Dealing with azoospermia?

[wibble wobble]

Hi rdleela welcome to the thread.... sorry your here tho, it's horrible that there is so many of us Azoo wifie's now

Silverbird big (((hugs))) hope you get some answers at your next appointment

 

[Stinas]

rdleela - Hi! Im sooooo sorry to see you here! Its nice to see a familiar name, but not in this situation.
Looks like your a step ahead of me. Im fairly new to knowing all this stuff, but have been comforted and well informed of what lies ahead of me from these lovely ladies. You came to the right thread!
Hope we all get this stuff sorted out and on to holding our babies in our arms!

 

[rdleela]

Thanks for the warm welcome ladies! Stinas, I was shocked to see you on here, but yes, nice to see a familiar name! I hope you start getting some answers soon!

I have been dealing with this since the very end of January, while also grieving for my grandfather, and all I can tell you is that in this process, I do believe we are also going through the grieving process. I am currently on the ANGER stage, unfortunately. To get through it, I've been immersing myself in research. My DH is the opposite, he just wants to go along and figure stuff out after the dr's tell us stuff! I would rather know exactly what the dr is going to tell us before he tells us! lol

As for the blockage bypass surgery I was talking about, it's called Vasoepididymostomy. In extremely simple terms, it would be like doing a reverse vasectomy, but to bypass a blockage instead. It's a much more complicated procedure than a reverse v though.

Are there any ladies on this thread who are dealing with a blockage? Or are most of you dealing with hormonal issues? I mean, if they are finding sperm on your hubbies, are they not even offering the above surgery or just moving you right along to IVF/ICSI?

From what I've ready, a successful surgery has very good results in natural pregnancy, actually better rates than IVF, depending on the health of the female. (But a successful surgery REALLY depends on a skilled surgeon.)

I am thinking if you go to a fertility clinic, of course they want you to move along to IVF/ICSI. If you see an actual urologist, not at a fertility clinic, I bet you'd be offered the surgery if they thought they could bypass the blockage (and female no issues).

So yeah, just wondering how you made your decisions to go to IVF/ICSI if you HAVE sperm? Were you even offered surgery on DH?

Oh, and as for why I didn't get results that day, I'm dealing with a urologist, and the biopsy was strictly to go in and pull a sample, he doesn't even look at it, he just sends it away to a pathologist. Maybe if we did this at a fertility clinic, they would have looked at it immediately?

 

[Deb111]

I can't speak for others, although I know a lot of the girls hubby's didn't have blockages, but there was no blockage with my hubby. His was hormonal and he was producing minute numbers even with hormone treatment and when I say minute numbers, we're talking only 30-40 sperm collected in a very thorough mTESE op. Thankfully it was all we needed

That op sounds very interesting and it makes sense that bypassing a blockage would be more successful than trying to repair a blockage in a tiny tube

 

[Deb111]

Just had a little google and it seems that with that procedure, they do a biopsy first to confirm sperm production and they can then freeze what they find as a back up incase the procedure doesn't return sperm to the ejaculate so I don't see how you can lose esp if the procedure could potentially save a lot of money over ICSI

 

[Stinas]

rdleela - Thank you! I think DH has a blockage, but we are still in the process of finding out. Its not hormonal, all his bloods just came back normal, so a few more tests and we will find out for sure. The urologist said its leaning more towards a blockage.
As deb said, I dont see how you can lose by doing the surgery...especially if they do freeze some sperm.
My question is, if the doc does not do a great job or something goes wrong, can they lose mobility down there, or is there a risk of that sort when doing the surgery? Just curious.

 

[rdleela]

Yeah, what have we got to lose! lol

I know they aren't freezing any of his sperm if they find some in this sample. If we did have to go to IVF/ICSI, they'll have to go back in to get some from him.

I have no idea if there is a chance that the surgery could impact his future sperm production if it doesn't work, but that will DEF be a question I will ask before we have the procedure, if anyone will even advise us to get the procedure done.

Stinas, I am so interested to see what will happen with you, our cases so far sound very similar!

Deb, so you were left hanging - not hormonal, not a blockage? That would drive me crazy! But who cares the cause, I guess, what matters is you got your baby!

We've made up our minds that we will pursue this surgery first. If we are advised against it, or chances don't look good, then we will definitely be heading straight for IVF/ICSI ASAP, no time wasted over here! I am so impatient! lol

And I guess it all depends on them actually finding some spermies! lol, look at me go, don't even know for sure we have anything to work with yet!

 

[deafgal01]

hi rdleela. Sorry you are finding yourself in the same boat as all of azoo ladies are in. You have come to right place for support.

Currently I guess the dr thinks it's a hormone issue due to levels in the blood work on my dh. If medicine does not work, they said there will be surgery but I have no idea which kind yet as we have not reached that point yet thankfully.

 

[Deb111]

Deb, so you were left hanging - not hormonal, not a blockage? That would drive me crazy! But who cares the cause, I guess, what matters is you got your baby!

We weren't left hanging - it is a combination of a hormonal issue and also the fact that many of the 'production lines in his factory' either aren't working or aren't going right through to full maturation (and never have been). The hormone medication worked on the very tiny number of pockets that were working and drove the numbers up. Numbers were just WAY too low to get any sperm into the ejaculate, but as you say, they found what they needed - thanks to us being lucky enough to be in the UK and fairly local to one of THE urologists to go to with these issues

 

[Stinas]

Rdleela - yes they do sound pretty similar. Hoping it all ends up with a wonderful story.

