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

Hi hope everyone is doing ok. I don't feel in a good place the last few days with everything. We have our appointment coming up to discuss mTESE but the process has been so long up til this point and it still feels like we are constantly chasing the NHS and being let down. I'm just wondering if anyone knows if it's necessary to have an ultrasound before mTESE? We were told my husband needs it before our next appointment but they still haven't arranged it despite chasing and our appointment is on the 22nd July!! And I'm worried it's going to delay things even more. Just feeling fed up with the whole process and hoops you have to climb through to get anywhere

@Sammysquidge Depends what his hormones are...if they are normal then an ultrasound is needed to see if it's a blockage.....if he has high FSH then it would be NOA so an ultrasound isn't really necessary.....for peace of mind might be worth just getting one private before your NHS appointment so it's a boxed ticked to avoid any delays.

@donnie12 thank you. we already know the cause as he has klinefelter's which causes NOA and he's had all hormone tests but they still mentioned the ultrasound but when we went privately she said the ultrasound was optional, so very confusing. Oh well guess we will just have to keep hassling or try and get a private one. Just all so frustrating as if it isn't necessary we have wasted 3 months waiting for the appointment to come through

Hi everyone. Sorry have been MIA for a little while but I've tried to keep up with all your updates. It sounds as though many of you now have your next steps planned and a few with mTESE's coming up - I hope all goes well.

I hope this doesn't trigger anyone but I have a little update myself! I hope it gives all of you some hope x

To refresh my story - started TTC June 2020. Diagnosed with NOA Feb 2022 (borderline low testosterone and slightly high FSH). DP also had a varicocele on the left side. We saw Mr Ramsey who prescribed Anastrozole and was referred for IVF April 2022. He gave us a 50-50 chance of finding sperm.
DP had the varicocele embolised in August 2022 and after this sperm briefly returned (albeit extremely low numbers) but then count returned to zero shortly after. August 2023 DP had a microTESE and 3 vials of sperm were frozen from the right side (nothing from the left).
February 2024 we started IVF. I had 16 eggs collected, 14 mature, 8 fertilised, 1x day 5 and 1x day 6 embryos were frozen as I developed OHSS.
I allowed my body to recover and was given the go ahead for an FET on the next cycle.

In May we transferred our day 5 embryo and am pleased to share it stuck!!! I am now 13+2 weeks pregnant with a baby boy. It's been hard to accept as all of you know this journey is full of ups and downs and I was just waiting for something bad to happen. It hasn't been easy soo far but I am now starting to relax and feel less anxious. I can't quite believe how incredibly lucky and blessed we are for this to have worked on our first attempt!

I am soo incredibly grateful for the support of this group through the hardest times! You are all amazing strong ladies!!! I will keep an eye out for all your updates! Sending you all best wishes for the next steps of your journeys x 💕

Sooooo happy for you @WhiskeyInTheJar33 🥳🎉🎉 you've been through such a journey!! Sending massive congratulatory hugs xxxx another win for the Azoo Club!! x

Congratulations @WhiskeyInTheJar33 !! I was thinking about you and wondering how you were getting on.

Amazing news!! Wishing you a healthy pregnancy 🥰

Congraulations @WhiskeyInTheJar33! So happy for you. It’s so lovely to hear these positive stories 🫶

@WhiskeyInTheJar33 congratulations! Thats amazing news!

@WhiskeyInTheJar33 many many congratulations ♥️ so pleased for you! You deserve all this happiness and I pray you have a healthy pregnancy ahead xx

Congratulations @WhiskeyInTheJar33 that's amazing news!

Currently waiting to hear how the embryos are getting on. It's such a nervous time.

I collected 17, 11 were mature and 4 fertilised. Just had our day 3 update. 3 are good quality and 1 is of average quality. Fingers crossed it's still good news on Saturday. That will be day 5.

Best of luck @Nats140 🤞🏼xx

Good luck @Nats140!

The 5 day wait is so difficult! I had my egg collection 3 weeks ago. We just had our frozen embryo transfer today 🤞🏻

are you planning on doing a fresh or frozen transfer?

