Dealing with azoospermia?

[BumpHopes]

Hi all i haven't posted in a while as i have nothing new to add. Just want to say i wish you all luck and am stalking and will msg s soon as theres something to update xx

 

[Deb111]

Lovely to see you Bumphopes - hope to have some updates from you soon. Limbo land is not the nicest place to be xx

 

[Stinas]

Hi ladies...
Just a small update here...DH second SA results came in today...no shock...same as before. This urologist has now sent us to another urologist who specializes in azoo. We have an apt with him May 8. Funny thing is DH originally had an apt with this doc on the 27th of this month, but we wanted an apt asap, so went with the other doc. Only our luck.
Hopefully this doc will find the root of the problem and give us more answers. One good thing is that he works with the fertility center we plan to use when the time comes. He did his last SA there and asked what urologist they recommend and it happens to be the doc the other urologist is sending us to.
So I guess now the official waiting for appointments begins! May 8 seems far, but then again, not that far I guess.

Deb I dont know if you want to put that up on the first page? May 8 specialist apt?

 

[WANBMUM]

Hi wanbmum, I am glad you have both finally come to terms with it, for some of us it does take a long time. My DH was fine with it - I think he just wanted to give me what I wanted and this was the only way - but for me I struggled, we have been together for 10 years and all that time I wanted his baby, just to look like him - like his son does - his son is the mirror image of him! so he was ready to go for it straight away. it took me 1 year to come to terms with and actually be able to start doing the IUI-D, I could not come to terms with not having his child staring back at me. In a way I still can't but I am doing what I have to, but each day I still think "This is not what I want to be doing - at all" and I can't shift that, I just try to think past this, it will be all right once the baby is here, I will be so preocupied with love I will forget all about it. At the end of the day, I still just want to have my DH's abby and that's all there is to it. No amount of time seems to remove this pain (we are now 20 months after SSR).

GL to you, I hope your first IUI-D works for you.

Stepmummy I agree, I dont think we will ever ever get away from the reality that we wanted to have a baby that looks like our OH's. Like you, it is all I have ever wanted, from the first day we met I thought, wow would he make good looking gorgeous babies and it still breaks my heart to think I will never have his baby! But that is not to be, I will never forget but I do believe once we see our precious babies and see our husbands with them and how happy they are, it will become a feeling that is there but one that doesnt matter. I read a sperm donor story where a couple had a little girl who was 3 years old and her husband recently said to her that he was happy he couldnt have his own bio children, because if he could, this little girl who he loved and adored, would not be in their lives. That will be the reality, when we have our babies, that will be important and everything else wont matter.

 

[WANBMUM]

Stinas,
fingers crossed you will get some answers at your next app.
have u any idea what the issue may be? has your OH ever had any surgeries/issues?
Hopefully it will be something small that can be fixed, stay strong and try to keep busy until the appt xx

 

[Stinas]

WANBMUM - you could not have said it any better!!!
My god parents could not have children as well (my godfather actually...from the stories i have heard it sounds like azoo, but i doubt they treated it properly 30yrs ago). They ended up going to Europe to adopt....thousands upon thousands of dollars spent in the US to adopt and could not...they found a precious baby girl and brought her back to NY 6 months later.......let me tell you......this girl looks EXACTLY like my godparents...TO THE T! Shes a bit of a wild teen now, which probably was from her biological parents(teen parents)....but everything else is all my god parents. I really do believe the baby molds into their parents.

 

[Stinas]

Stinas,
fingers crossed you will get some answers at your next app.
have u any idea what the issue may be? has your OH ever had any surgeries/issues?
Hopefully it will be something small that can be fixed, stay strong and try to keep busy until the appt xx

Thank you!
This urologist said its most likely a blockage. He found some extra veins which "could" be causing it. Further testing will have to confirm it.
DH has never had any illness or surgery down there, so that as well as all his bloodwork coming out normal leads to a blockage...but i guess until they do a biopsy or a scan they wont know for sure.
I am just praying for sperm being stuck in there. We are trying to keep busy until then. Trying to keep it off your mind, but you know just as well how hard that is.

