Dealing with azoospermia?

[deafgal01]

Well, appt went fine. Dr went over all the data with us and was quite frank with us. He said honestly, my known donor would never have been accepted as donor by a sperm bank. His sample would have been no problem for IVF but we are doing IUI and not IVF so that makes it harder. But he did give us a lot of options to think about and said he would be happy to do whatever we want. Whether that be starting me on meds next cycle and increasing the number of targets/eggs released or combining the last two vials to increasing the number of swimmers.

In the meanwhile, my known donor can always go see a male fertility specialist/urologist to see if he can improve his count/motility prior to next "donation samples".

Hubby and I discussed everything at appt and decided the plan of action will be this... We'll have me do the injections of hcg (starting day 4 of my cycle)- dr's suggestion this one... Then when they're satisfied with my eggs, we'll do IUI but combine the two vials so that we have more swimmers going to the targets. Risks that are involved- I could have cycle cancelled due to too many eggs, but that's the reason they start me on lowest dosage and will monitor me throughout (and adjust dosage as needed).

So basically going all out, more aggressive next cycle. If it doesn't work, we'll either look for new donors from the bank to use (instead of known donor) or we'll see if our known donor will take something and increase his sample before he donates more.

 

[rdleela]

Natalie, I am sooo glad you waited to have this appointment with the doc! I bet you feel a ton better; sounds like you have a great doctor - honesty is so important in this game! I love your plan and I'm excited for you to give this a try! Best of luck and of course I'll be cheering you on!

 

[deafgal01]

It surprised me how cheap it was... Funny what I think is cheap now haha... $110. I was expecting to pay $190 like I had to back in June. But yes I feel better now having a game plan and knowing the best course of action he recommended. He said he wouldn't give someone like me clomid or fermura since I ovulate just fine on my own. Just need to get my body to release 2 to 3 eggs.

 

[tulip11]

Hi we got an appointment letter with gynaecologist in December after done all the tests with urologist just left with genetic test we are waiting for its appointment letter anyhow what most likely gynaecologist ill do means what would be their further steps those who are far ahead of me in this phase might know waiting for their reply. Thanks and all the best to all the gorgeous ladies out there.

That's great that you have your gynaecologist appointment through Tulip! I had all my tests done before we had genetic testing etc for my husband, so kind of the opposite way round to you! They like to arrange for you to have tests, so you probably won't have to have much done in your actual appointment (I did have to have a vaginal swab done to test for something or other, but can't remember what that was as it was so long ago now!). The tests I had to arrange to have done were a day 3 blood test, some blood tests to check for a couple of other things, an HSG (where they check your tubes are working by pushing dye into your cervix) and an ultrasound of my uterus. Hope this helps! XXX

Dear this gynaecologist appointment is for my hubby. I have done with all of my tests already and they are clear. btw thanks alot for your reply

 

[Rainbow123]

Dear this gynaecologist appointment is for my hubby. I have done with all of my tests already and they are clear. btw thanks alot for your reply

Oops! I thought you meant it was for you! I didn't realise men went to gynaecologists.
X

 

[tulip11]

Dear this gynaecologist appointment is for my hubby. I have done with all of my tests already and they are clear. btw thanks alot for your reply

Oops! I thought you meant it was for you! I didn't realise men went to gynaecologists.
X

its ok hun... I even thought this as well but on appointment letter its mentioned Gynaecologist.

 

[silverbell]

So sad to see this thread still so active. Sad for obvious reasons but happy of course that this is a place where people affected by azoospermia can chat. I'm so sorry to see so many new faces

deafgal - I'm glad there's a good plan of action for next time and it definitely sounds like a good plan to me. Fingers crossed this one does the trick.

AFM I'm just waiting for my lining to build up and for our egg donor's eggs to be ready for collecting. I'm getting excited for the first time in a long time because this time there's a mugh higher chance that something may actually happen because for the first time ever there will be nothing wrong with either the sperm or the eggs being used EC for our egg donor should be the week after next and then it's ET for me.

--

Oh yeah and the crying is totally normal. I wish I could say it improves but I've not personally found it has and I still have difficulty accepting what has happened to us. I have my 'it's not fair, why us?' moments every now and again. I've taken to avoiding children and discussions of children as much as possible. My poor friends with children are 'hidden' on Facebook and I don't look at children when I'm out and about. It's just too hurtful and upsetting. It's only natural I think. It's just a constant reminder of what you could have and which so many people have with barely any thought, but which is being denied you by no fault of your own.

