Dealing with azoospermia?

[MoBaby]

the electric fencing wont hurt the dog...just scare them... they use it to keep cattle inside fences in my area.

 

[CanadianMaple]

I was just wondering something now that we are going ahead with a TESA. I spent a few months thinking we were going to use a donor with super sperm that would fertilize my eggs without any issues. If we do get sperm from DH's TESA and do ICSI, will it go well like any "normal" sperm? Could none of them fertilize or grow? I know I am overthinking this and some of you have the answer to this question. The last time we spoke to the urologist was last May and we ruled out TESA.

Betti- Waiting is hard, but I can't blame you for wanting to save money and wait a bit. We had to get some work done around our house while waiting and it all worked out somehow. Even while saving, it's hard not to continue living and doing what needs done around the house.

Hopeful Cat- I was a basketcase while waiting this time last year. It's hard when you don't know what the results will be and where things will lead from there. I had a major fear of the unknown. I bet they will do an exam, do bloodwork (hormones and genetic tests which take a few weeks) and they will go over your entire medical history.

Pearlie11- We were told it was testicular failure since his genetic testing was normal. He had low tesosterone, high LH and FSH. Prolactin was normal. But, a few months later, we wanted his family doctor to recheck the testosterone to see if he would need testosterone replacement for his sex drive. His testosterone was normal. On the low end of normal, but still normal, so we don't know what it is. Probably still testicular failure, which means there is only a 20% chance of finding sperm in the TESA next month. He did have a terrible car accident about 15 years ago and the urologist said there could be a blockage too, on top of the hormone issues. That's been our biggest struggle is the mixed messages we had gotten over the past year.

Mrs.X- I have never heard of x-rays causing issues, but I suppose there would be radiation from them. Yikes.

 

[SunUp]

CM- I might have misunderstood you - but this is my answer to what I think you are asking... If we did the TESA, our RE wanted us to have our DS at the clinic and, depending on how many eggs and the TESA outcome, we could decide which percentage of TESA sperm to use, and what percentage of DS. Testicular sperm is not usually the best quality, so while it does work, our RE wanted us to have the DS at the clinic in case we needed to use that.

 

[tigerlily1975]

I was just wondering something now that we are going ahead with a TESA. I spent a few months thinking we were going to use a donor with super sperm that would fertilize my eggs without any issues. If we do get sperm from DH's TESA and do ICSI, will it go well like any "normal" sperm? Could none of them fertilize or grow? I know I am overthinking this and some of you have the answer to this question. The last time we spoke to the urologist was last May and we ruled out TESA.

Hello Canadian

Wow, it's so exciting that you're all good to go! I think this is a tricky one. In our case the Drs found sperm, but the quality was not great (mostly immobile and immature), so we had no fertilization, unfortunately. But there are many, many success stories with this procedure (points to the lovely Debs!).

DH is currently on Clomid and we're hoping we'll be able to go for MTESE/ICSI in the next couple of months, but our Dr has also mentioned that we might want a DS back-up (we're hoping to do a fresh cycle and I believe this suggestion is quite common), but my DH is not happy using a donor....

I wish none of us here had to go through any of this.

Sending you tonnes of gooooood luck!!



C xx

P.S. to all! I've been 'popping my head in', but not really posting of late as we're just waiting for the next step at the mo'. I hope, hope, HOPE 2013 is THE year for all of us!!

 

[BettiS]

Soili - Nope, not really, said it in the original post.

 

[deafgal01]

Betti- if you go to advanced version of posting, there is a paper clip symbol for attachments. Browse computer for the pic, then select it and click Something. I forget cuz I have not uploaded pics in a while. But it will show up in this box when it is attached to the post.

 

[Hopeful Cat]

Hey ladies,
Dh and I went to our first appointment with his specialist yesterday. I just sat there is silence for the most part trying to keep it all together. He was really nice but just very blunt and it was all hard to swallow. Does anybody else get like that? I can be fine for weeks but as soon as I step into tjhat room I'm a bundle of nerves and close to tears.
Second SA test came back with a zero count again and his fsh(?) was a bit high. On the plus side he didn't have any tumours, testosterone was good and his anatomy all looked fine in a quick scan. He did say he had small balls tho which we laughed about later. At least that's got to be more comfortable right?
Next step for us is the fine needle procedure to get a little bit of tissue to examine. I'm hoping we find sperm but considering he had undescended testicles until he was 9 doesn't give me much hope. I just don't understand how it could of been overlooked when he was born. I'm still really angry about it.
Anyway - I know some of your dhs are taking vitamins and other things to improve sperm quality if they find any... Can anybody tell me what the best thing for him to be taking atm would be, I forgot to ask the specialist.

