Egg quality

[Needamiracle12]

Hi ladies. Really feeling low and so unsure what to do next. Me and my dh have been trying for a year. I am 36 hes 41. We went for tests. Mine are ok but his came back with high antisperm antibodies although recently they've been tested at 57% and morphology 3%. We met with a consultant who gave us two options. One is iui and other split ivf and icsi. We've just found out about this so as you can imagine really upset. After research I've found that high dose vit c can help and diet lifestyle etc but that will mean waiting minimum 3 months to see if any difference. We put this to the consultant and he feels ivf would be a better option than iui if we want more than one child in the future as we could freeze embryos and also he's pushing us to do it in jan rather than april which is what we proposed to see if we can improve dhs SA. His reasoning is that even a couple of months can make a significant difference to my egg quality? Is this true?

We feel conflicted. I can't stop crying and tbh i am terrified of being sedated as never have been, having egg collection and the potential risks as i am at high risk of ohss, get migraines and can't tolerate the pill as is. At the same time if it really will mean a better chance I'll just have to suck it up and do it in jan.

He's got an andrologist appt a week after egg collection in feb if we go ahead. From what I've read though andrologists can't seem to do much about antisperm antibodies. Anyone had any experience?

What would you do if it was you? Sorry for the long msg.

Thanks

Are you on NHS or private? Your consultant sounds very pushy. It doesn't sound like you are emotionally ready for IVF yet.

I would say take your time. If you want to wait three months for making dietary and lifestyle changes and to see specialists then I think it's a good idea. There won't be a drastic drop in egg quality in three months at aged 36. It might be a concern when you are aged 42, but not now.

It's always better to do tests etc and diagnose/rule out problems before starting an cycle. It might seem like additional costs but it really is a false economy because otherwise you might have to go for another cycle which is more costly and physically and emotionally draining.

As for sedation and egg collection, please don't worry, you won't feel pain under sedation.

Good luck 🍀

Hi OP,

I think I would get him to take the supplements and give it 3 months? That would also improve your IVF/ICSI cycle if you did have to take that route. If you are NHS funded there would be no harm starting the consultations etc as it would take longer than that to be seen anyway I’d imagine?

I have just completed an IVF/ICSI cycle. I am like u and was high risk for OHSS and get awful migraines. I was really worried but I actually felt amazing on the medication,not even a mild headache. I finished the cycle a month ago and am back to my normal headaches/migraines which seems crazy.

I was also so nervous for egg collection and it was great! I remember nothing and woke up with my partner in recovery.

good luck with it all,feel free to message me any questions!

I have severe anxiety and was PETRIFIED of everything before I started but honestly, wasn’t that bad.

Egg and sperm turnover, so to speak, is 70 days so that’s all you’d need to be on vitamins.

I think it boils down to if you’re happy waiting or just want to get things going. That’s main reason I went down IVF with ICSI privately as was done waiting. Be kind to yourself. It’s hard x

57% is high still, I read that over 40% is considered effectively infertile. As far as I know it's not easy or possible to change this, but my DH flat out refused to see a specialist so I'm not 100% sure.

now to the good news, we had this problem and overcame it with ICSI. I'd query the iui and even ivf route, asa causes clumping and as far as I know the only treatment that works is iCSI.

36 is a good age to start all this, I'd take your time to actually get started, get on your vitamins and stop drinking etc, but then go straight to ICSI don't split it with ivf and def don't waste your time on iui

Hi we're going private as the nhs waitlist is way too long. We've decided to try IUI first instead of jumping into the deep end. The risks on the consent forms freaked us both out tbh. 1% is quite high for a lot of the risks and with my own history of migraines and family history of cancer it's quite scary. We're also thinking iui will give me and the consultant a chance to see how my body responds to this and stimulation meds. Thx for your kind words.

Hi thank you for such a lovely message. I was honestly in bits when I wrote the above. We've decided to wait and in the mean time try IUI. We've only been trying a year and found out about the asas in nov so it feels like we're jumping in. Iui even if it doesn't work will atleast give us a chance to see an andrologist, work on ourselves and ease me into this journey. Really good to know it helped with your migraines. My consultant thinks it's going to cause migraines in my case as I can't tolerate the pill due to the oestrogen and I have a family history of breast cancer which is estrogen related. He told me he'd have to put me on letrozole and a blood thinner. I've no idea if that's still going to be the case during iui though as they still use meds but in lower doses

Yeh I am petrified too! I reckon if we'd been trying for years I might have felt a bit better but trying a year and then within 2 months jumping into something so invasive seems a lot x

The cut off for normal asas is 50%. We have also read icsi can overcome asas but icsi comes with it's on own risks for the child. So before going down that route as this is all very new for us we've decided to explore other options first