DH goes in for a SA Tom. Poor guy threw out his back really bad. So bad that he feels like he did when he broke his ribs a few years back. The crazy person that I am I asked if he's ok enough to do the SA Tom lol he painfully laughed and said yes lol

 

[rdleela]

Deb, so you were left hanging - not hormonal, not a blockage? That would drive me crazy! But who cares the cause, I guess, what matters is you got your baby!

We weren't left hanging - it is a combination of a hormonal issue and also the fact that many of the 'production lines in his factory' either aren't working or aren't going right through to full maturation (and never have been). The hormone medication worked on the very tiny number of pockets that were working and drove the numbers up. Numbers were just WAY too low to get any sperm into the ejaculate, but as you say, they found what they needed - thanks to us being lucky enough to be in the UK and fairly local to one of THE urologists to go to with these issues

That's great that you did get an answer and were close to a great urologist! That's something that I haven't read about yet, so glad to know your story! I'm sure you posted that info a long time ago, thanks for telling it again to me!

 

[deafgal01]

Stinas- so funny to hear that was the first thing you asked your DH. Hope his back feels better soon- it can't be much fun dealing with a back that is thrown out.

 

[CanadianMaple]

Hi rdleela- I'm glad you are in here and getting support. I really hope that surgery is successful, it must be such a delicate surgery. How has your husband been processing all of this?

Stinas- I hope your husband's back is feeling better.

Deb- How is everything? Are you feeling good?

For any of you who have seen an IF psychologist, what can we expect when we see him on Wednesday? We will talk about donor sperm, but right now, that is our plan B. We want to talk about how it feels to be experiencing this and how to cope with what's ahead (IVF or donor).

 

[Stinas]

Thank you ladies....hes doing a bit better today. Big baby lol I know hes in pain but geesh....after giving him some meds what else can I do? lol

Canadian - Is it a must to see a IF physch?

 

[Mercury1]

Hope everyone had a good weekend.

So...... my OH went to try a second sample for banking last week, and although they found nothing in that one - or at least hadn't after 90 mins of looking - the guy doing the consent for storing told him they did find something in the one the week before!!!!! I wasn't there but OH was told the numbers were minimal. I'm not sure what that means .... a couple of hundred would be minimal for most people. But I think that might be too hopeful, so I'm only expecting in the 10's. He didn't ask anything about mobility etc, but I'm assuming they would only freeze stuff that looks fairly normal and is moving a bit.

The guy was very clear with him that it's not much at all, and it may not survive thawing. He also said he should come back 2 or 3 more times, because every now and again they might find something. But I'm so pleased for him, he does struggle with not being manly enough beause of all this. Maybe it'll make the idea of surgery easier to deal with if it's needed.

Trying to stay realistic though. Still haven't had the genetic results back. The urologist implied that they should be OK as the cause seems to be the surgery as a child, which was quite late. But a friend of mine who's a reproductive scientist said that as undescended testicles aren't normal, there could be an underlying genetic reason for that to have happened in the first place

 

[Deb111]

Deb- How is everything? Are you feeling good?

For any of you who have seen an IF psychologist, what can we expect when we see him on Wednesday? We will talk about donor sperm, but right now, that is our plan B. We want to talk about how it feels to be experiencing this and how to cope with what's ahead (IVF or donor).

Trying not to moan, but feeling pretty rough still. I struggle to sit down without falling asleep!! and the nausea is still there pretty much 100% of th time. Back to work tomorrow - should be interesting!

Mine wasn't a psychologist, just a counsellor, but she very much just let me talk and just gave input when appropriate. She let me work a lot of it out myself just by talking it through, but was also very supportive. I hope it goes well xx

 

[Deb111]

Mercury - that's good news they found some and the mobility doesn't matter if they're doing ICSI. It's scary when they talk about such low numbers as 'normal' males make thousands in every heartbeat, but you really don't ned many. We only got 30-40 in a mTESE op, but it was enough. It's quality not quantity that matters!

 

[cosita]

Hi rdleela and welcome



It frustrates me that so many couples are having to wait so long for biopsy results. I wonder if they are being frozen and looked at later? because when we had our biopsy on the NHS, they told hubby whilst they were still doing the procedure that they had found one healthy motile one and we had the full results within 3 hours. Then when he had the private mTESE, the wouldn't take me down for EC until they had confirmation that they had sperm so we knew within 2 hours. It just seems cruel to keep people waiting so long

Hi Deb, we are going tomorrow for biopsy results after 3 weeks (although we could have gotten them last week but we were away). I understand that they send the sample away (to a different clinic) to try to get to the root of the problem. They did tell my DH after the proceedure that there was sperm but they didn't do a count. I guess they need to study it, especially when there are no hormonal or apparent blockage issues, which is our case. I´ll let you know more tomorrow as I'll be sure to ask him what took them so long!

 

[Deb111]

I´ll let you know more tomorrow as I'll be sure to ask him what took them so long!

With our NHS SSR they took 3 samples and kept 95% of the tissue to look for sperm and sent the other 5% to pathology for more info. We got the report back from them after about 3 weeks and had been told that if they found any in that 5%, they wouldn't be able to freeze them. But the 95% was looked at there and then. I guess they do things differently, even throughout the UK,

Good luck for tomorrow xx

 

[Stinas]

Mercury - Thats wonderful news!!! Heck, anything is better than completely zero like they all tell us at first! Good luck!