Dealing with azoospermia?

[CanadianMaple]

No sperm found during the TESA this morning. . ER tomorrow with donor sperm. We cried and are ok. We had the donor picked out and at the lab since the fall.

 

[AuCa]

I am so sorry CanadianMaple
Wishing you all the best for the ER tomorrow.

 

[Jimmysrabbit]

Oh CanadianMaple - I'm so sorry, I've been following your journey for a while (reading back through this thread) and was hoping on your behalf that the TESA would be a success...
Glad that you are able to proceed straight away with the DS. Good luck for tomorrow

 

[Chickensoup85]

I'm sorry they didn't find anything CanadianMaple. Best of luck with the DS and the new road to getting your baby.

 

[maybeBmommy]

Sorry CanadianMaple....wishing the best with the ds, I'm sure it will be a success and you both will be blessed with a perfect child that was picked just for you two!

Lots of thoughts & prayers your way~

 

[raelynn]

So sorry CM. Even though you were prepared with a backup I'm sure it was still a terrible disappointment. Wishing you the best for DR and for successful fertilization.

 

[Stinas]

CM - I am soooo sorry nothing was found! Im sure it was still upsetting. At least you both know you tried everything possible and no matter what, this baby with be yours....regardless of genetics!
Good luck with ER tom!

 

[MrsG30]

CM- i can only mirror everything the others have said hun
Hope all goes well today.

AFM: had an appointment with FS yesterday, I had all my vitals done, they told m to lose a bit of weight but i'm not a concern to them. Hubby has 4 lots of bloods done and goes back on 5th march for a details SA.
In the meantime we should receive a appointment for urology within 6-8 weeks.
Consultant was very nice but i ave to say she didnt seem too worried and said second SA is very important. I'm not letting that allow me to think the result will be different. She advised us there is no wait for IVF but the tests done by Urology are hugely in demand and the wait for any "op" for sperm retrieval is 6-9 month after we have been to urology
most shocking part was i we get to that stage and there i no sperm found at all there are no donors and the average wait for one is 24 months!!!! apparently since the law changed in 2005 no one i donating.
Hubby asked about using a known "donor" and although she didn't brush it off completely she said its not a common thing to do???

overall we know the ball is rolling but i those timescales are right this is going to be a long miserable waiting game

any ideas/suggestions? xxx

 

[tulip11]

Hi everyone GP told us that they have already referred us to urologist and we ill receive appointment letter within four weeks. My question is that those who received their appointment letter so after how much time they had appointment means did you guys wait a lot? Plus today we ill get DH blood tests results so are these results show something or not ? And during our first appointment will they do scan or just they ill discuss all the upcoming things with us ?

 

[tulip11]

Hi just got an appointment letter our first appointment with urologist will be on 19th April .

 

[jokerman]

Hi everyone GP told us that they have already referred us to urologist and we ill receive appointment letter within four weeks. My question is that those who received their appointment letter so after how much time they had appointment means did you guys wait a lot? Plus today we ill get DH blood tests results so are these results show something or not ? And during our first appointment will they do scan or just they ill discuss all the upcoming things with us ?

Can't answer all your questions sorry, but the bloodwork can definitely be an indicator as to whether the problem is obstructive or non-obstructive. A high FSH indicates that the brain recognizes there is a problem in producing sperm. My FSH was 12.2, normal is 1-9 apparently (although some places I have read that normal is up to 15). My testosterone was also a bit low at 295. Those two factors combined were enough for my urologist to put me on clomid.

 

[AuCa]

MrsG30 - I was wondering how your appointment went. Glad to hear that it went relatively well. I know they do want the results from the 2nd SA before they confirm the diagnosis (I guess there is always a small chance that something went wrong with the first SA).
Sorry to hear about the wait times. I find that this is the most frustrating part of all of this 6-9 mths does seem really long. I had no idea about the donor sperm situation. Maybe you guys should be looking into doing IVF in a different country? I was under the impression that it is quite common to use a "know donor". I don't think there should be an issue with that as long as everybody involved is ok with it.

 

[jokerman]

Hi just got an appointment letter our first appointment with urologist will be on 19th April .

Well, it's good you have your appointment sorted. That's quite a wait though. This entire process seems to be one wait after another. Waiting for results, waiting for appointments...

 

[AuCa]

My FSH was 12.2, normal is 1-9 apparently (although some places I have read that normal is up to 15). My testosterone was also a bit low at 295. Those two factors combined were enough for my urologist to put me on clomid.

Interesting. Here they say anything between 1-18 is normal for FSH (DH had 10). And DH also had not too high testosterone. But our specialist said that his levels are normal. I guess we'll see what they say at the next consult, as they asked DH to re-run all the blood tests and do some more (LH, prolactin etc).

 

[tulip11]

just called regarding results of blood tests so receptionist said that everything is normal but she said that ALT is high...now I dont know so much about this thing except that it shows liver function test...we ill be having next appointment next week in order to discuss these tests...GL to all of you...

 

[tulip11]

does normal LH and FSH tests indicate something ? as what I have read that it doesnt indicate anything even though some men with testicular failure also shows normal FSH n LH levels ...kindly please shed some light on high ALT relation with azoospermia ? thanks

 

[AuCa]

Tulip - I'm not an expert, but I don't think that ALT levels have anything to do with infertility/azoospermia. They just indicate that there might be an issue with the liver (eg liver disease, hepatitis). Hopefully your doc can clarify that.

As for FSH, LH etc - you are right, it can be normal in men with testicular failure or obstructive azoospermia. They just test it because if the levels are low/high it can indicate a specific problem. But when they are normal it doesn't mean there is no problem. It pretty much just means that you still don't know what is going on. So you need to go on doing other tests (genetic, checking for blockage, biopsy, etc).

 

[jokerman]

My FSH was 12.2, normal is 1-9 apparently (although some places I have read that normal is up to 15). My testosterone was also a bit low at 295. Those two factors combined were enough for my urologist to put me on clomid.

Interesting. Here they say anything between 1-18 is normal for FSH (DH had 10). And DH also had not too high testosterone. But our specialist said that his levels are normal. I guess we'll see what they say at the next consult, as they asked DH to re-run all the blood tests and do some more (LH, prolactin etc).

Yeah, I guess it's very subjective, and different labs use different reference ranges for results. When I got my results, the first 3 doctors all told me that my testosterone was normal, because the reference range provided by the lab was 195 - 800. Finally, the urologist who will be performing the mTese told me that even 295 was low, and the lab's reference range might just mean they are testing a lot of very old and weak men!

 

[AuCa]

Yeah, I guess it's very subjective, and different labs use different reference ranges for results. When I got my results, the first 3 doctors all told me that my testosterone was normal, because the reference range provided by the lab was 195 - 800. Finally, the urologist who will be performing the mTese told me that even 295 was low, and the lab's reference range might just mean they are testing a lot of very old and weak men!

Thanks for this, it definitely makes sense. DH's was slightly lower at about 354, but I think this is still definitely on the lower end. I will ask the specialist about this when we have our next consultation.

 

[MoBaby]

Jokerman: your results are similar to my DH's...fsh 13 and test 230. we are considering a second opinion since his urologist basically told him there is nothing they can do (except the biopsy which due to his 2 previous testicular surgeries we are holding off)...we want to try clomid/hcg/whatever else we can before anything. we get some sperm for ivf/icsi but if we can get more for iui or more to freeze for later on then that would be great.