Azoospermia support - Part 2

[WhiskeyInTheJar33]

@2022ttc
@Ljp2022
@lemons44
@IslaO
@Carla2601
@TheFanciestPants
@HoustG
@Sleeter0893
@Creatingspace
@Nats140
@pomdownunder1
@Annies1992
@Lily1994

As the old thread is almost full, I thought I'd start up a part 2 so that we can all continue our journeys together!
Apologies if I have missed anyone x

[2022ttc]

Thank you!!!

[Creatingspace]

@WhiskeyInTheJar33 Thanks! 💖

[HR01]

Hello all,
I joined this chat about 14 months ago as we had just found out the news that my husbands samples contain 0 sperm, i have watched everyones stories from afar seeing the highs and lows but not quite knowing what to say,
I just wanted to share our story in the hope it can provide some comfort/hope?! So we found out he had azoospermia and contacted a private clinic who looked for potential blockages, hormonal issues, etc and he had none of these (turned out he had an illness as a child that actually caused this), anyway so he went for a TESA in february and we were warned they may not find any due to the randomness of the aspiration sites, they told us it should be a quick procedure but he was in there for well over an hour and the consultant explained he had to look very hard before he found some but he had found some! He managed to get 6 vials although they say they were not great quality and there was not alot in there (they found 9 in one vial) so we were told to get a sperm donor on back up, queue the past 6 months finding a suitable donor, genetic testing, genetic counselling etc along with a few bumps in the road and we were ready to try our first ICSI cycle, they retrieved 20 eggs and said that they would TRY and find enough sperm so they would do 50% husbands and 50% donors, long story short they called us in shock as they had enough of husbands sperm to fertilise all our eggs! 13 were mature and were fertilised (they expected a lower fertilisation rate as the sperm was found lower in the testes), we had 1 grade A transferred and a grade B has been frozen and i cant believe im saying this but am now 9 weeks pregnant!
I just wanted to share as all our stories are soo unique and its such a lonely time, if anyone wants to reach out please feel free but we have all got this and are a bunch of bloody strong people!!

[IslaO]

@HR01 i remember chatting back at the beginning! All I can say is, wow! What a whirlwind with so many ups and downs but such a happy ending. Amazing story and amazing news! Huge congratulations to you- another win for the azoo club!!

[HR01]

Thank you lovely, and a huge congrats back to you!!❤

[2022ttc]

@HR01 thank you so much for sharing your story. Congratulations to you!!! Can I ask which hospital or consultant you were with? I'm a relatively newbie here - we got our diagnosis last month. We have our first appointment with dr Ramsay in December. Similar to your OH, my husbands case I think is linked to childhood issues too (he had cancer as a child and had chemo around the kidney area), so your story has given me a lot of hope! I've been Feeling a bit down today (time of the month) but also it's my birthday tomorrow, I turn 36 and I can't help but feel like time is running out :(

[HR01]

Ahh hun, im sorry you are in this situation too, so we are based in Essex and have been going to a clinic in Chelmsford, happy to share more details if this is within your location, we never actually saw the specialists mentioned on here such as Dr Ramsay because we were lucky and the clinic did the TESA themselves, please dont worry about age you have plenty of time!

[WhiskeyInTheJar33]

@HR01 congratulations! So glad you've come back to share your story! This certainly gives us all hope. My DP has some poor quality sperm frozen (prior to his micro-tese) and 3 vials frozen from micro-tese (not sure on the quality of this) but reading your story has made me feel a little more positive 😊

[HR01]

Thank you! Honestly they said it would be unlikely they would be able to get enough/any from his but when they defrosted and really looked it was much more positive than they thought and they only defrosted 3 vials so there is still 3 more in the freezer, thats why i wanted to share our story because before that we just resigned ourselves to a donor, fingers crossed for everyone x

[IslaO]

@HR01 what an emotional rollercoaster for you both! Such a great success story for all of us!! Are you able to relax and believe you are pregnant? I’m not quite there 😂

[HR01]

Nope i take a test every 2 days 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

[Sleeter0893]

@IslaO congrats on the successful ultrasound! We had ours on Oct 20th and was 7 weeks 1 day. Strong heartbeat! It's crazy how I found this group so early on in our journey and now are growing a baby!! Hope all continue well for us.
Fingers crossed for everyone else who finds themselves looking for hope in this group 😀

[springflowers2023]

Hi everyone.

I posted on this group earlier this year after my husbands unsuccessful micro-TESE. Lovely to see some pregnancies coming out of the group and I’m sorry for the new people who find themselves here. I wanted to share a different positive story in the hope this might be helpful for someone. 

We found out my husband has non-obstructive azoo in early 2022 after a year of trying to get pregnant. Saw Dr Ramsey and tried anastrazole which was unsuccessful, then went for micro-TESE in March of this year which was also unfortunately unsuccessful. We decided to go down the sperm donor route and found a donor we really liked who just felt “right”. I am now 18 weeks pregnant and although this is not the journey we expected we are both overjoyed and so excited to be expecting a baby (although I also echo other people’s feelings of never being able to completely relax or believe I’m pregnant 🫣). 

