Dealing with azoospermia?

[cbergs]

Thanks, everyone, for the warm welcome!

Stinas- I am thinking of you today!

Hugs to all, we def need it.

-Carrie

 

[Deb111]

Gosh I've not had much chance to get on in the last few days and so much to catch up on

Arimas - welcome - so glad they found sperm and I wish you every luck with IVF #2

CBerg - welcome - if you're looking for an active thread; you've definitely found it. You really will go through so many emotions and just when you think you've dealt with one, it will come back and rear it's ugly head! I have to say, my main strength throughout all of this, has been this wonderful group of women. There really is nothing quite the same as talking to people who just 'get you'. So ask as many questions as you want, rant away, scream, shout, do whatever you need

Stinas - good luck with the biopsy - I guess you may have your results by now?? I really hope and pray it is good news

CM - Happy Anniversary hun Anniversaries always bring things to the fore and it can be tough, but it's also so exciting that you're moving on with your journey

MrsC and Rae - good luck with testing on Tuesday - I'm keeping everything crossed for you and the rest of you in the 2WW

Hugs to anyone I've missed xx

 

[Deb111]

As someone else mentioned, the thread is pretty long now, so for the newbies, my story in a nutshell ...

- I'm 38 and hubby is 46. We met 6 years ago and got married in 2008. We started trying for a family immediately - nothing happened. I 'knew' something was wrong.

- Got a referral to a fertility clinic and in April 2010, hubby was diagnosed with azoospermia

- Not a blockage and so the only way to see if any sperm were being made was a random biopsy which the NHS did in Oct 2010. 3 very healthy and precious sperm found, but they got rid of them as they said their minimum criteria for freezing was 100. We were told our only options were adoption or donor sperm.

- Decided that we couldn't accept this until we had totally exhausted our opportunities. So we tracked down a highly recommended private urologist, who felt he could help us. So in Oct 2011, after 3 months of tamoxifen / anastrazole for hubby, he performed a microTESE operation on the same day as my EC and managed to find between 30 and 40 sperm - so still TINY numbers!!

- By this time, my fertility levels had dropped more than they should have for someone my age, but they managed to get 8 mature eggs from me. 3 fertilised and went to blastocyst.

- 2 were transferred back in Oct 2011 but

- They were not sure if the other one would go to blastocyst and be good enough to freeze as it was a day behind development-wise, but the following day they called to say all was good and it was in the deep freeze

- So, jump forward to 14th Feb 2012 and we had the final frozen embryo transferred and the rest is history and here we are

 

[wibble wobble]

Hey I'm also thinking of testing tomorrow MrsC and Rae

welcome to thread cbergs

Canadian happy anniversary

Good luck for the biopsy tomorrow Stinas

Snd hope you've not gone too crazy on your 2ww

 

[Deb111]

Good luck WW xx

 

[Stinas]

Thank you all for the wonderful warm wishes!!!
I wish I could tell you all good news, but unfortunately, they only found a few sperm. To the doctors surprise(and mine), he has come to the conclusion that it is a reproduction issue. The sample is being look at further by the lab people, whatever they call them I cant remember right now. The ARE going to freeze anything they find, no matter what the amount.
Devastated is an understatement right now. I knew it was not going to be millions, but as the time went by in the waiting room I just knew that something was wrong. DH is depressed and just kept apologizing to me in the recovery room....which made me feel a ton worse. At least he had a sense of humor while he was in there...yelling as I walked towards him, telling me he drank 2 bottles of Grey Goose Vodka all by himself lol I am proud of myself for holding back the tears until I got him home and asleep...but I did break down when I called my mom, she is on summer vacation in europe.
Doc said he will be calling us tom with more info. He said he can put dh on meds and see what happens, but dh said a million of times today that he is not doing this surgery again. He actually wants to see if we can go ahead with whatever sperm we did find and continue with the IVF. I was told to start my BCP tom, but will be calling my IVF doc tom to see what she thinks about the sperm.
DH is feeling ok right now. He has a ton of gauze in that jock strap undies, so he is walking like a duck. He was complaining earlier about a weird tugging slight pain under his belly button, pressure somewhat...but besides that hes pretty good. In and out of sleep mostly today, but then again, we only slept maybe 2 hours last night and was at docs from 6am to 12....and let me tell you....it was a FREEZER in there! I swear my toes started turning blue!
hmmmm.....thats about it for now I guess.