 

[deafgal01]

Hopeful- you're lucky that your dh let you go in with him. Mine would not take me to his appt to ask questions and stuff. But yeah I expect that to be normal feelings for that situation.

 

[Stinas]

Hey ladies!
Just an update from me....DH had surgery yesterday to remove some of the cyst we think could be causing the blockage. Catheter comes out fri and next week we have a sperm analysis....which will tell us if this worked or not.

Hope all is well with everyone!

 

[deafgal01]

Stinas- hope that works out for your DH... I hope that is all that it takes to get it solved so that you two can have a baby. Good luck!

 

[Chickensoup85]

Good luck Stinas!

 

[CanadianMaple]

Stinas- Good luck, I hope the healing goes well!

Hopeful Cat- I found that I struggled a lot when we would meet with specialists. I would always feel ready and then it would fly out the window when we got there in the office. DH didn't do any supplements. We were given a 20% chance of finding sperm and he didn't feel that anything would really change in our case.

Tigerlily- Thank you for your reply. I am going to ask the nurse about it when we go in on Tuesday. I suppose we would know the quality the day before?

SunUp- We have the donor sperm there, so I guess it will be a matter of seeing what happens with the TESA. We are definitely prepared to use it if we have to.

AFM- I have my teaching appointment on Tuesday and will start my Suprefact on Wednesday. I can't believe we will actually have a chance to get pregnant! I'm scared to death of the egg retrieval though. Cross your fingers for us!

 

[MJ73]

Hi girls,

sorry I haven't been on for ages, to be honest I've had alot of anxiety & have found steering clear of forums has helped me with it (there are so many horor stories!)... But I've missed all my azoo girls & Tang has missed all his Azoo Aunties too! Not long now till we meet him face-to-face! Exciting! Just wanted to let you all know that in no way have I forgotten any of you & that I still am hoping & praying for you all each day.

Also to let you know that getting pregnant doesn't (for me at least) magically wash away the pain of azoo & infertility & I think it is something we will always carry with us. Something that has made us stronger, but has changed us forever. I also think that paying $30k to get pregnant increases your anxiety lol...

Canadian, with regards to sperm quality, it may be that each clinic has a different protocol. But for our clinic they will only ICSI the eggs with sperm that 'appears' mature & in a good form etc. It's a bit different to standard IVF because using ICSI, they inject the sperm into the eggs, rather than just hoping it will do as it is supposed to etc. In my husband's case they found more sertoli cell only sperm (immature) & fewer developed sperm. But the scientist will only use the mature sperm for ICSI. So, I think it is good to have DS on stand by in case it is needed, because going through egg retrieval & then having no sperm to work with is no fun, Freezing eggs is such new technology & has limited success as opposed to freezing embryos. Just a note that we had 3 straws (vials) of sperm from DH's first TESE & none of these survived defrost. Our scientist told us that they have alot more problems defrosting testicular sperm. Her explanation was the small numbers they are dealing with. For us, I think we had 19 sperm frozen in those 3 straws. In a normal sample (of millions) the scientist said that over half would not survive defrost, so when they're dealing with such small numbers, it's just a game of luck wether any survive or not. Having said that I'm pretty sure that there are girls on here who've had luck with testicular sperm defrosting. (Just not sure if you're doing TESE timed with your retrieval or not?) Other than that, the scientist didn't mention good, mature testicular sperm having a worse fert rate than fresh or frozen 'normal' sperm when using ICSI. It's so exciting you're up to this point now!

Anyway, we see the urologist again for DH at the beginning of March & hopefully will get the all clear for testicular cancer (or at least, hopefully will find out something more concrete at least). It's not very good timing for us as it's just after bub is due & bad news is the last thing we want, but we've had this hanging over our heads for a year now....
Like I said, I miss you girls. I'm hoping to get on more once bub is here.

Massive hugs all round! xxxxx

 

[awifey]

Hi. New to azoo. Just got day's results back today with zero sperm found. Sooo many pages on here it is overwhelming. I don't even know where to start really. :/ feeling a bit hopeless at the moment.

 

[Chickensoup85]

Hello Awifey,

Sorry you have had this horrible diagnosis. You're not alone, everyone on this board is so wonderful.

Were you given much information of where to go from here?

