Male factor infertility - my tests normal - anyone else?

[Blondie_x]

Hi I've just joined this forum today and looking forward to chatting to you all!

Me and my partner have been TTC for 2 years and 3 months so far, and never seen a positive pregnancy test before. We decided to start the fertility testing process a few months ago and we have now finished our testing. All of my tests have been normal, but my partners semen analysis came back low for count (10 million per ml) and morphology (2%). Motility was normal. The clinic asked him to do a second semen analysis last month and haven't had the results back. My partner called the doctor for the results but they weren't helpful at all. She told him that his result was low and that it was normal on the first test. If she thinks the first is normal then that worries us about the second one! She wouldn't give any numbers and said we would have to wait until our next appointment at the fertility clinic to discuss the actual results, which isn't until the very end of November. I hope that she has got the two tests mixed up, and the second one is the 'normal' one as the first was definitely low.

My partner started wellman conception around 6 weeks ago, so fingers crossed that helps!

Are there any other ladies out there currently waiting to see what happens next, after all of the testing? I'd love to chat to others who are in a similar situation. I have no idea if they will suggest an IUI or IVF at our next appointment. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

 

[BNS]

Hello,

We're not much ahead of you. We've been trying to conceive for almost 2 years. We started investigations with our gp in January and we were then referred to the fertility clinic in Edinburgh in July. My husband has had 3 sperm analysis and they were all poor - I can't remember the figures as it didn't seem to matter. Between the 2rd and 3rd analysis he was taking wellman conception vitamins for over 3 months (sperm takes approximately 90 days to be made apparently) but it made no or little difference.

The staff at the Royal Infirmary have been lovely but they did say IVF with ICSI was pretty much our only/best shot at conceiving. I think her exact words were it's highly unlikely but not impossible that you will conceive naturally. We're on the waiting list now and that's a year long so September 2017 is our target. Hopefully it'll be quicker than that.

I've been a lurker on here for awhile. I hope you are lucky and your husband's results have improved. There doesn't seem to have been much research into male fertility treatment. If you have at least a few sperm they can take them and inject them straight into the eggs. It's all on the woman!

I'm 30 and my husband is 29 and there was no reason for him to have any issues. It's just one of those things. Hopefully the wonders of modern medicine can help us all!

 

[MrsLaw]

Im in a similar position, no problems so far with me. Husbands motility and count was great but morphology was 1%. We have just been referred to the fertility specialists so I'm in limbo waiting to find out the best way to get that BFP. My GP already hinted that we may need IUI or IVF. He seemed to think there is no way to improve hubby's semen but he's started the Wellman Conception tablets as well.

Good luck to you!

 

[snowbee]

Hiya, my husband had undescended testicles as a child and didn't have them operated on until quite late on, which often gives fertility problems and low sperm counts. He took the wellman conception, although I don't know if it made any difference as he was already on them when he had his SA done. His came back fine, which was a super surprise as we had been led to believe his issues as a child would be a real problem, so in the end all our problems were mine, I suppose one of us being ok is a bonus! Other simple things he was told to do were - no tight pants or trousers, so boxers and no skinny jeans, no using the laptop on your lap, no hot baths, regular ejaculation, reduce alcohol consumption, no smoking.

If you join a website called fertility friends there is a whole board dedicated to male factor, lots of ladies and gents there who can tell you the different things they have tried (some with amazing success after being told there was no hope). There is also details of various treatments etc.

 

[Blondie_x]

BNS - I hope your appointment for IVF comes sooner. This is the thing with fertility treatments isn't it, all of the waiting between tests and plans on what to do. We hadn't been advised to try the wellman conception vitamins but we thought we may as well give them a go. We'll tell the specialist at our next appointment that my partner has been taking them. I'm not sure whether they will help him but no harm in trying I guess.

MrsLaw - Good luck, I hope the vitamins improve your husbands morphology. Do you have any ideas when your next fertility appointment is? Mine was supposed to be at the end of November, but we've just received a letter stating that the appointment had to be cancelled and that they will send out another appointment letter soon. I called the hospital and they advised that the appointment was cancelled due to the specialist leaving that clinic. I hope the rescheduled appointment isn't going to be too long away.

snowbee - That's good that your husbands problem as a child hasn't affected his fertility. Thank you for suggesting the fertility friends forum, I hadn't been on that forum before. Great that they have a section just for male factor infertility. I'll definitely have a look on there.