Although heart breaking, even an unsuccessful sperm retrieval doesn’t have to be the end of the road. The whole thing has brought us closer together and being pregnant now feels so much sweeter after the long journey to get here! 

If anyone else is considering donor sperm, I found it really helpful to follow other donor conception parents on instagram like @knackered_knackers, @definingmum and @thesaltedtail. 

Wishing everyone all the best!

[pomdownunder1]

Wow @HR01 and @springflowers2023 that's wonderful news. Congratulations! So nice hear lots of positive news at the moment.

@lemons44 great news with your plan going forward, your consultant sounds really good! We asked ours about vitamins etc. and she just said no, no point!

[2022ttc]

@springflowers2023 congratulations to you! Thank you for sharing your journey. Wishing you a happy and healthy pregnancy x

[Lily1994]

@WhiskeyInTheJar33 thanks

@HR01 @springflowers2023 congratulations!

@TheFanciestPants thanks for checking in. I haven’t been on this chat for a few weeks so just catching up on messages. Unfortunately DH has a y deletion (which is so rare). It was hard to see the results but glad we have some answers. We’ve been told that the type of deletion he has is the “best” one to have, and he still has a 50% chance of finding sperm. So now we are just waiting for an andrology appointment (taking a while under NHS).
How’s everything doing with you?

[TheFanciestPants]

@Lily1994 oh gosh, that must have been quite a shock! So sorry as it must have been super tough, you poor thing. But sounds like you have a plan in place which is great. ❤️
So we are in the IVF waiting game stage. We have 3 embryos on day 2 and waiting for an update tomorrow. 🤞🤞🤞

I found my cycle very frustrating as they ignored a lot of my suggestions/queries and said it would be fine. But then my concerns played out. I am a statistician so very, very data driven and have been reading a huge number of academic papers on fertility so it was a bit rubbish to find out how little data is used once the cycle starts. My medication wasn't changed once and my final scan before egg collection was 4 days before...
So I feel that although 3 isn't terrible it could have been much better.

Some good news is, that although my husband's count is still super low, his motility levels have dramatically increased to normal levels following the vitamin regime. So it definitely worked for us.

[TheFanciestPants]

@HR01 and @springflowers2023 congratulations! 🥰

[Lily1994]

@TheFanciestPants thats great news, 🤞for a positive update

[Lily1994]

@WhiskeyInTheJar33 hows everything going with you?

DH has been prescribed Anastrozole by Dr Ramsey. Can see online that it has bad side effects. Just wanted to check if your DH has side effects?

[WhiskeyInTheJar33]

@springflowers2023 congratulations!!!

@Lily1994 we are still waiting for funding and then we can start ivf.
My partner had no side effects from anastrozole and responded well to it! Your under Guys aren't you? If you are they are very reluctant to prescribe anastrozole and told my partner to stop. It wasn't until we saw Dr Yap at Guys (who works with Dr Ramsey) who re-prescribed it.

[HoustG]

Hello,

hope everyone is doing okay!
My OH has been told he can have the MTese end of November time which he is anxious about!

is there anything that you feel helped before the procedure, or we’re you advised to do anything beforehand? We are cutting out alcohol and trying to eat better but just so nervous about the doctors not finding anything

x

[hjg17]

Hi all!

I’ve been watching this thread for a while now and firstly just wanted to say thank you for everyone sharing their stories & updates etc - it’s been a huge help for me whilst navigating this awful journey that we’ve all found ourselves on!

It’s just over a year since our initial NHS appointment and just yesterday we received the news that my partners Azoospermia is due to a y-chromosome deletion. We’re now waiting on a follow up phone call at the end of November (we only received these results yesterday after calling/nagging when we received a letter for the November appointment).

It’s been a horrible, long & lonely couple of years however we at least seem to be getting some answers now. I saw the post from @Lily1994 who looks to be in the same position so that encouraged me to post.

Sending you all lots of positive vibes & love as I know how tough this is! 🫶🏼

[Lily1994]

@WhiskeyInTheJar33 I didn’t realise funding takes so long! Good to hear that he didn’t have any side effects. So yeah we were referred to guys initially but because of the long wait, GP referred us to kings and we had the initial appt 3 weeks ago but nothing really progressed because they had to book us to see the andrologist, so have to wait another 2 months for the that. In the meantime we went to see Dr Ramsay, and he was really good and prescribed anastrazole, but DH is wondering if he should take it. Surely it can’t do any harm?

@hjg17 hiya, sorry to see you here. I know exactly how you are feeling. Seeing the results was hard and it’s annoying that you have to wait another whole month just to discuss the next steps. It’s a really tough journey but it’s good to get answers. Do you know what type of deletion it is (azfa/b/c?) - you can message me privately if you want.

[OHSSsufferer]

@springflowers2023
This is very similar to us. Micro Tese didn't work March 2023 so we decided to use a sperm donor. Found one that we believe is very similar in terms of personality, height, eye colour etc

Finally went through IVF / ICSI this month and got pregnant with first fresh embryo. We are trying not to get excited as it's very early on and my partner is suffering from OHSS although is on the mend.

I'm glad i found this thread as I aways felt this was a really unusual situation and not many were going through what we are.

I hope everyone finds a solution to this condition and everything goes well.