We had our diagnosis relatively recently so not yet started any of the assisted conception part. After the initial diagnosis my husband was sent for more tests: an MRI, chromosome analysis and another SA. This was to determine if it was due to a blockage or a problem with production (both in our case). The next step now is a mTESE, a surgical sperm retrieval. If they find something we will move to IVF with ICSI.

MJ73, our doc never said anything about testicular frozen sperm not defrosting well and just said there was little evidence that frozen or not made a difference with fertilisation. Really concerned now as he practically laughed when I asked about doing fresh cycles! Should I have pushed it? Good luck for your appointment in march.

 

[Stinas]

MJ - !!!!!!! Sooooo happy to hear from you!!!!! Glad everything is going well! Yay for tang being a boy!!!! woohoooo! Its almost time!!!! Thanks for checking in on us!

awifey - Sorry to see you here!....but there are amazing ladies here to help you through things.

As for me....DH has healed up well. SA this week or next week to determine if the surgery worked. I pray it has. Its scary to think that there is always that possibility we could be back at square one.

 

[MoBaby]

Hey awifey..dont feel hopeless. It hurts for sure when you get the diagnosis but its possible to do other methods to conceive..We know that IVF/ICSI works for us (If I could just hold onto the baby that would be the other issue). So dont lose hope! Talk to the urologist first and see what they have to offer. We declined the biopsy b/c DH has a few sperm present in his ejaculate....He did several SAs before we made the final decision. Good luck!

Welcome all new girls. Sorry you are here but this is a great thread and we all will get through AZO!!

Stinas: I am bitting my nails for you!! FX they find something!

 

[awifey]

Hello Awifey,

Sorry you have had this horrible diagnosis. You're not alone, everyone on this board is so wonderful.

Were you given much information of where to go from here?

We had our diagnosis relatively recently so not yet started any of the assisted conception part. After the initial diagnosis my husband was sent for more tests: an MRI, chromosome analysis and another SA. This was to determine if it was due to a blockage or a problem with production (both in our case). The next step now is a mTESE, a surgical sperm retrieval. If they find something we will move to IVF with ICSI.

MJ73, our doc never said anything about testicular frozen sperm not defrosting well and just said there was little evidence that frozen or not made a difference with fertilisation. Really concerned now as he practically laughed when I asked about doing fresh cycles! Should I have pushed it? Good luck for your appointment in march.

MJ - !!!!!!! Sooooo happy to hear from you!!!!! Glad everything is going well! Yay for tang being a boy!!!! woohoooo! Its almost time!!!! Thanks for checking in on us!

awifey - Sorry to see you here!....but there are amazing ladies here to help you through things.

As for me....DH has healed up well. SA this week or next week to determine if the surgery worked. I pray it has. Its scary to think that there is always that possibility we could be back at square one.

Hey awifey..dont feel hopeless. It hurts for sure when you get the diagnosis but its possible to do other methods to conceive..We know that IVF/ICSI works for us (If I could just hold onto the baby that would be the other issue). So dont lose hope! Talk to the urologist first and see what they have to offer. We declined the biopsy b/c DH has a few sperm present in his ejaculate....He did several SAs before we made the final decision. Good luck!

Welcome all new girls. Sorry you are here but this is a great thread and we all will get through AZO!!

Stinas: I am bitting my nails for you!! FX they find something!

Thanks all for the support.

Right now dh and I are living in Abu Dhabi so that makes some medical services a bit of a hurdle.

Short part of a long story, we didn't see a urologist, we just had the test done and collected the results with the dreaded info of zero sperm cells found even after centrifuge.

Since we're having trouble getting his medical card we will probably ask my new, one visit only, obgyn what her recommendation is.

He is a smoker so he will quit that and cut down on drinking to see if that helps, but who knows? Especially since zero were found instead of some. :/

 

[keziah23]

Hello all. I am new here. My husband and I are both 38. We've been together over 15 years but just started TTC last spring.
We got the first zero SA in October and the second in November. We started seeing a urologist in November and hubbie is scheduled for varicocele repair on 2/8. They will also do biopsy and attempt extraction for freezing. All of his hormone levels are normal except his testosterone which is HIGH.
We plan on seeing if the varococele repair works before trying anything else.
I had a antral follicle count and it came back good 12 on one side 18 on the other.

 

[BettiS]

Hi guys

Finally got a pic of my tattoo. I still need to go for a touch-up soon since there are some spots that didn't take, but the butterfly is a symbol of having to go through great struggle before becoming what you are meant to be.