 

[MrsLaw]

Hi Blondie, no I'm not sure yet. Going to chase my GP again tomorrow. They said they were going to give us a choice of clinics and we can choose which one to book an appointment with, but I haven't been given the list yet. Hopefully it will be soon!
That's a real shame your appointment was cancelled! How frustrating. Fingers crossed you don't have to wait too long for the next one xx

 

[Blondie_x]

Thanks MrsLaw, I hope I receive my next appointment very soon. Fingers crossed! Hopefully you'll get the list of clinics soon. That's good that you can choose which one you go to.

Do you think the NHS may offer something to help my partners sperm count, or are they likely to just go straight to IUI or IVF? Or perhaps they may look for a reason for the low count?

 

[BNS]

Our fertility clinic didn't offer anything to improve my husband's sperm results. We're going straight to IVF/ICSI on the NHS. I had blood tests, STI test and an internal scan. There's nothing obvious wrong with me, I do have slightly irregular cycles though.

Our doctor said unfortunately it's mostly the woman that is treated. They just find the best sperm present for ICSI and use that. It's crazy how many sperm you need to get pregnant the old fashioned way! We weren't even given any advice about improving our chances. Neither of us smoke and we aren't overweight and that's all they seem to care about. We were just told not to stress out. Your clinic could be different though. Everywhere seems to do things differently.

One of our appointments was rescheduled by 2 weeks. It seems like a common thing. It's annoying because it meant we went on the IVF waiting list 2 weeks later!

Best of luck!

 

[MrsLaw]

So our referral has been sent off, seems it's just one clinic we were referred to. Hoping to hear back in the next couple of weeks.
Before they sent off the referral I had to do those tests too - bloods, STI, internal scan and smear test. I agree it is very interesting that our bodies have to go through so much especially when the issue may be with the sperm.

 

[Blondie_x]

Our fertility clinic didn't offer anything to improve my husband's sperm results. We're going straight to IVF/ICSI on the NHS. I had blood tests, STI test and an internal scan. There's nothing obvious wrong with me, I do have slightly irregular cycles though.

Our doctor said unfortunately it's mostly the woman that is treated. They just find the best sperm present for ICSI and use that. It's crazy how many sperm you need to get pregnant the old fashioned way! We weren't even given any advice about improving our chances. Neither of us smoke and we aren't overweight and that's all they seem to care about. We were just told not to stress out. Your clinic could be different though. Everywhere seems to do things differently.

One of our appointments was rescheduled by 2 weeks. It seems like a common thing. It's annoying because it meant we went on the IVF waiting list 2 weeks later!

Best of luck!

Did your clinic give you an idea on how long the waiting time is? I hope you don't have to wait too long for it.

I'm hoping my clinic will offer some help with finding out if there is anything causing the low sperm count, but I feel like it may be the same as with you. I think they will just say to go straight for IUI or IVF.

 

[Blondie_x]

So our referral has been sent off, seems it's just one clinic we were referred to. Hoping to hear back in the next couple of weeks.
Before they sent off the referral I had to do those tests too - bloods, STI, internal scan and smear test. I agree it is very interesting that our bodies have to go through so much especially when the issue may be with the sperm.

Yes, I would have thought they would check for what may be causing the low sperm count.

That's good your referral has now been sent off. I hope you don't have to wait too long for it.

 

[Blondie_x]

Since I had my hsg last month, part of me hoped that it may help us this month. I'm due AF either today or tomorrow and I just know she will be coming as I have that crampy heavy feeling. Also, a family member and a school friend both had babies this weekend - both of which were conceived right away. I'm happy for them but you can't help but be a little jealous can you!

I hope you are all doing okay. Did you enjoy your weekend?

 

[BNS]

We were told the waiting list is a year. That's the target for everyone in Scotland once you are referred for IVF after all the tests. We first went to our GP in January this year, we had our first appointment at the fertility clinic in July, more tests there and then we were finally added to the IVF waiting list in September. It's such a long slog to get to this point and it's still ages before we actually get to the start of doing something productive.

