Highly viscous sperm

[dreamofabean]

Hi girls,
When we saw our fs last week after another SA he said that the sample was highly viscous and that's probably why the motility was so poor. Anyone have any success stories or advice??x

 

[Lou32]

Hi dreamofabean - This is exactly what our prob is. Numbers are good but only 4% fast swimmers. I got a copy of the last test results and it said the sample was highly viscous, with 70% of the sperm dead (probably died trying to swim through the stuff!)
I've tried to look into this but there's not much out there on the internet.
I think we may have improved things slightly as for our first icsi (unfortunately bfn) the viscosity had improved slightly, but motility was still not good. Changes he made was to start drinking lots of water and cut down on milk, as cow's milk is known to cause mucus, which causes viscosity. He doesn't really stick to it as much as I'd like though. He's now on rice milk, but refuses to use it in his tea.
Think most important thing is to keep hydrated.
Would love to know if you find any helpful info on this as it seems to be our main prob!

 

[dreamofabean]

Thanks for replying Lou, im so sorry about your unsuccessful ICSI. The 2 sa's he has had done have had 72% and 83% immotile sperm and have had high viscosity. The only thing ive read is about keeping hydrated which i'll be passing onto dh! Haven't managed to find anything else! Will let you know if i do though hun!x

 

[Lou32]

Apparently ginger is good for getting rid of mucus too. I'm trying to get OH to switch to ginger tea but he's a bit reluctant...will let you know too if I find anything out. Am waiting for a book to arrive on MF infertility so hoping there might be something in it about this.
The docs have said there's no point running any tests on his as it's usually unexplained. They also said there was nothing we could to which would make a difference. Not sure how they know this, but we're ignoring them anway and doing whaterver we can.
Did docs tell you what might have caused it?

 

[jojo55]

hi, I was told my husbands semen was quite thick on his first sa, the nurse told us that baby aspirin can help to thin it out. on his 2nd sa they didnt mention it so I presume it helped as it did not seem to be a problem again. We also notioced that it was not as thick after taking it so hope this helps you xx

 

[dreamofabean]

Thank you so much for that info jojo! Will get dh on baby aspirin!!
Lou we were told that his normal count but very poor motility may be due to a varicocele so dh is being referred to a urologist. Unsure if that relates to the viscosity though! X

 

[Lou32]

Well that's good because at least you might get some answers. Our consultant is s**t and said these things are usually unexplained so they weren't prepared to investigate further.

 

[dreamofabean]

Yeah hopefully it'll be something simple but im not getting my hopes up tbh! Think we'll always have these issues to face! x