 

[arzoo]

Another question ....as I mentioned earlier DH is taking tamoxifen for last 4 months now. When we went to see the specialist (couple of weeks back) he asked us if we noticed any change in size to the testis, sadly none. He said some people experience a change , as in feels bigger, but that is not the case for DH. I am just worried and anxious that maybe no sperms are being produced. I know these are negative thoughts and not worth thinking about , but just thought of sharing it here rather than holding it in and upsetting myself.

 

[arzoo]

Deafgal: Sorry to hear that your DS is facing issues. Hope these get resolved.

Glad you have a well thought plan ahead. Good luck

 

[arzoo]

Hope everyone had a good weekend, I had a very interesting weekend, We had been the the fertility show at Kensington Olympia , we attended some seminars there which were very useful. I will try and share what we leant. Some or all of these might be already known to you ladies, but I just thought of sharing it for people like me who are still in discovery mode! Sorry this is a going to be a long post.

Rainbow this one is for you: There was a session on NHS funding and the difficulty of accessing treatment on the NHS. The presenter said that there were no rules regarding synchronised cycles and it was up to the hospital to decide whether to do synchronised or not for a couple . So if you are lucky then your hospital may be offering synchronised cycles. Have you heard back from the nurse?

The fact that some NHS does not offer synchronised though seemed very surprising to me in the beginning, but when we spoke to some of the private clinics who had put up their stalls, I was surprised to hear that some of them also do not offer synchronised SSR and egg retrival. this was mostly because SSR needs a proper operation theatre facility which most of the fertility clinics do not offer which means the SSR has to be done else where and hence the sperm has to be frozen .

I also spoke to a number of specialist in the field about using fresh vs frozen and the clear verdict is that fresh is better than frozen. it may not matter so much in the case of men with normal sperm production but for SSR sperms given that the quality and quantity is low, it is always better to use fresh.

Another interesting session was on the impact of nutrition on sperm production. I dont have the notes on me now, I will update later on specific food. But the key point was , try and use organic product, wash fruit and veg before eating, microwave cooking is fine as long as you are cooking in Pyrex and not plastic. Improve your diet have a lot of antioxidants. Alcohol in moderation was fine. Binge drinking even once a month is a no no so is smoking. both have adverse impact on sperm production

We also attended a session on donor conception and using a sperm bank. Mentally I am not there yet, and I had to really fight to hold back my tears but in the end when we went to speak to the speaker afterwards who herself had chosen the donor sperm and when she spoke about her experience I just could not hold back. It was very embarrassing. We have not yet made up our mind about donor. I am dreading it and want to wait till the SSR outcome to start thinking about it. But given that this was a one off event I gathered the courage to attend it. In both the sessions the presenters were keen on being open about using donor with the kids from a very young age, this is something I struggle with. If we ever have to go down that route, then I want it to be our little secret and never have to tell that to anyone. The session was useful to warn us about the issues we could face if we dint share this with the child. During the question and answer session one lady who was considering donor egg shared her fear that she fears she might not feel attached to the baby given that the baby was not genetically hers. The presenter said that even in normal conception where the child is genetically yours , there are instances where people dont feel attached to their kids. and suggested that we should try and look at the parallels that are there in non donor conceptions to find answers to some of our doubts and fears. Another interesting point was the presenter shared was, given that she used donor sperms she was worried that if she had a boy the boy might end up looking like the donor and was keen to have a girl. Her first child is a girl and then she had a boy (both using the same donor), she shared their photos and I was really surprised by how much the boy looked like the mother rather than the girl . Thus highlighting that we cannot predict what nature has in store for us.

Another key learning I had was when we go to private hospital for IVF make sure you have a written confirmation about all the costs, Also ask for specific and details about the cost, make sure to ask them to separate the cost of medicines. and treatment. And try and shop around for the medicines as in 9 out of the 10 cases you will find the medicine cheaper elsewhere (internet or local pharmacy)

Though the session were very informative and in some way made me feel that I was not the only one going through this difficult time, specially when we sat in the seminars and looked around, it is still difficult to accept. It must have been my troubled mind which made me dream that we had twins and in my dream I saw DH playing with a very cute baby and then I woke up and felt really miserable, still continue to feel that way. I just want the day to pass.

