Dealing with azoospermia?

[WANBMUM]

Nothing really new to report after my OH's app yesterday. His consultant wants someone else to look at his file before they decide what happens next.
He has another app this friday with his original consultant and should be getting the results of his last test (he has had so many tests now I am losing track)

I am really down today, ive been so upbeat for the last while, but my cousin announced today she is pregnant and I think it has knocked me for six I feel like such a failure and inadequate. I hate that my poor husband has to go through this. Why cant we just be able to conceive normally, why do we have to go through this? sorry for the negativity but I cant help it
Ok I think i will go to bed, tomorrow is a new day.

 

[silverbell]

I am really down today, ive been so upbeat for the last while, but my cousin announced today she is pregnant and I think it has knocked me for six I feel like such a failure and inadequate. I hate that my poor husband has to go through this. Why cant we just be able to conceive normally, why do we have to go through this? sorry for the negativity but I cant help it
Ok I think i will go to bed, tomorrow is a new day.

This is completely understandable and we've all been there and we've all asked those questions. It all seems so very unfair.

But we will all get there in the end, in our own way.

 

[Sar187]

Deb- glad your appointment went well, and that it seems like things are moving along for you!

Jenny-I joined after you were on here last, but congrats on finding a donor! I'm with you on how you feel about the Holiday, it would be hard.

Luckdragon- glad you were able to reach a decision on the DS hope everything goes well!

Wanbmum- Sorry your appointment doesn't really seem to have moved you any further along . I think we all have those down days where we feel like nothing is going right. Especially when we hear how easy it is for some other people. Hope things start looking up for you soon .

I had my Hysterosonogram yesterday and everything looked good. All measurements were good and the woman doing it said that everything looked perfect. She even said the IVF coordinator would be very happy because usually they find something when they do this. The next IVF cycle at our clinic is in October so our ER will be sometime between october 3rd and october 21st. They try and do them on mondays and fridays. The IVF coordinator is going to talk to the urologists office to see when they are available to do the MESA/TESE and plan ER accordingly. For right now we are just waiting for her to hear from them and she will call us to schedule IVF orientation. Until then continuing to take bcp and prenatals.

 

[silverbell]

I had my Hysterosonogram yesterday and everything looked good. All measurements were good and the woman doing it said that everything looked perfect. She even said the IVF coordinator would be very happy because usually they find something when they do this. The next IVF cycle at our clinic is in October so our ER will be sometime between october 3rd and october 21st. They try and do them on mondays and fridays. The IVF coordinator is going to talk to the urologists office to see when they are available to do the MESA/TESE and plan ER accordingly. For right now we are just waiting for her to hear from them and she will call us to schedule IVF orientation. Until then continuing to take bcp and prenatals.

Wow, that's great news! October will soon be here

 

[MoBaby]

Hi! SO I am going to join this thread. .. Here is my story:
Me and DH married 10 years. Me 29, Him 31. On BC/IUD the whole marriage, IUD removed Feb 2011. Excited that cycles returned to normal right away, 28 day cycle, ovulate day 14/15. Good to go! We were a little concerned when we started b/c DH had some issues as a child (hernia, torsion, testicular injury) but we decided after 3 months if nothing, then get the SA... Well, 3 months came and I was not ready to deal with an abnormal SA so we tried 3 more months. And nothing. So SA done and shows very rare sperm, some motile, some non-motile, no forward progression. So we started our journey to finding an answer This all started around the beginning of August... We went to RE who had good hopes if we can get sperm. He sent us to the best reproductive urologist in our city for evaluation. This was yesterday. He called the results azoospermia (even though there were a few). DH had exam and doctor told him he has soft and slightly small testes and wanted to run some labs to see if there is a hormonal or genetic issue since he feels it is a congential abnormality totally unrelated to the incidents. Either way, the doc said he would need microTESE. He also said based on his exam and his patient population, there is a 65% chance of finding usable sperm. Great. To me thats like 50/50. We have to do the labs first which take 4 weeks to come back and then schedule to surgery. If they find anything they freeze them and then when my eggs are ready they go ahead with the egg retrevial and fertilization with ICSI. But we can't start that process until they are sure they have some sperms. I am having my blood work and saline uterine ultrasound in the next week or so (waiting for AF). We also found out that insurance wont cover much of anything (except MY diagnostic workup, but since I have a deductible, its basically nothing!) and DH workup is $9000... So we are looking at a lot of money out of pocket. I am not ready to adopt nor will I use a donor sperm. I know a lot of women on here have success, but it just freaks me out and I can not bring myself to injecting another man's stuff in me. So, thats where we stand. FXd for everyone on here for good news soon. I am sooooo anxious and worried that we are not going to be able to have children together. I am sure he feels terrible also. Who knows. Maybe we will have a little miracle BFP (it could happen!) DH having repeat SA on Monday so hopefully its a little better...