Deb reading your story makes me have hope. I actually thought of you after the doc told me the news....i was thinking it sounded somewhat familiar.

I just feel like im back at square one.....back at the why me stage. This just sucks.

 

[raelynn]

WW/MrsC - Good luck tomorrow! I'm so nervous!

Stinas - So sorry the results were not what you were expecting but at least they found some! Sad your hubby was apologizing. This diagnosis is so hard on them! We had very few sperm found, similar to Deb, and still were able to have two embryos for IVF so you should be ok to continue there. My hubby has been the same with discussions of another TESE if this IVF round doesn't work. He's not sure he would want to do another plus the cost added on to another round of IVF costs. This stuff sure is tough! to you girl!

 

[MrsC8776]

WW~ Fx for all of us tomorrow!

Stinas~ I'm so sorry. Theres a chance that they will find more while looking so don't give up hope. All you need is a few for IVF/ICSI. Of course we all believe more is better but the ones you get will become your little one. I can see how this news would make you take a few steps back though. I hope you and your DH are ok.

 

[cbergs]

Good luck to the ladies testing tomorrow. Fingers crossed and prayers for you both!

Stinas- THEY FOUND SPERM! BIG happy face! Though not many, but enough to make a baby. I have all the hope in the world for you!

We went to our first RE appt. today...but it felt unnecessary. Of course, IF they find sperm in my husband THEN we will need her- but until then- we await DH's b/w and 3rd SA results.

-CB

 

[deafgal01]

Oh Stinas It's hard to hear the news when it's few sperms. But it's not all hopes lost cause. Like the other ladies already mentioned- it only takes one sperm (or a few) to turn one egg into an embryo. I'm curious to hear what your dr says about the bcp, whether you should or not get back on that.

 

[deafgal01]

MrsC, WW, and Rae- GOOD LUCK tomorrow! I shall be checking in first thing tomorrow to see if you all got bfps or not. I hope for bfps for you so that you can continue your journey on to the pregnancy part!

 

[Stinas]

Thank you ladies!!! Its really hard to hear just a few sperm were found, but we do have some hope.

 

[tigerlily1975]

lovelies!

I hope you're all fine and dandy

Ooh, GOOD LUCK to Rae, Wibble and MrsC! We'd love some BFPs on here.. us Azoo aunties need more bubbas to coo over!

SND, when are you testing, hun?

Hello, cbergs! Firstly The wonderful Deb summed it up perfectly, if you need us, we're always here! I hope your test results come back with some good news.

CM: BIG on their way to you, darling. It's been over a year now since we got the diagnosis. I'm not sure if it gets any easier or maybe we just get better at handling it. Just remember, take one day at a time

Deb: How are you doing, hun? I must pop over and catch-up on your journal!

DG: How's hubby doing? Is he getting around okay now?

Stinas: Big to you honey! I completely understand where you are coming from. All we know from the selective examination of DH's tissue is there was one immotile sperm and one 'twitching'... ??! The hospital have frozen those samples and pressed ahead with ICSI... ??! It's almost a fertility mantra but 'you only need one!' is what we have to keep reminding ourselves and also that we're just so lucky to have some (one!) at all. I'm sure once you've let it sink in, it's actually AMAZING news.

Silverbell: Not sure if you're out there, darling, but I hope you're okay

I'm so sorry if I've missed anyone - I always do! Doh!

Much love and to all,

C xx

 

[tigerlily1975]

I'm pretty sure someone (Deb?) has posted this before, but it's a story that gives me a lot of hope. Stinas, you might appreciate it too, right now.

