Dealing with azoospermia?

[Sar187]

Hi everyone. I will give you a little background information first.

I'm sarah(24) and OH is Daron(26) we have been married 3 years and together 7 in November. We have been TTC for almost 2 years now.

In march we had an SA done on OH and it came back showing 0 sperm. Our physician then referred us to a Urologist who we have now seen twice. At our first appointment with him he did a physical exam on OH and looked at and talked to us about our medial histories. On the bright side both our physician and the urologist so far think I am perfectly healthy! The physical exam for hubby showed that he has all the correct tubes and everything and nothing seems to be wrong there. The urologist told us he believes the azoospermia is caused by a blockage/damage to the vas deferens due to hernia surgery OH had when he was 3. He told us to get a blood test done to check OH's hormones and to schedule a follow up appointment with him in 2 weeks.

At the 2nd appointment he told us all of OH's hormone levels were good(we were hoping they would find something due to his sex drive seeming low for the last 3.5 years). The urologist told us he still believes the problem was caused by the hernia surgery and that a repair surgery would have less than a 5% chance of working and we would be better off to go straight to IVF with SSA. He referred us to a fertility clinic Where we have an appointment scheduled for August 1st.

It has all been very frustrating for OH as he comes from a large family where he is 1 of 7 and 5 of his sibling have 21 children between them. We did tell his parents, my mom and 2 of our close friends what is going on. Though his moms only comment was "oh well, these things happen", my mom has been very supportive and keeps telling me i will end up with twins now since i've always said i didn't know if i could do twins .

Sorry for writing a book. Its nice to meet all of you and was very helpful reading through some of the posts.

 

[mumanddad]

Welcome hun my oh went through kinda the same and he has a very fertile family.

My oh had a vain blocking his tube but in now 9 weeks pg and it happened naturally so please dont give up. We had been ttc 38 long months and one wiggly man got through finally x

 

[Sar187]

Congrats on the BFP! We have been trying to stay positive, and he is very willing to do all the dr appointments and everything which is great. Good to hear a natural success story!

 

[silverbell]

Nice to meet you, Sar187, and I hope to read lots of happy news over the coming months

Congrats, mumanddad!

 

[Deb111]

KB - hubby has had an oestradiol test which is one of the estrogen hormones - the tamoxifen should be blocking the estrogen receptors in order to improve ihis testosterone : estrogen ratio, which we're told is more important than the actual individual numbers.

Sar187 - welcome
HMy hubby has virtually no sex drive either - do you know what hubby's testosterone level is?

I really hope you get some good news soon xx

 

[silverbell]

Just a quick update. Managed to finally get GP to order karyotype and Y-chromosome microdeletions testing today as well as oestradiol (as per Mr Ramsay's recommendation).

Took a lot of pushing though.

I didn't ask about the cystic fibrosis carrier test, as I thought I'd already asked enough and this one doesn't seem as recommended as the other 2. I guess I could be cheeky and add it to the blood form under the other 2 requests, as it does say 'chromosome analysis' and then a description of the specific tests required ... I guess it wouldn't hurt. They'll just ignore it if they're not happy?

Doc did warn us about the cost implications of going privately for these things, especially when procedures are involved. I thought it was nice he was concerned, but DH told me afterwards he found it a bit offensive and that it was OK for him as he had kids already. Oh dear.

We haven't decided on the IVF being private yet though. It's something we'll need to discuss with Mr R next week. I know same day sperm and egg collection gives better chances of success, but it's just a huge amount of money for us to consider and we just want to know our options and chances if we went down other routes before we do that. I wish we could have won the Euromillions last night ... !

I feel like everything is in place now ready to see Mr R next week. I can't wait.

 

[Deb111]

Don't worry too much about using frozen sperm if necessary - Dr Ramsay understands our wish to do a synchronous cycle and hopefully use fresh sperm, but if they find any in a SA prior to EC, they will thaw that and hopefully use that. He said that although they lose quite a few during the thaw, it's simply a process of natural selcetion and it's the weak ones that wouldn't be much good in terms of fertilisation anyway that they lose and the stronger ones survive and are great ones to be using xx

 

[Sar187]

Deb, I haven't gotten around to requesting a copy of the actual results from the hormone tests, I just know the Urologist said they were in normal ranges, not what the actual numbers were. I really think the sex drive is mostly due to Stress and not enough sleep for him. It has improved a lot over the last year and a half since he switched shifts at work.

 

[WANBMUM]

Hi gals & welcome sar187 so sad seeing new people going throughthis but it is such a great group here & u will get great advise and suppor. As we are at the beginning of this azoo journey I haven't a clue what most of these tests are for yet so if your asking and I'm not responding, it's bcos I haven't a notion

I think I am going to speak to my mother this weekend!!! Any tips on how to bring it up/start the convo. I know once I start talking I will be fine but I'm really struggling on how to bring it up initially it's not the most common convo to have with your mother is it

 

[Bookworm]

Hi Sar187, sorry you find yourself here... I'm relatively new too and it is a great thread for info & support.

SB - way to go on the testing!! So good when GP is able to get this stuff done for you!!

Actually I'm wondering if I can mine a bit of info from some of you who are a bit further along: we're trying to schedule DH's initial surgery & we're wondering what the usual recovery time is?

