funded IVF for 2 years. I found the NHS to be fantastic and the wait times were not long, but this varies massively depending on your area. We had initial referral to fertility clinic in January and would have started IVF in the July but I got pregnant naturally in the May... we could have probably started sooner too, but my OH was determined to try for a bit longer.

Hope this helps a bit... x