Dealing with azoospermia?

[waitingginger]

Hi Jenny and silverbell!
so sorry you have had to join this group, but i am glad you have found us!
It is a really hard time and your right silver it is like your grieving. Its sounds so patronising but i promise things do get easier! its a very long round with all the tests etc and its something which is always at the back of your mind but you eventually get to a point where you dont see a pregnant lady or baby and start to cry!

Silver, your OH will have blood tests and an ultrasound scan next and then they will see about treatment from there. we have been told because his bloods arent right there would be no point having a sperm retrieval now as his bloods point to something else being the cause.

Jenny as deb said are you in the UK? they seem to of got your OH in for an sperm retireval really quickly, would be interested to know what other tests he had for them to find out that was the best option before trying any other treatment? or if they did found out the cause of his azoospermia?

Hope everyone else is ok and enjoying the sun in the UK! i am off to spin and then wedding dress shopping while OH is away on a stag weekend! wine is called for tonight i think! xx

 

[silverbell]

Hey wg. Thank you for the lovely welcome and for your advice and kind thoughts. You're right - I've already experienced crying at seeing babies yesterday when we went shopping. Not just babies either - just any kids at all. It just hurts so much at the moment. It's all still so very raw.

Thank you for letting me know what will happen next. I really hope it all moves quickly, as I feel the waiting is going to be horrendous, but I guess there's not much you can do if you don't have private healthcare and rely on the NHS. The good thing is that we both work at the NHS hospital, so hopefully he can be put on the list in case there's a last-minute cancellation and he can just pop down to have his scan or whatever.

Wow, I hope the wedding dress shopping goes really well. I only ever tried one dress on and fell in love instantly and bought it - all within about 10 minutes It must be fun to go and try lots of different dresses on.

 

[snd80]

Jen-I just bought the book "Helping the Stork". You might want to pick it up. It is about the decisions of DI and was written by a infertile couple that went through DI. I haven't finished it yet, but so far so good!!!! Hope it helps you out some. My hubby won't even go to the urilogist to see what his problem is, so DI is my plan for next year, so I am prepping myself early!

Hugs to all the girls on here!

 

[Flake-y]

Jenny & Silverbell, welcome to the thread, you will def find lots of support here.

Jenny, like your DH, my DH also had an unsuccessful sperm retrieval operation. The cause of his azoospermia was found to be sertoli cell only syndrome. We decided to go down the sperm donor route, and as you can see from my ticker, we are looking forward to our baby coming in November!!! To be honest, its going to be our baby through & through; DH was there when I took the test, when we went for the first scan, he'll be there at the birth & for the rest of our baby's life. It doesn't matter that he's not the biologocal father, that's not what makes a good Dad. I know it might feel like the worst thing ever right now, but those feelings really don't last forever.

Once you see those 2 lines appear, all the tests & heartache just get forgotton!!!

 

[mumanddad]

Hay welcome to the group im sorry you have had to join u x x

 

[silverbell]

Thanks everybody. You've all been so welcoming and kind.

DH had his GP appointment today. The guy was a bit clueless and said he'd never come across this in 25 years of being a GP. He really didn't know what to say to us and kept shaking his head and was all a bit doom and gloom. I definitely knew more than he did in the few short days I've been researching it and I told him about the blood tests and ultrasound scan. He has given DH forms for both (bloods just testing for hormones) and has referred him to a Urologist.

He mentioned that we would need to consider donor sperm or adoption in the future. Didn't even seem to be aware of the possible success of sperm retrieval, but perhaps he didn't want to build our hopes up. Saying that though, I think it's more likely he didn't even know it existed.

He also examined DH and said his testicles were smaller than normal.

All in all a bit depressing, but I've told DH not to focus too much on it as he was just a bit clueless and isn't an expert.

On a lighter note, it seems my blood are mostly OK. There was some slight query as to whether the progesterone was high enough, but I did tell the doc I had the test late due to the weekend and a Bank Holiday and got my AF 4 days after the test, so I'm sure it's not entirely accurate. He said not to worry about that yet, if at all, and to focus on DH.