We know the surgery will take place in the morning, will take about 20min plus additional recovery time at the clinic before I can take him home. We're assuming that we should put that whole day aside for him but wondering if we should extend that to a couple of days....?

DH has a pretty demanding job & has a particularly busy time approaching when time off isn't an option, so we don't want him hobbling around in agony!!

 

[silverbell]

Wanbmum - I personally just told my Mom I had something I needed to tell her and that it wasn't happy news, but I wanted to share. Started by saying that we had been trying for a baby for quite some time and nothing had happened, so we went to our GP for some tests to see if anything unusual was going on. At this point my Mom said 'Oh God, what's wrong with you?' Then I said that DH had had a SA and it showed absolutely no sperm and this had been confirmed on a repeat test.

There's no real easy way to say it. But I do feel better having my parents know about it and it's nice to know they're there if I ever needed to chat to them about it.

Bookworm - I could be very wrong, but I'm sure I read the average recommended time off after a biopsy is 1 week??

 

[KB38]

Thanks Deb111. I've asked the specialist to order an estrogen test today and he said he can do it with the bloods we've already given so should get the results soon.

We were told that DH needs to have at least 2 days off work, possibly more depending on how he is going Bookworm. We've scheduled the procedure for a Friday so hopefully he'll be right to go back to Monday. I'll let you know Monday how realistic that is...

Hi everyone else. I've found so much support here. I'm sure you will too.

 

[silverbell]

Hey KB. Just in case I'm not about tomorrow, just wanted to say I'll be thinking of you and your hubby tomorrow and thinking very happy, positive thoughts

Will you find out straight away what they found?

 

[Bookworm]

Thanks KB! that helps! The clinic will be calling us later to schedule the app and for us it'll have to be either next week or the first week of Aug then (as there is no way DH will be able to commit to 2/3 days rest the week after next, and the weekend is actually his busiest time that week so he'll be doing a 7-day week...) Bit frustrating as I'm sure next week will not be an option for the clinic at this late stage - but there you go.

It's a small delay and it might actually be in our favour if we can get our genetics appointment etc organised via NHS in the meantime.

And as SilverBell says we'll be keeping you in our thoughts tomorrow! Everything crossed for you guys - hope you both manage to get a good nights rest too... I know how my DH is dreading it already and it's not even scheduled so hope you can help your OH relax tonight!!

 

[Sar187]

WanbMum, I have a very open relationship with my mother so the conversation was fairly easy to start. Does your mother know you have been TTC? If she does maybe bring it up that way, she may already be wondering if there is something going on. Otherwise maybe just start with talking about kids/babies and work it into the conversation. Good Luck!

 

[twilliamssbt]

Finally got the numbers and progressive motility is absolutely diablolical


Total count 43.7 x 10^6

Motility A (Progressively Motile) 2.7%
Motility B (Non Linear motilie ) 16%
Motility C (Non Prgressive but move tails) 14.3%
Motility D (Immotile and fail to move) 67%

4.3% Normal Morphology

Ok, 2.7% of 43.7 million is a lot, but when the GP says little to no chance of natural conception, you really don't want to hear that.

Got appointment with fiances Endocrinologist at beginning of August, I so wanted to go back and tell him we did it naturally.

Not sure whether they will still go for 3x HCG injections weekly or IUI or ICSI. Next few weeks till appointment is going to drive us crazy I think

 

[Deb111]

With regards to recovery time, we were told hubby would be ok to go back to work on the Monday, having had the procedure on the Thursday before, but being in a manual job, he decided to book the whole of the following week off. Now I will be totally honest and say that I saw the other 3 guys get up within an hour of surgery and walk out like nothing had happened. However, my hubby was in quite a lot of pain, had to take extra pain killers afterwards before leaving the hospital and had to be helped out walking like john wayne!!

He wasn't even back at work the following week and was pretty much a whole week in bed - reasonably pain free after the first 36 hours - until he moved much.

A lot of his pain / discomfort seemed to be around the top of his pubic area and they said there is quite a bit of pulling and tugging involved and so it can be painful there, but I think a lot of the problem is that he is quite overweight and they only have 'one size' supportive jockstraps!! and he found this VERY VERY uncomfortable after the pulling etc in that area so actually took it off once he was lying down and this eased it alot.

It can't have been all that bad though because he's prepared to go through it all (and more) again, but just wanted to warn you that recovery time really can seem to vary quite a lot

 

[Deb111]

Twilliam - I guess 2.7% of 43.7 million sounds like a hell of a lot to those of us who have none, but it's hard when the doctor says that to you; giving you some good news and then taking it away with a negative. However, at least there are plenty for IVF / ICSI and hey, no harm in trying! It only takes one as we've seen with MumamdDad
xx

 

[Deb111]

KB - Will be thinking of you and hubby tomorrow and praying that it's good news for you both. Big hugs xx

 

[Deb111]

Wanbmum - I have to say I have a very open relationship with my parents - especially my Mum, so she knew every time we had an appt at the FS and when we got the news I text her and told her what they'd said but that we needed some time to deal with it and I'd talk to her the following day.

If she doesn't know much of what you're going through, I would make sure you tell her that it's nothing 'serious' but that it is a very difficult and sad time for you before you sit her down and talk to her xx