 

[WANBMUM]

Great story - Yes it is very true. I know our babies (all 6 of them, ha, dont tell my OH) will not look like my OH but they will inherit his amazng personality, wisdom, outlooks and that is way more important than a set of eyes!

Oh I hear ya, trying to keep busy is alot easier said than done. My specialist warned me to stay positive and try not to think about the whole thing too much, not to let it exume my life! YA RIGHT!! although i will try not to.

All you need to know is if he is producing, because once he is, you can go in and get the little freckers out! When my OH was going for all the tests, the specialist said the best outcome would be a blockage, as they are so easy to fix - so fingers crossed.

 

[Stinas]

What happened exactly with your OH? I mix up everyones story...i read almost every page in this thread, but my memory jumbles them all up lol

I hope its a block...the urologist said the same thing...its easy fix if he is producing sperm. Im praying for that. I dont think he will do the donor route. I bring it up here and there, but one day he jokes about it, and the other he completely opposes it. Its still all new to us, so i guess with time we will figure everything out. I think we are making good progress for 2 weeks of knowing that he has azoo.

 

[cosita]

Hey there again,
I was explaining last week (rather badly) the outcome of DH's biopsy. For the newbies I´ll explain our situation up til now, as I see a lot of you are around the stage of not knowing the reason.
In november we got our first SA results (1 immotile sperm). The urologist referred us to an andrologist. Second SA, less than 2 million but all the % were zero, so we were never quite clear on whether that was zero or not. Then DH went on vits for 3 months. I forgot to mention, all blood tests were coming back normal. Third SA was in early feb, zero. So thats when the doc thought maybe a biopsy was the only way but at the same time he gave him an antibiotic just in case it was a hidden infection. So about a month ago he did the biopsy and sperm was found. The proceedure went fine and he healed perfectly.
So last week we went to get more extensive results of the biopsy. They didn't do a count or anything, he said few were found but it was plenty, no need to go to second testicle. Their motility is zero however and the only way to know if they can fertilize is by doing ICSI. Some of you had mentioned that perhaps they are dead. This isn't the case. I hadn't even wanted to mention this to DH but last night I asked him. (I live in Spain, am a fluent Spanish speaker but sometimes things get lost on me) So indeed I had missed some of the docs explanation. They are premature sperm. They don't know why they don't complete development. The report says 'almost completely mature' and in 'advanced stages of maduration'. So, I feel a little bit better, but as I my DH explained to me (and made me cry by his sensitivity) is that they are like premature babies, you just don't know if they will go on to grow or not. This hit home as a friend of mine had a baby at 25 weeks, now he is two!! I had been so down all week but now my hope is back!
So on to next appt with ICSI specialist on May 7th.
Have a good weekend girls.

 

[Deb111]

Front page updated with your appts Stinas and Cosita

Stinas - you definitely have got a long way in 2 weeks

Cosita - how confusing for you, but great news that they found plenty for what you need - that's certainly a good start. It fascinates me that although we all have an azoo diagnosis, everyone of our cases seems so different.

Hope everyone else is doind ok xx

 

[tigerlily1975]

Hello lovelies

I'm so sorry for not popping up lately, I've been in a real funk and just didn't want to bring my bad vibes into this lovely forum.

I hope you're all well and are having a good weekend.

Well, we're off to Hammersmith hospital for DH's TESE on Monday and we're both getting nervous now. Can I ask a quick question; do we need to take anything with us? Should I pack a dressing gown and slippers for him? Also, could your partner wear boxers/bottoms afterwards? I think I'm just trying to keep busy, if you know what I mean.

