Male Factor Roll Call

[Sabine]

Peartree, my DH's mom told him the doc who did his op said the undescended testicle would definitely not affect his fertility, so she was as shocked as we were. I think they didn't know the full effects back then.

For those with MF due to undescended testes, do you know if there is a way to improve it, or is this our lot in life?
His first SA was 2.8mil, 48% mot, 14% morph. but he said he felt a lot under pressure, and his second just a couple of weeks later was 18mil, 60% mot, 8% morph. Now I don't know what to think!
In the meantime he is on vitamins and maca, and next SA is in 6 weeks time.

 

[Hopeful27yrs]

For those with MF due to undescended testes, do you know if there is a way to improve it, or is this our lot in life?

Unfortunately the germ cells which produce sperm "die" off the longer they are exposed to the temperatures within the human body - hence why they are supposed to hang outside. The longer they've been in the human body the less numbers there are and the more mutations they undergo - hence why the testicular cancer risk increases later in life and the quality of sperm decreases.

Basically there is little way of increasing the numbers or quality and therefore ICSI is often offered as doctors can select reasonable sperm (if available) to inseminate eggs.

 

[Sabine]

Thanks Hopeful! What about if only 1 testicle was undescended?

 

[Aphrodite]

We are male factor too due to DH having glandular fever of all things. I am in rude fertile health lol. Count is going up on every SA, but motility is going down. Currently 11%. Morphology is about 98% abnormal or something.

 

[Farie]

We are still struggling, improved results have moved us from male factor to 'unexplained' but will be testing them again this month so will see how that goes.

 

[Cupcake Queen]

Hey MissAma

Good idea to start this thread.

And yes chocci is right - DH has sperm antibodies. Although he has a daughter (7 y.old) with previous wife and we managed to get pregnant 'naturally' once just after we got married - antibodies are here to stay and there is nothing to be done except ICSI. My Polycystic ovaries, fibroids and endo doesn't help things- but what can you do eh?

 

[BigFoot1980]

Thanks Hopeful! What about if only 1 testicle was undescended?

Hi Sabine,
In that case the other one will function normally I think. It would just mean that counts might be lower. I am not sure but my DH also has one undescended and his counts were always lower, after taking wellman and maca, counts improved but motility and morphology dropped even further.

 

[MissAma]

I've updated the list girls, if there's anything you want in or out of it let me know here or by PM and I'll take care of it.

We're probably going to go the sperm donation route as we've seen a urologist who advised that testicular biopsy would probably show nothing - which we expect also. Looking into research there has only been 1 child born to someone in a similar position and that was after very invasive methods. You also have to worry about the quality of the 'sperm' if able to retrieve it after all that time whether it will be normal.

Not knocking donor hon, far be it from me, we may end up having to do that as well but I just wanted to say I saw many many children bought from guys with azoospermia regardless of why they had it.

As for how invasive it is.... the MESA or PESA, the sperm retrival procedures... I imagine why the guys are more than reluctant to have their family jewels operated on but realistically.... it was only 20 mins and then 2 days of ice on the jewels... nothing like what IVF will entail for you!

As for the quality of testicular sperm that is a good topic! And in that sense there are many aspects (this applies to you too Underthestars as thawing is a common issue) and yes, the quality is lower but at the same time with the lab procedures today they can do PID and better cultures and help them get to blasto....

I am in rude fertile health lol.

LOL indeed! I think I have a couple of issues now, a few years down the line but I remember saying the same thing when we started this and it's not easy, being healthy and seemingly uber able to make the baby in a second while he can't "help". Very straining on the relationship as I'm sure we all know.

LeilaFae - while looking for your diary I found your thread about the light AF - me too! I keep thinking it can't be good and lo and behold when I had the scans during IVF I only had 7 mm in lining which is low with all the hormones so we're on to something.... keep an eye on it and get yourself tested for hypotyroidism if you can

 

[grneyednurse]

Hell MissAMa...can I join the list? ANd thanks for starting this thread. Hallelujah!

Hubby has what we think is secondary hypogonadism (pituitary prolly-just had an MRI) and has had 1 SA: 50,000 or 1-2 sperm seen per microscopic field.
He hasn't had another yet, but I look under a microscope myself since suspecting this problem 9 months ago. This microscope has counting chambers in it and I check every so often. He would fluctuate from 1-2 per field to about 20. Now he has been on intramuscular HCG for the last 2 weeks and it looks extremely promising now! He has had anywhere from 11-55 million (or way too many to count) since looking! I hope it keeps up as I will be ovulating in about 10 days.

 

[beauty]

Hey ladies
We have male problems, low sperm (no ideas why) apart from just one of those things.. They havent really tested why OH has low sperm. Since his last SA he has stopped smoking so I would love to see if it has improved his sperm results when he has to re test.

He use to smoke 20 a day so im hoping it helps the swimmers
I too have mild pcos which can cause crazy cycles..

My oh produced around 2 million sperm per ml, but he produced alot of ml.. think in total he had around 14 million but out the 14millon the good stuff was about 8 million..

So low sperm per ml, but he produces alot of ml.. So we have numbers but again this was after 3 days holding it all in so the numbers will decrease alot if we did SA tests on say day2 ..

I really hope these improve, well improve enough if we have ICIS so we can use OH sperm, I know they only need one sperm for this but i hope we can do this procedure..

Funding for my region starts April so no tests or anything will not start until the hospital get my funding for the treatment which may be end of March time early April then the ball will start rolling for tests etc!!
xxx

 

[MrsR32]

Hey girls, can I join too?