 

[Rainbow123]

Wow Arzoo! That was really useful to read, thank you so much for sharing. That is very interesting about the NHS/synchronised cycles. I will have to do some investigating to find out where the IVF and mTESE would be taking place as I suppose this will give us our answers. We still haven't been phoned back by the nurse, but to be honest I have decided I would rather speak to the doctor doing the procedure. I'm still not pleased that she has said she would call us and then hasn't, so I will probably let our FS know about this and leave it at that. It just doesn't fill you with confidence does it? Oh well.
I'm glad you were able to go to the donor seminar. It is such a lot to get your head around and even though I feel so much further ahead with it than before, I do still struggle to accept it. But at the end of the day, if it's an ultimatum of donor or no baby, it's quite an easy answer for me. It's great that you could hear some experiences of people who have chosen that path and have their babies, I suppose it's reassuring to know that people who would have been in similar situations have their little families and are happy.
Thanks again!
XXXXX

 

[Rainbow123]

Hello lovely ladies!
Can anyone tell me how to add a link to my journal to my signature please? I've just started one which is over at https://babyandbump.momtastic.com/ttc-journals/2056807-gold-end-rainbow.html#post30348219 but would quite like a simple little 'click here' option or something to make it easier to get to!
Thank you!
XXXXXX

 

[tulip11]

Hi

As I have mentioned earlier that Dr put my husband on clomid 25mg for 3 months and this is his second month and as Dr told us that you should try don't stop and we tried this month now I am on cd 34 and my cycle is most of the time 29 and 30 days sometime 31 days now I am few days late don't know what's going on? Sometimes hope clicks my mind then again think no no its not possible. What you guys says what may be the possibilities?

 

[arzoo]

Fingers crossed for your tulip.

 

[tulip11]

girls I was right I am not that lucky to get pregnant... Af caught me this morning... I cried alot and then got a call from my friend that she got pregnant after 3 years after which she asked me why dont you have kids ? oh that made me so sad after which I didnt come out of room and feeling like the end of this world to me...

 

[tulip11]

I have question those of you who finally conceived how much time did the whole journey take ? means after got the news of azoospermia then its treatment untill good news .

 

[melissaelaine]

Hi everyone. :wave:

I don't know for sure that we are dealing with azoospermia, but best case scenario, we are dealing with seriously low sperm counts. My husband's first test showed some sperm in his sample, albeit a small amount (.10 mil concentrated, .39 mill total). But, we just got his second set back and it showed 0. (Well, there were 14 non-motile detected in the entire sample, but the concentration was zero.) He had made some health changes since the first sample, so we were convinced the results would be better. This news really shocked us.

Has anyone had similar results - some sperm, then none??

 

[deafgal01]

Tulip- I am in same boat as you. I've known about the azoospermia diagnosis for about 2 years now (it will have been 2 years by Jan). So from the time of finding out, all the tests, and counseling, and now trying IUI treatments to get me pregnant, I am still waiting for my first bfp. I hope next cycle is the lucky one (IUI #2). I know some of the ladies on here took a while- especially the one who started this thread- she was the last of her original group in this thread to finally have a baby.

Melissa- can't relate with you there. Sorry if I'm not much help.

 

[tulip11]

Tulip- I am in same boat as you. I've known about the azoospermia diagnosis for about 2 years now (it will have been 2 years by Jan). So from the time of finding out, all the tests, and counseling, and now trying IUI treatments to get me pregnant, I am still waiting for my first bfp. I hope next cycle is the lucky one (IUI #2). I know some of the ladies on here took a while- especially the one who started this thread- she was the last of her original group in this thread to finally have a baby.

Melissa- can't relate with you there. Sorry if I'm not much help.

My prayers are with you. May the next cycle brings a super duper BFP for you. All the best dear don't worry everything ill be allright

 

[AuCa]

Hi everyone. :wave:

I don't know for sure that we are dealing with azoospermia, but best case scenario, we are dealing with seriously low sperm counts. My husband's first test showed some sperm in his sample, albeit a small amount (.10 mil concentrated, .39 mill total). But, we just got his second set back and it showed 0. (Well, there were 14 non-motile detected in the entire sample, but the concentration was zero.) He had made some health changes since the first sample, so we were convinced the results would be better. This news really shocked us.

Has anyone had similar results - some sperm, then none??

When you say "the entire sample" - did they spin everything down and really look at everything? Just asking because we've had this confusion with our semen lab where we constantly got results saying "<0.001 sperm conc"; 2 sperm seen in wet prep". After months of us thinking that DH has a total sperm count of 2 (or 1 or 5; that was the variation we had) we realized that in this "wet prep" they only looked at one drop of the sample. When they spin it down he has a concentration of a few hundred. Which of course is not awesome, but better than 2.

So, I do have a lot of experience with having a seriously low sperm count (like I said below 500); but this has been fairly consistent. Have you guys seen the urologist?