I think our hospital is getting a bit confused (what's new with the NHS!), but we had a letter through for our IVF Cycles Appointment for the following day.... ??? I called them and explained "err, my husband is only having the surgery the day before..", they couldn't find a record of his op follow-up appointment (we have it as the 16th May) and the lady on the phone said "you can't let the IVF appointment go, they're like GOLD DUST!!", so we have now rescheduled it for a week later. So, we now have an IVF cycle appointment a week after the operation and two weeks before the result appointment... I'm so confused.

I'm so sorry for the ME post, but I'm just all over the place at the moment - you all know EXACTLY how I feel. I just want to know... although I also DON'T want to know. Can they just let us know if it's good news and if it's bad erase that part of my memory. Thanks.

Okay, I'm going to clean the kitchen cupboards. I need to do something. I must be desperate!

Much love and to all of you as always.

C xx

 

[Deb111]

Hi Tiger

Lovely to see you

It really is one of the hardest times, being so close to the TESE and you're right; those of us who have been there TOTALLY understand the 'desperately want to know and really don't!'.

As it's at Hammersmith - is it Mr Ramsey doing the op? My memory is not very good - sorry!!!

In terms of what to take with you on the day - slippers, dressing gown, tight fitting briefs (he will need firm support for a good few days after the op - they are likely to give him some sort of support, but also advise you take something with you), might also be worth taking a pillow or cushion with you for the journey home in case he's uncomfortable - first op hubby had, he could have done with one, 2nd one he was fine

Sending you nothing but positive vibes for Monday xx

 

[Stinas]

Cosita - thanks for sharing your story!!! It's hard to piece everyone together. I could only imagine how confusing they make things. Appointments normally are, but these just frustrate us even more. It's great they found plenty of sperm!!! That's exciting!!

Deb - I agree. Everyone's stories are totally different and all our treatments seem to be different. Very interesting. So we are doing good for knowing for so little time? I'm a very anxious person, I just want to know and fix it now....even though I know it won't be so easy.

Tiger - good luck with the surgery. With time you will feel better. I would also love to erase it all from my memory. It feels like a crazy bad dream that has just started for me. So I can imagine what it's like as time goes by. Best of luck Monday and I'll be thinking of you!!

I have been making DH take 1000 vitamin c daily for a while now....even after finding out about azoo....he does not want to take them anymore ...but I have hope there is sperm in there...could it still help if they are in there? It's not like the vitamins are harmful to him....men are such babies.

 

[Deb111]

Stinas - our NHS urologist said it 'couldn't hurt' - we choose to delay hubby's SSR until he'd been on the vits a full 3 months.

Private urologist said yes without question. Obviously if there's none being made, it wont make a difference, but it's all about makiing sure the environment for sperm production is as good as it can be if he is making some so that you get the best quality sperm possible to work with x

 

[tigerlily1975]

Deb: Thank you so much. As always you are a wealth of support and information - what would we do without you?? It's quite confusing; we're under Queen Charlotte's, but it's linked to Hammersmith, so they will perform the surgery there. We're not under Mr Ramsey, but we've already discussed contacting him privately if we don't get the result we're hoping for. That's a good idea about the pillow, I would never have thought of that! I hope you and the little bump are doing well

Stinas: Thank you! It really is like a bad dream, isn't it? I know exactly what you mean re: vitamins. I have a real struggle getting DH to take zinc, you'd think I was asking him to take a cyanide capsule!

I hope everyone else is good. We're off out for one of our walks near the Thames - making the most of it, as I don't think DH will be walk far over the next week or so.

to all,

C xx

 

[Deb111]

We're doing fine thanks Tiger. We have our 12 week (plus a few days) scan on Wednesday and the NT test xx

 

[tigerlily1975]

We're doing fine thanks Tiger. We have our 12 week (plus a few days) scan on Wednesday and the NT test xx

Oh wow! That's so exciting! Ah, you've a little 'plum' now, too cute!!



C xx

 

[Deb111]

Just stopping by with more good luck wishes for you and dh tomorrow Tiger. When will you know if and what they've found? xx

 

[raelynn]

Deb - Can you add me to the front page too please? We'll be doing IVF in June/July.