Consultant not keen on Sperm retrieval ? Advice needed

[Idk12345]

Hi everyone,
does anyone know or have had any success with surgical sperm retrieval during ICSI? I have suggested this to my consultant today but he is of the view that I would not make a difference to us as we often struggle to make blasts at day 5 despite a high fertilisation rate. He is of the view that ICSI (if masturbated the night before) should overcome many of the dna frag issues.

i have posted here several times before but some back story. 3 failed ICSI rounds due to MF. Morphology less than 1% and DNA frag at 48%. Antibiotics etc were taken to lower this but sadly not much change in the results. Each time struggled to make blasts or very poor quality blasts.

Surgical retrieval due to missing vas deferense.
All cycles of ICSI were 2 day, 2 embryo transfers. I think one failed FET was a single Embryo transfer.

1 DC born with ADHD &ASD.
4 MC
3 failed cycles.

I’ve no advice but, looking back, I wish I had moved clinics. Is it worth speaking to a different consultant & exploring options that somewhere else could offer re treatment protocols/surgical retrieval? I’m so sorry you are going through all this, I know how heartbreaking it is.

Thanks for responding @KayRanRanRan. Curious what do you mean by ‘Surgical retrieval due to missing vas deferense’.

May I ask the reason you think you should’ve changed clinics?

That is another thing, I suggested a day 3 embryo transfer in this round too. But my consultant was of the thought that it is always better to wait till day 5. He stated labs now are pretty much 98% a uterine environment and if embryos don’t survive there then they would not inside me either.
He believes that we can try the sperm retrieval method should we wish but ultimately believes it wouldn’t make much difference and the end results would be the same. He feels ICSI is no longer an option for us but as I am 31 he is open to further rounds if we wish :/

I always spell it wrong but the vas deferens is the tube that carries sperm from the testes. DH was born without it hence the need for surgical retrieval.

My clinic kept the same drug protocol throughout, even though it wasn’t working. I always had low number of eggs retrieved, though I had no fertility issues myself, so I felt (maybe wrongly) that we’d have more chances if we had more eggs/embryos. I think there were only 2 cycles where we had an embryo or two left to freeze after ET.
On forums such as fertility friends it was suggested it was better for drugs, doses, timings to be changed after multiple failed cycles to see if something else would work better & it was always suggested to change clinics for a fresh input into what may work. However, if your consultant is saying he feels that ICSI is no longer an option I guess he is giving an honest opinion rather than repeated taking your money whilst endlessly building your hopes up. Are you open to considering donor sperm? My DH wouldn’t but, years later, did say that would have been the better option rather than me become the emotional wreck I did. Take care of yourself, it’s such a mental and physical rollercoaster

@KayRanRanRan Donor sperm wouldn’t be an option for us personally and religiously. I guess he was saying as we do not produce blasts he doesn’t see the point in going further. He states sperm retrieval wouldn’t really change outcomes.

I don’t know, it’s just so difficult to get your head around. I think when fertility struggles began there’s this image that IVF will fix everything and then you end up in this horrible road …