DH has low count (3.5m from memory) but also about 98% of these are abnormal forms. There's no known reason for this but he's now taking Maca and Wellman Conception and we're just waiting for the results of a recent SA so keeping our fingers crossed that the pills have made a difference.

We're just waiting to start our first ICSI cycle, should be starting in just a few weeks now.

 

[Dancingkaty1]

hi....we have been ttc number 2 for 18 mths

i have polycysts on only ovary but have had all the other tests done & have got the all clear....just had the last test which was a lap & dye & that went well, no endo found

my dh had a sperm test last june & we were told the results we bad...think it was 18 million, but they were slow progressing he started taking fertile aid for men in aug & his 2nd sperm sample in sept was much better....slightly higher count 21million but the motilty improved & were progressing well the fertile aid 4 men were getting expensive so we swapped to wellmans conception in nov /oct ...he is going to do another test next week as we need up to date resuts for the 3rd march when we go & have our consultation at the fertilty center to discuss iui...

 

[suzie7]

Please add me!

DH has low count, 12 mill per ml and 17% motility, leaving us with 3.6 million spermies!
TTC since August 09, not too terribly long but long enough!

I had HSG, ultra sound, progesterone blood work to see if I was ovulating and everything came back normal thus far. Regular cycles, etc.

We have one more SA in 2 weeks and I'm hoping for better numbers! DH is on zinc, ginseng, maca, taurine, l'arginine, vit. E and C, and a multi--- poor fellow, it takes him two full glasses of water to swallow all the vitamins!

Keep me posted! I am REALLY interested in hearing about people who got pregnant naturally with low sperm count. I am hopeful that we can battle this out and get the count and motility up.

 

[grneyednurse]

Wow the reasons for male factor are a vast as infertility itself, but we are all in the same boat. A boat I hope we can all abandon one day!

 

[hopesforababy]

Has anyone heard of success rates for IVF when the only factor is male factor? My doctor said that at his clinic it was broken down by age of the female and that I am in the highest success group at 65%. But that has me factored in with women that may or may not have issues other than male factor, such as PCOS. Does this mean that I have a higher chance since our only reason for infertility is male factor?

 

[grneyednurse]

Yes babyhopes...here look up the CDC site on RE clinic stats..let me see if I cna find it...brb

https://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/ART/Marquee.aspx

Click around and you will find specific stats. It does say if woman has no problems and is under 35 and only problem is male factor (if she had children before this is even better) it's the most successful category to be in.

 

[FBbaby]

I was told my chances were at 20%, but that's because I am 39, although nothing is wrong with me at all. That's not very encouraging!

I have been wanting to ask a question for a couple of days now, I hope it is ok. How has finding out about your OH problem affected you ttc? We found out last Friday that OH swimmers were not how they should and the impact on how to face ttc is very much on my mind. It doesn't help that I knew I was ovulating the day after finding out. Until now, we had done the normal thing, used the cbfm, making sure to bd at the right times, using preeseed since I don't produce ewcm and then counting the days in the 2ww. I now feel quite confused as to whether continue as before or sparing us the emotional pain. Do you continue to try all you can on the basis that there is always a chance no matter how small it is?

My OH and I haven't yet discussed it, we are still a bit under shock and he needs more time to come to terms with the news. I felt a real urge to bd this week-end as at the moment, I can't bear the thought of not having even the tiniest chance to look forward to, but I am wondering if being in this situation makes the 2ww even worse. Thankfully, despite a hangover and nasty cold, my OH was happy to oblige! Where are you guys at? Have you given up ttc, just enjoying yourselves and just concentrating on icsi, or do you still continue to check when you are ovulating and insure to bd then? If so, have you been able to distance yourself a bit and go through the 2ww and deal with AF arriving without feeling the dreadful disappointment that hits you when you ttc?

I guess what makes it difficult for us is that I did get pregnant once, incredibly first cycle ttc. What we don't know is whether it was the ultime miracle, or whether his swimmers were healthier then. It would really help me to know how your guys are dealing with this

 

[MrsR32]

FBBaby, I had the same thoughts when we were told we were facing male factor. We continued to BD at the right time every month but just made sure we were only trying every other day instead of every day. There is a thread somewhere on here with girls who have had their BFP despite male factor so it can happen. As you say, it's easier to deal with this if you believe there is some hope. Meanwhile, is IVF (ICSI) an option for you? We were refered as soon as male factor was diagnosed and we're just waiting for our first treatment cycle now.

 

[grneyednurse]

Actually TTC was easier as I kinda gave up with the thought "if it's gonna happen, it will" and if it doesn't, then IVF down the road. We kinda felt this way a few months afterwards and now we are back near full swing as there is always a small chance and we have to help things along as much as possible. I have heard of many stories of women getting a natural BFP with male factor.

 

[FBbaby]

Thanks MrsR32 and grneynurse
icsi is an option for us, but we won't be elligible for nhs funding and as we've been told we only have a 20% chance, I don't think I could face it without thinking we could commit to at least two cycles, so it has a huge implication that we certainly hadn't considered when only a week ago, we were ttc like most people wanting to get pg.

I have read so many different things on the internet both in terms of improvement and ability to get a bfp even with poor results, it makes it difficult to know how positive and more importantly focussed we need to remain. I did fall pg so yes, it is possible, but I don't think I could cope with years of hoping each months that I get a bfp if the odds are stacked against us.

This will be my first 2ww since we found out, so I'll see whether the symptoms get me as anxious as they normally do and if I get as disappointed when AF shows and go from there.

Good luck Lee with your referral and hope treatment can start soon. At least if we decide to go down that route, we will be able to start right away as we will be private and there are no waiting list where we are.