Dealing with azoospermia?

[snd80]

Welcome Susie! Sorry you have had to join us, but at least they found SOME , which is more than some of us can say! So as hard as it might be, look at the bright side of that.... and we are all here for you anytime. This group of girls is awesome, and I personally don't know where I would be without all of their support!!!!!

Good to see you back Mercury.... hopefully you will get sorted out soon!!!

MJ- LOVE the elephant analogy!!! That will be my new way of looking at things!!!

Hope everyone else is doing ok.

AFM- One week from today I will hopefully be going back to Jackson for my 2nd DIUI. Been trying to get back in the gym in the mean time, which has been horrid since these past 2 weeks have been pure hell! I have gained 4lbs since May 2nd!!!!!! {insert throwing-up little man here} I am so ashamed! But it is what it is! Plus I have to start looking for a new car this weekend too.... My poor little car has had it. It is using soooo much oil (have had to put 2 quarts in in a week!) and is starting to smoke everytime I drive it. *sigh* Hubby is pissed! He told me I needed to choose; a car or a baby. I told him we've come too far to back out, so looks like it will be both!!! It's just always something, but isn't that life? So, yeah, that's what I'm dealing with. Guess I better start chomping on that elephant, even though my weight says I already have!!!!

 

[SunUp]

I know SND, when it rains, it pours! I really hope you have the 2nd IUI next week and that it works. I am crossing my fingers for you now and they will stay crossed until your bfp!!

Susie, hope you get more answers soon.

AFM, I'm just tearing into my elephant... chomp chomp chomp!

 

[Stinas]

snd - LMAO on the elephant! Im sorry your car is dying! SunUp is right...when it rains it sure as hell pours!

SunUp - at the moment i think we are all chomping away at the elephant....i sure know I am! lol

 

[deafgal01]

Yup I am def chomping on the elephant.

hope y'alls have a nice relaxing weekend planned. I get to go to a cousin's wedding today. I hate to think this but I bet they get pregnant before I do at this rate.

 

[raelynn]

deafgirl - I know what you mean! My cousin is supposed to get married next year and I keep saying if she ends up pregnant before I do I'll be so upset!

But....AF finally showed for me! So I'll be starting my birth control round on Monday and we get our IVF calendar when our nurse gets back from vacation on 6/5. I can't believe we're finally getting started!

 

[snd80]

Sun- ??? Did you start or something?

 

[snd80]

Yay Rae! =)

 

[deafgal01]

Yay Rae! Bring it on this cycle!!!! I'd be so thrilled for you to get the bfp before your cousin's wedding next year!!!

 

[raelynn]

Ha ha thanks ladies! I'm just glad to be finally actively doing something. All the waiting makes me a little crazy and then I obsess over things like IVF schedules and research just to distract me.

Are any of you telling work? I'd rather not if I can get by without it since I don't want to have to explain anything if this cycle doesn't work. I have plenty of sick days saved up but I don't know if it will be too many too close to each other that will make it seem suspicious.

 

[deafgal01]

No way! I won't tell work. Might tell my boss but nobody else needs to know my business. My boss might be understanding as she has had ivf before to get pregnant with her daughter.

 

[raelynn]

My boss is great but he is a male and I feel like that might be kind of awkward. Plus, I'd rather work not know I'm trying to get pregnant until it actually happens. Maybe I'll get lucky and either ER or ET will land on a weekend so I'll just have to take one day off. I think I can do the morning scans and still get into work on time since I already had to go once for day 3 follicle count and made it back but it is a tight window unless I can get in a little earlier than I did for that appointment.

 

[luckdragon]

hi girls just thought i'd pop in to see if your all ok, and see how you are getting on. I've just completed my first ivf treatment.
Hope your all ok and wishing you lots of babydust xxx

 

[Deb111]

Is that a I spy in your siggy luckdragon?!?!

Great news for those of you about to get started

 

[Deb111]

So here's the info I promised you

Terry's blood test results in April 2011 before any meds were started
T - 4.3 nmol/L (normal 8.6 - 29.0) LOW
LH - 10 IU/L (normal 2 - 9) SLIGHTLY RAISED
FSH - 17 IU/L (normal 2 - 12) SLIGHTLY RAISED
Oestradiol - 82 pmol/L (normal 50 - 218) NORMAL

July 2011 - after being on Tamoxifen for a couple of weeks
T - 13.4 nmol/L (normal 8.6 - 29.0) WITHIN NORMAL
LH - 17 IU/L (normal 2 - 9) HIGH AS YOU'D EXPECT WITH MEDS
FSH - 28 IU/L (normal 2 - 12) HIGH AS YOU'D EXPECT WITH MEDS
Oestradiol - 233 pmol/L (normal 50 - 218) HIGH