 

[lbm2009]

Welcome mobaby I'm new in here too, dh is 28 I'm 27, ttc 3.5 years, hubby diagnosed with azoo earlier this year. Not getting very far as Nhs in England will not treat us until I have lost weight. . Although we have decided if they cannot harvest any sperm from him we will have donor sperm. It was a big decision but once my husband realised it would be his name on the birth certificate , and the fact he will have chance to bond with the child while it's growing inside we both relaxed about the idea. I agree it will be strange and in an ideal world they will harvest millions of healthy sperm from my hubby. But in reality we cannot face
A life without children. I feel like our life has come to a stand still because we are still awaiting the baby we started trying for all those years ago.
Im waiting for a miracle at the moment.
One thing I keep on thinking about is the doctors think my husbands problems may be caused by surgery from a undecended testicle operation. If there is damage to the tubes can this be repaired? Has anyone else had this repaired. I'm clutching at straws but if they fix the problem we may not need ivf???

 

[silverbell]

Welcome to the thread, MoBaby, though I'm sorry you've had to join us. I hope your outcome is a happy one

Welcome too to lbm I'm afraid I don't know if they can repair damaged tubes. Hopefully somebody here will have experience of this. I know what you mean about hoping for a miracle.

to everybody x

 

[Deb111]

Welcome MoBaby and Ibm - I'm sure you will find loads of info and support here - we are all at different stages in the journey

Ibm - I don't know specifically about your issue, but we were told that if it turns out to be obstructive azoospermia (OA) (which it would be if there was damage to the tubes stopping the sperm getting through) they are unlikely to try to repair it as it is very difficult to do and not particularly successful.

What it could mean though, is that if it is OA and they find a normal supply during surgery, you would most likely be candidates for IUI

Has hubby had blood test results back yet, the FSH level is a good indication of whether it is obstructive azoo or not

 

[Pink Lolly]

Hi Mobaby and Ibm,

Welcome to the thread but also so sorry you've had to join us.

As Deb said there are lots of us on here, all at different stages of our journeys.

My DH has just had his SSR, but unfortunately they found no sperm so we are now going ahead with Donor IUI. I won't bore you with the details but here is a link to my journal below if you want to have a read.

My heart goes out to you both, it is the most awful situation to find yourselves in.

Sending you both lots of love

 

[MoBaby]

What is ssr? Sorry I couldn't find it!

 

[Deb111]

What is ssr? Sorry I couldn't find it!

SSR = Surgical Sperm Retrieval - there are different ways of retrieving them

 

[lbm2009]

Hi, his bloods all came back fine, So it's is pointing to an obstruction. Have any of your dh 's had a ultrasound to see if it is a obstruction. We haven't been offer anything else other than fertility treatment once have lost weight.
One other question is do any of your dh's get a swelling above their testicles? My hubby gets this alot and itcan be painful for him Also sorry to go into details but his semen can be very yellow.

 

[Sar187]

Welcome Mobaby and Ibm, though I'm sorry you are having to join.

ibm, My DH's azoospermia is believed to be due to an obstruction caused by inguinal hernia/hydrocele surgeries he had as a child(he had 2 the left side at 5 months and the right at 4 years).

We have not had an ultrasound done, we did ask about it but the urologist is about 95% confident that an obstruction is the problem so doesn't feel we need to do it. He gave us a 79-85% chance of retrieving sperm.

We asked our urologist about repairing the obstruction and he said that in cases of azoospermia a repair surgery would have less than a 5% chance of working to the point where you don't have to do IVF, so therefore is basically a waste of money. We were also told that even If they find a very high number of sperm during retrieval we are still looking at IVF/ICSI and not IUI. This is due to the fact that the sperm they retrieve have not usually progressed far enough in their lifecycle to learn to "swim" yet therefore they need the help of ICSI to fertilize the egg.

As to the swelling and yellow semen, I have no experience with that. Good luck to you!

 

[MoBaby]

My dh has yellow semen.. the urologist didn't say anything but if its yellow on mondays I will ask abouut it.

 

[MoBaby]

DH SA today was the normal color. No yellow at all.

 

[Sar187]

Just thought I would give you all an update. I got a call from the clinic yesterday and they have talked to the urologists office. They are aiming for a retrieval date of October 3rd. We go in for IVF orientation and a mock transfer Next Tuesday September 6th. I start Injections around the 11th of September. It all seems to be moving so fast now!

 

[silverbell]

Oh, wow, Sar! That's excellent news It's great it's moving so fast now. I will be keeping everything crossed for you and can't wait to follow your journey x

 

[Deb111]

Just thought I would give you all an update. I got a call from the clinic yesterday and they have talked to the urologists office. They are aiming for a retrieval date of October 3rd. We go in for IVF orientation and a mock transfer Next Tuesday September 6th. I start Injections around the 11th of September. It all seems to be moving so fast now!

Looks like you'll be a week or 2 ahead of me

 

[Sar187]

Thats great Deb! Hopefully the cycle goes well for both of us!

 

[silverbell]

Just a little update, but it's made me a very, very happy lady.

Today we found out that DH's appointment to see Mr Ramsay on the NHS is on 28 September. We had thought it would more than likely be November/December due to a delay with a GP referral to him.

We're over the moon.

Nothing new will happen at this appointment, but it's to get him in the NHS system and on that day he will be put on the waiting list for the mTESE, so it's a massive step forwards to finding out once and for all where we stand with regards to DH's sperm.

I'm on