Understanding Semen analysis

[NikkiGil]

Hi, I am knew to this site. I have been TTC with my husband for about 8 months. We are both 25. I recently went to my OBGYN and had preliminary blood work done. I also had an HSG done which came back good. My husband had his SA done the same day and we just got the results. He has 17mil count, which normal I have heard should be over 20. His motility is also low at 35% and Morphology 7% My doctor referred him to a Urologist and he will go next week. He said if everything was fine structurally with him then we would need to talk about assisted reproduction. I am just wondering if anyone has had similar results and what did you have to do? I am on insurance for the next year that covers infertility treatments 100%, so if I do have to do IUI or IVF I would like to start soon.

 

[messica]

What we did is in my signature. Our issue was entirely attributed to mf. Our highest count out of 4 was 12.5m and our morphology was far worse than yours of 7% which is actually pretty good.

What you should do is going to depend entirely on how motivated you are to get pregnant. I personally thought our IUI's were a giant time/money/energy/emotion suck but that's because they got us nowhere. For others they've worked beautifully.

I think your first step would be to do another semen analysis. I'm surprised a urologist would agree to see him before he's got two under his belt as the numbers can widely vary between samples. If they see two with similar numbers they can more or less call it his normal as opposed to a fluke because of a minor viral illness, too much time in a hot tub, not enough or too much time abstaining before a sample was left etc. If his numbers stayed the same I'd move forward with the urologist to see if whatever is causing the poor results can be remedied either with meds, surgery or both. If it's an issue that can be fixed you may not need to move forward with AR anymore. If it can't, then you can look at whether something like IUI (that will give him more targets to hit through super ovulation, and because motility is a factor for him it'll make it far easier for his swimmers to get to those multiple targets because they're placed right up by your tubes) or IVF.


If you have the coverage I personally would say dive right in to IVF with ICSI if I were you. Why not if you have the option? Obviously it's a heck of a lot more invasive but talking numbers....our RE said our odds of conceiving with IUI were around of less than 2%. With IVF/ICSI they shot up to near 70% (because I had had two children before, so overcoming the mfi with ICSI set us up berries lol). It was really a no brainer

 

[MnGmakes3]

I agree with the pp. Ask for another SA. I believe the suggested wait time is 90 days though I could be wrong (we had ours about a month ago. I nearly asked for a 2d but then I realized I read the results wrong ).
I found out that out of the HUGE sample your H gives only a few slides..like 3... are made to analyze count, motility etc. Given that all the things like abstinence, caffeine, etc take effect in the SA it could be that sample 2 could be better than sample 1 (or worse ,or the same).
Hth!

 

[NikkiGil]

Thanks so much for the help! This is new to us so we are just trying to figure out what our options would be. I am sure they will have my husband do a second SA. It seems like his counts are low, but not horribly low, so its hard to determine what the plan might be.

 

[MnGmakes3]

If it helps any there are male motility vitamins that have rave reviews on Amazon. I know everyone is skeptical on whether it helps or not but I can speak for the brand we have (which escapes me now)...friends of mine took it as well...before and after 2 SAs and he had quite a noticeable difference in motility.

 

[NikkiGil]

I just ordered FertileAid last night on amazon. I'm not sure if that is the one you are thinking of. It looks like it has good reviews!

 

[MnGmakes3]

I just ordered FertileAid last night on amazon. I'm not sure if that is the one you are thinking of. It looks like it has good reviews!

Yes it was! I hope it works out for you!!!

 

[itsqueenbee]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone can help me understand my husbands SA, I don't have an appointment with my GYN for the next few weeks and I am extremely worried about these results. We have been having unprotected intercourse for 4 years now and he has never gotten me pregnant, I am 32 and he is 28.

viscosity-normal
ph-8
agglutination-some
volume-2.5ml
count-130.2 million/specimen
concentration-52.1 million/ml
percent motile -75.0
concentration motile-39.1 million/ml
progression rapid 38%
progression medium 9%
progression slow 27%
static 25%

Morphology (WHO 2nd edition)
normal 7%
tail defect 1%
duplicate 2%
tail only 4%
Irregular 86%

 

[StranjeGirl]

I just ordered FertileAid last night on amazon. I'm not sure if that is the one you are thinking of. It looks like it has good reviews!

Yes fertilaid for men seems ot prove good results. I would also add more maca to that (it has some but adding more is helpful) Maca magic makes a tincture. Also have dh cut down on alcohol if he drinks!