17th August 2011 - After being on Tamoxifen for about 8 weeks
T - 12.2 nmol/L (normal 8.6 - 29.0) WITHIN NORMAL
FSH - 23.7 IU/L (normal 2 - 12) HIGH AS YOU'D EXPECT WITH MEDS
Oestradiol - 321 pmol/L (normal 50 - 218) TOO HIGH

After being switched to Anastrazole for about 3 weeks in an aim to reduce oestradiol but keep T and FSH high - and it worked!
T - 13.6 pmol/L so still raised
FSH - 35 iu/L so FSH is being driven even higher which is good
Oestradiol - 157 pmol/L - so coming down as it should be

So pre-meds, the NHS found 3 sperm and they were all from the same side which told Mr R that that was the best choice of side to go for. After meds he got about 40 and the rest as they say is history.

Also found this info back in my journal ...
He was also telling us interesting stuff about the research on the effectiveness of tamoxifen in azoospermic men and how it is only suitable for a very specific group of men who have slightly raised FSH in conjunction with low testosterone. He said if the FSH is too high, the tamoxifen will be totally ineffective. So hubby is now feeling he's in a very select little group - bless him!

He was also saying that the only research to be done into tamoxifen in men is whether natural pregnancy rates are increased and the evidence is that they're not, but no study has been done into using it in preparation for microTESE. For example, he may have been making 1,000 without the tamoxifen and may now be making 100,000 so whilst microTESE / ICSI could be hugely effective, it's still minute in terms of the number needed for a natural pregnancy.

Hope it helps - I just don't see how he can not even be prepared to give it a try - nothing to lose as far as I can tell xx

 

[Stinas]

deafgal01 & raelynn - I know how you guys feel about all these newlyweds getting preg before you. I am in the same boat. More and more pass by as the time goes by. It drives me crazy....not in a jealous way, but i have my poor me moments. Everyone I know that got married before and after me are now pregnant. I always thought I would have a honeymoon baby...here I am 2yrs later. I believe it will happen soon. Dont beat yourself up about it. Easier said than done...i know.

luckdragon - CONGRATS!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!

Tuesday is our Prostatic ultrasound!!!!(Deb You can update me on first page if you like) Cant wait to get some more answers and see whats next for us!

 

[CanadianMaple]

Thank you Deb. Chris's FSH is high, but not crazy high. I wish they would try something. DH is very afraid of the TESE and I don't think I can get him to do that. The clinic didn't even have a price for us, since they said that no one ever does it. It was like they were brushing us off. How I wish we had the option for a second opinion. Is it even worth pushing for if he may only do the TESA? I feel so mad that we waited all these months and they barely even explained the TESA or mTESE risks, recovery times, etc... If anyone is comfortable sharing, how much was the mTESE? I'm feeling so lost. I'm questioning everything now, whether I even want a baby or just to get out of this nightmare and never look back. Our first year anniversary is coming up in July. I want our second year to be better than our first. He'll be 44 in September.

I do need to see if I can talk to the urologist soon. But I worry it's my only chance to get answers and it annoys me that I have to call him back after waiting 5 months and not getting answers from him.

 

[raelynn]

CanadianMaple - We didn't do the mTESE we did the TESE but we got price quotes for both. The TESE was $4,000 before insurance but they coded it for testicular failure and we only had to pay something like $200. The mTESE was $10,000 and was not eligible for insurance coverage. I'm sure pricing is different everywhere but those were the prices for us here.

 

[MrsC8776]

CM~ We had TESE done and it honestly wasn't that much. It was $400.00 for the urologist. He said we may get a bill for a little more but nothing over $100.00 extra. Then the added cost for DH to be put to sleep which was $440.00 and the $100.00 storage fee. So all together about $940.00. Although they did charge us $567.00 rather than the 440 they quoted so I need to call on that Tuesday. We have no insurance coverage so that was all out of pocket.

I hope this helps

 

[CanadianMaple]

Wow, it's no wonder you all have gone that route. I'm in Canada and this stuff isn't covered by our national healthcare. I will have to pay the hospital fee, the anesthesiologist, the embryologist, urologist. They guessed $4000 but I had the feeling it would be even more than that. I wish something was covered, it seems unfair that it's a true medical issue and we're paying like someone would for plastic surgery or something.

 

[raelynn]

The $4,000 we were quoted included the hospital fee, urologist's fee, and so on. So that is probably pretty close to the price of everything out-of-pocket. It definitely came down to a money decision between the TESE and mTESE for us. We just couldn't rationalize spending $10,000 on top of IVF costs and not knowing if they'd even be able to find anything. I left it up to hubby for the final decision since it was more personal to him.