Link: miracle-baby-born-from-single-frozen-sperm

C xx

 

[raelynn]

BFN this morning for me with ic. I'm saving one of my 2 FRERs for tomorrow but I'm disappointed and starting to lose hope...8dp3dt

 

[deafgal01]

Rae

DH is doing just fine. He's starting to do more things for himself. He says it's sore now and it feels weird to be walking around but he's not sitting all day icing it now so that's something. He's iced it all day Thursday and Friday. Half of the day Saturday. A little on Sunday in the morning. Only felt uncomfortable twinges (so Stinas- that's normal apparently). Just now noticed bruising on his penis (but the paper says that is normal too).

 

[rdleela]

Hi, ladies, been quite awhile since I posted, but I've been reading everything, don't you worry!

Welcome to all the new girls!

Canadian, Happy 1st Anniversary! The first one is special, congrats!

Stinas, I am so, so sorry to hear that they only found a few sperm...I think you will know a lot more when they let you know what they found after taking a closer look...Just hang on to the hope that they can use them and you can start IVF! Big, big hugs from up north!

AFM, STILL WAITING on our surgery date for hubby to have his blockage repaired. Been waiting 5 weeks today. I emailed the surgeon yesterday, hoping for an update or some sort of news, we can't plan anything this summer cause we have no idea when the surgery will be! I had an appointment with a fertility clinic that I was really disappointed in, you can just read my journal for that post if you are interested.

I am not posting much b/c I am not going through what any of you other ladies are going through at the moment. We're not doing IVF or donor sperm/IUI (at this moment, lol) so I really don't have much to post about with you ladies (plus just been playing the stupid waiting game for 5 weeks), but DO KNOW that I am sending baby dust to each and every one of you all the time!

 

[MrsC8776]

raelynn~ Sorry about the bfn this morning. Don't give up yet because there is still time.

DG~ I'm glad your DH is doing better. Sounds like the healing process is moving quickly.

rdleela~ I hope you hear something soon. The waiting game is never fun.

AFM~ I tested this morning. I think I can see something but then again I don't know. I might be going crazy. I'm just going to keep testing until my beta on Thursday.

 

[deafgal01]

MrsC- hope the line gets darker then your beta will confirm you're getting your bfp finally.

 

[CanadianMaple]

Hi girls!

First of all MrsC8776- If you see something, that's awesome! They always say a line is a line. It would still be super faint at this point. Did you use a FRER test? I have my fingers crossed!

raelynn- It's still early, I think most don't see anything that early. Don't give up yet, lots of sticky vibes to you.

rdleela- I know what you mean, it's hard to think about what to post when you're in the waiting mode. I always find it hard to be waiting when things are moving along for everyone else. Waiting is so hard and so frustrating. If I were you, I would make some plans for the summer since it's too short to waste it. Even plan shorter trips that are flexible or you could cancel if you need to.

DG- I'm glad to hear your DH is healing well and things are feeling better for him.


tigerlily1975- Thank you for your post. Anniversaries really take you back, don't they? I hope you are doing well.

Stinas- I'm so happy to hear they found some sperm. They told us that we would have been lucky if they only found 1 or 2 dozen. I hope they are good enough quality and will be enough to get your baby.

I know I am missing some people from other pages. I hope you're all well too.

AFM- We had a really nice first anniversary. It was crazy how many baby references there were in the speeches and the interviews they did. Just looking at us and knowing what we were about to go through was kind of bittersweet. But, we really have come a long way this year and I believe it will make us stronger.

I spoke to the clinic today. They are waiting for our results to come in. I am getting her to ask the RE about the risk of getting herpes or HPV with donor sperm. Only one sperm bank actually tests for those and we don't see any donors we like with Fairfax. I may take the pill for an extra few days so I don't have to worry about missing a family reunion because of the IUI timing. We opted for Clomid with a trigger shot because I get so many +OPK tests because of my LH. I don't want to miss my surge. If only we would decide on our donor. We have two we like.