@Nats140 Good luck🤗🤗🤞🤞

Yayyyy congratulations @WhiskeyInTheJar33 💖🥳

Good luck @Nats140 and @24b do let us know how you get on xx

@24b fresh transfer. Feeling nervous, buy optimistic.

@Nats140 amazing!

feeling the same. Got everything crossed for you xx

Good luck @24b💗 xx

@Sammysquidge just wanted to check in and see how you are doing as I know you were having a tough few days. Did you manage to get an ultrasound booked? 💗
xx

@lemons44 thank you for asking that's really kind of you🩷 I was having a bad week. I had just been ill and I was just fed up with all the chasing I find I have to do and you feel like you only make tiny steps towards getting anywhere so it just feels relentless sometimes and I'm sure you can all relate unfortunately so I felt like I needed to rant to people who understand 🩷 we managed to book his ultrasound finally but it's not until after our next appointment even though they wanted it prior to this but it's out of our control so nothing we can do about it now but at least its booked in. I hope you are doing ok? Xx

Such great news @WhiskeyInTheJar33 congratulations!!
Very small update from me....the clomid has increased my partners testosterone levels from 8 to 15. He's doing a sperm sample in 6 weeks and then mtese booked in a couple of weeks after this. I'm just wondering if they might cancel the mtese if there are a small amount of sperm back in his sample, but will see what they say. I'm hoping it will still go ahead.
It's lovely to see all the progress people are making here, including all the small steps forward.

We had our embryo transfer today. Now the dreaded 2 week wait. Hope that everyone else is okay and wish you lots of luck!

Hi all. I haven't posted for a while, been taking a break from it all and doing fun things - Glastonbury has really helped me shake away all the stress (at least for a short time).

I've caught up on all of your posts and it looks like we have some amazing outcomes in the group! Congratulations! Good luck to everyone in their 2ww, I've got my fingers crossed for you.

A bit of an update from me - I am due to start my period this weekend and will be starting a long IVF protocol this cycle! It all feels very real now!

For anyone that doesn't know, we decided to go straight to donor because of the success rates for our diagnosis of NOA (40 - 45% chance of finding sperm, then 10% chance of live pregnancy through IVF).

Getting the sperm was a mental experience - think of amazon shopping but for sperm! But we found one we really liked. We decided we didn't want to to see an adult pic of the donor as we didn't want to think of him when looking at our children. We also knew we wanted him to be British. An interesting fact we learnt is donors within the UK can only be a donor to a max 10 families, however donors in most countries across Europe and beyond can be a donor for up to 40 families. This means if you choose from a European bank like Cryos etc, there may be up to 40 families using the same donor across Europe (even if there is only 10 in the UK). If you choose a donor from a UK bank and the bank don't export their sperm, there will only be a max 10 families in the UK with the same donor. This was quite important to us, so we eventually settled on a British donor who sounded just like my husband (even the same job) and similar features. Getting the sperm shipped to the clinic was also an ordeal and we had to hire a private cryo driver for this. But the sperm is now all safely stored ready to go.

Looking forward to this next stage now. It feels like it's taken forever to get here.

Big hugs to everyone on this bloody hard journey. Xx

@jaspercats hope all goes well for you!!

@sackofpotatoes123 -how are you doing? x

Woohoo @jaspercats so excited for you that you’re kicking everything off! Hope you had the best time at Glasto.

Choosing a donor is mad isn’t it 😅 Thank you for sharing all that knowledge too, I’ve been following a few people on Instagram which has really helped the process. We chose ours last week! Just waiting for the clinic to give the thumbs up for delivery date.

We've also decided to do a 4 week honeymoon (very much like your Glastonbury celebration) so we’ll be keeping ours on ice until Autumn. I feel like it’s important for us to still try and live whilst all of this is around us 💖

@Disco24 so great you've got a good plan in place. Enjoy your long honeymoon!! Very envious 😁.

Would you mind sharing the Instagram handles you've been following? Would love to check them out.

We got our date for the MTese. Just so happens to have landed on our wedding anniversary!!! What are the odds?! You couldn't make this stuff up 😂. Hope the results of the procedure are positive.