DH has expressed a desire to speak to other men online about azoospermia and asked me to see if I could get emails of any men with it. I don't suppose any of you know of any place I might get this, such as a support group etc?

 

[Flake-y]

Silverbell, my DH's GP said the exact same thing! In fact, until I did a bit of googling, we thought he was the only one in the world with it!

I'd bet your GP didn't know that sperm retrieval is an option; they don't seem to know anything about the whole thing. And I wouldn't go with his opinion on testicle size either, I'd wait to get a urologist's opinion on that.

 

[Deb111]

Jo just took the words out of my mouth Gp's cannot be experts in every area - the important thing is that he has referred you to the right person.

As far as talking to other men goes, I tried a while ago to find a good site to post a link too - found a really good one but never had hubby's request acknowledged and approved so I will have another scout around xx

 

[silverbell]

Thanks so much, Flake-y and Deb.

That's made me feel better.

That would be great if you did manage to find somewhere, Deb. I had a look too and couldn't find any kind of male support centre ... such a shame.

 

[Deb111]

Right, I'm going to attempt to create a private facebook group that only invited members can join and is invisible in searches and in peopl's profiles.

Thing is I need to add people as friends and then invite those friends so I need someone's dh's facebook name. Once i have set it up I will remove myself and just leave it to the men to chat.

PM me details if your dh's want adding

 

[Flake-y]

Great idea Deb! You are very fb savvy now, I wouldn't have a clue how to do that!

My DH doesn't have fb, otherwise you could add him, I'm always trying to convince him to join but he won't!!!

 

[Deb111]

I didn't say I COULD do it but the helpful page I've found that explains it step by step tells you to look for the navigation bar at the bottom of every facebook page ... and I can't find it! Back to the drawing board!

And I'm definitely not facebook savvy Jo lol - I hate it and just don't 'get it'

 

[silverbell]

Great idea! Just asked hubby and he said he'd be ever so keen to join, but he would absolutely 1 million per cent need to know that nobody would know he'd joined and it wouldn't be visible on his profile or any messages posted wouldn't be visible on his profile.

Unless we set up a tester group first and tried it out for them? Called it something totally non-obvious? I'm not sure?

I'm fairly au fait with FB and wouldn't mind looking into this if you wanted? I can't right now, but perhaps an evening this week. If so, I'll report back as and when I know more. Great idea

 

[Deb111]

It's something I will look into, but although it's totally possible to make it totally secret, I'm having some trouble getting the correct links to open and as you say, don't want to risk anything not being totally private, so I will keep investigating.

But in the mean time, I've found a forum that looks pretty good. I've signed hubby up and it only took a couple of minutes and you just follow the link sent to your email to start. This is the link to the thread I posted on his behalf (but I will leave it to the men now) https://www.southwestvasectomyreversal.com/forum/viewthread/180/

The site doesn't seem hugely active, but if all our dh's go on, they can make it as active and as supportive as they like

 

[silverbell]

Excellent! I'll let DH know

 

[Flake-y]

And I'm definitely not facebook savvy Jo lol - I hate it and just don't 'get it'

But its addictive!!!

 

[Deb111]

Chocolate ... sleep ... B'n'B ... now they're addictive, but honestly I just don't get what's so addictive about facebook (apart from being able to look at piccies of Baby Owen and piccies of Dilly's bump )

Right I'm off to measure a mango and pay your journal a visit!!

 

[waitingginger]

Deb, was your apppintment with your Dr yesterday? or i am i just imagining things!! xx

 

[Deb111]

We see Dr Ramsay tomorrow Amy. How are you doing? xx

 

[loobylou_01]

hi ladies, sorry i've not been around much lately, my gorgeous little owen has been keeping me very busy. he's an absolute gem and i'm loving bein a mummy.

silverbell and jenny - sorry to see you've had to join us, i can completely understand how utterly crap your feeling. my dh had his ssr last august and although they found sperm it was not regular therefore for the best chance of pregnancy ssuccess we were advised to use ds and nine months later we have our gorgeous baby boy. he is so perfect and completely ours, dh has been there every step of the way and our little boy means the world to us, dh is besotted.
i hope and wish you both the very best of luck whichever path you choose xxx