I might be very odd but I feel better mentally/emotionally than I did last year as I have accepted that we won't get pregnant naturally so I can let go a lot more. I obsessively looked for signs of pregnancy for all of 2015 but this year I feel like I'm on the right path and I just have to be patient. Which is obviously easy said than done! I have tried to google whether the wait time is shorter but I've had no luck! I don't know if the year is until the actual treatment or just all the preliminary appointments - medication lessons, etc. I think I'll just have to try to calm down a bit because we won't get any more letters until next year. I'm still excited to see the post every day just in case!

 

[FBTTN8079]

Hi Hon, we are also male factor with Hubby's morphology, motility & numbers and also dna fragmentation, we went straight to IVF, but as I wasnt eligble for NHS we had our 1st private IVF here which was unsuccessful but our 2nd was a successful cycle in Athens x

 

[Blondie_x]

We were told the waiting list is a year. That's the target for everyone in Scotland once you are referred for IVF after all the tests. We first went to our GP in January this year, we had our first appointment at the fertility clinic in July, more tests there and then we were finally added to the IVF waiting list in September. It's such a long slog to get to this point and it's still ages before we actually get to the start of doing something productive.

I might be very odd but I feel better mentally/emotionally than I did last year as I have accepted that we won't get pregnant naturally so I can let go a lot more. I obsessively looked for signs of pregnancy for all of 2015 but this year I feel like I'm on the right path and I just have to be patient. Which is obviously easy said than done! I have tried to google whether the wait time is shorter but I've had no luck! I don't know if the year is until the actual treatment or just all the preliminary appointments - medication lessons, etc. I think I'll just have to try to calm down a bit because we won't get any more letters until next year. I'm still excited to see the post every day just in case!

That's good that you're feeling better mentally/emotionally than you did last year. I hope you don't have to wait too long until you receive your letter with your first IVF appointment date.

 

[Blondie_x]

Hi Hon, we are also male factor with Hubby's morphology, motility & numbers and also dna fragmentation, we went straight to IVF, but as I wasnt eligble for NHS we had our 1st private IVF here which was unsuccessful but our 2nd was a successful cycle in Athens x

Thank you for sharing your success story with male factor infertility. Gives me some hope, and I'm sure it will give the other ladies here some hope too.

 

[Blondie_x]

Here is an update on me. I received the letter for my rescheduled appointment, and unfortunately it is over 6 weeks later than my original appointment date.

I got an unexpected phone call from the hospital this morning to advise me that my partners second semen analysis was abnormal, which we already knew but we don't know the actual results for. By the sounds of it, it is much worse than the first one. We have to go in to the hospital next week so that he can get blood tests for checking if there are any genetic reasons for the low count. I'm feeling really quite worried about this. The specialist will discuss the semen analysis results with us when we see the specialist next week for my partners blood test. She advised that the blood test results could take up to 3 months to come back. Did anyone else's partners here need to go in for blood tests?

How are all you ladies doing?

 

[MrsLaw]

Sorry to hear Blondie. Isn't 3 months a long time to wait for blood results? My GP hasn't asked OH to do bloods yet. Hopefully when you go in, the results are not too far off from what you already knew, FX!

 

[Claire36]

HI, Im in a similar situation!!! Ive just had all my tests done - 3 and 21 day bloods, internal ultrasound, HSG and my boyfriend is just about to give his second sperm analysis and have bloods taken also. We are back at the consultant in just over a week to see what they are going to do. We to have been trying for over a year...... he had very low morphology in his first test 1% so hoping may be better this time round. He works away in the week which adds further complications to our situation. I just need to know know ..... going to be 38 next birthday!! x

 

[HopeSIN]

I'm in the same boat as you guys - my DH has 1% morph and low count. We did manage to get pregnant during our first IUI after an HSG (which cleans out the fallopian tubes and is supposedly increasing chances to get pregnant), but it sadly ended in a stillbirth.
We've now gone through 4 more IUIs and unfortunately none of them worked. My doctor did recommend to to do a hysteroscopy & laparoscopy before moving on to IVF just to see if there's also any issues on my end. They indeed did find some scar tissue around the cervix and in the uterus that they removed, they also cleaned out the tubes and then they found some mild endometriosis during the laparoscopy which they burnt off.

So now instead of straight moving on to IVF my doctor recommended to try another one or two rounds of IUI since after clearing out the scar tissue and having the fallopian tubes cleaned with an HSG success rates might be higher again.

From what I've experienced and heard, there is a good chance for IUI to work if the fertility issues are purely male factor. I think it also depends on the age of the female though.