Y chromosome deletions and Karyotype Tests

[Cornish13]

Our clinic have now said my partner needs to have these bloods done prior to any treatment due to his severely low numbers. Which is fine, wound have been handy to have told earlier on as the results take 6 weeks but there we go.

Anyway… has anyone else’s partners had these tests? If they came back as having any of it were you still able to have treatment or would it be the end? 😬

Hello, sorry to hear you are in this position, it's really tough.
My husband had very low numbers, at our egg collection he got 0.1m per ml. I would also suggest asking to freeze some samples now as sperm count can decrease through time (we saved 10 vials just in case).
He didn't have any karryotype issues. I don't believe if he had they would have refused treatment but they would have referred to genetic counselling so you could understand implications. For example, deletions on the Y chromosome would impact any male children.
I just wanted to say, we had a tough journey with male factor infertility and I had lowish AMH (4.7) at 36 but our first IVF cycle ended with 2 top grade embryos, a live birth (9 month old snoozing next to me) and one in the freezer. So it can happen and the results for IVF with male factor infertility are generally better than average statistics.
Wishing you all the best x

Hi @Cornish13 sorry you’re going through this, it’s so tough. My husband has the Y chromosome microdeletion and from what I understand if it’s the AZFc region that is deleted, the likelihood of success with ICSI is pretty good. If it’s the AZFa or AZFb region, I think the outlook is quite bleak. You said your husband had low numbers, so hopefully that means it’s not AZFa or AZFb deletion, as I think the initial tests would come back as zero not low if that was the case. As the previous poster said, you’ll need genetic counselling to make sure you understand the implications before starting treatment. With Y chromosome microdeletion, it would be passed on to a son and a daughter would have an increased risk of Turner Syndrome. I would definitely advise sperm banking and potentially surgical sperm retrieval if the quality is not very good. Good luck.

@TheFanciestPants ah we’ve been freezing in batches since December. We’ve done 2 freezes and got 2 vials each time, so now have 4 in total. They have given the go ahead and said this is enough to start treatment and then he’ll do the fresh sample on the day of egg collection as well. Just so annoying we’ve been doing this for months and I was fully set on starting treatment this month, for them to now say he has to do the bloods and it’s a 6 week wait 🙄

It’s such a horrific journey as well isn’t it! Especially when it’s male factor as there’s nothing you can say or do to make it easier for them. We actually have a daughter already who we conceived naturally nearly 5 years ago, by some miracle. This is so we can give her a sibling.

Just hoping these bloods don’t throw another curve ball! X

@TakeMeOnATrip that’s interesting, I didn’t know about the different regions! But yes he does have some sperm and we have managed to freeze 4 vials over 2 freezes. Were you still able to do treatment with the deletions? Also didn’t realise it could affect girls as well, I did know about the son issue but wasn’t aware of the daughter. X

Yes we’ve had a number of rounds of treatment, mostly using a combination of fresh and frozen sperm as there hasn’t been enough numbers in the fresh sample on the day. Embryo quality was always an issue for us but given you’ve conceived naturally in the past, hopefully won’t be the case for you. Good luck!