We just got back bad sperm analysis feeling hopeless.

[PinkDragonfly]

Thank you somedaymaybe1. I guess I'm just worried because I only started my job in November and I'm still in my probation period until May. It's unlikely that we'll be starting ivf while I'm still under probation, but it might be quite soon after and with 3 girls already off... I worry that I won't be allowed the time off or that I'll have to fight for it and tell work why I need the time off... I'd rather they didn't know.

I'm feeling a bit better now. The girl who announced her pregnancy on Monday is a bit unusual and doesn't want anyone to talk about it and doesn't want anyone outside of our team to know, so it hasn't really been mentioned since. I can't understand it. If and when I'm pregnant, I'm going to shout it from the rooftops! She's 14 weeks, so past the usual time people want to keep it quiet, and it was planned, so it's not like she's not happy about the pregnancy. Still, I won't complain if it means I can get through the day without crying! Lol.

 

[jojoD]

Hi ladies, all these posts take me back to how I have felt in the past. I remember the day we received my dh's SA results. We just felt like our whole world had came crashing down around us. We were told our only chance of pregnancy would be ICSI.

That very day I met with a friend who had recently had a baby. She talked about how she wished she hadn't got pregnant, how her life had changed and not for the better. I wanted to scream at her but tried to maintain my poker face and offer my support.

Over the next months we found out what our options were clinic wise. I thought of nothing else but having a baby and went through every emotion possible. Each bump and pregnancy announcement and baby conversation just seemed to rub salt in my wounds.

We were beyond blessed with a beautiful baby boy from our first ICSI. My hubby's results were so poor. Out of 12 eggs, 7 were eligable but only one fertilised and that was him. I also bled from week 6 to week 15 of my pregnancy. I never imagined that we would make it through all of that.

We're now in the 2WW of our third ICSI. Sadly our second ICSI ended in miscarriage. My advice to you all is never give up hope, anything is possible. One of my closest friends who had problems with both her and her hubby has had 2 babies naturally after years of disappointment and failed IVF.

Even just on Saturday last the embryologist said that my dh's count had deteriorated further, 0.01 per million and that he worried about fertilisation. This time we had 4 fertilised. Our best result yet! Get all the necessary support and advice and look after yourself and your partners. But don't give up. I wish you all the very, very best of luck.

 

[PinkDragonfly]

JojoD, thank you so much, your post has really cheered me up. It's wonderful to hear success stories like yours! I'm so sorry to hear about your miscarriage, but I have my fingers crossed that you will finish your tww with a bfp!

I do worry that hubby's sperm count will continue to deteriorate. I worry that when we get to icsi, they'll tell us he's not producing sperm at all... But I think I'll go crazy if I let myself think about that too much.

I'm trying to stay positive

 

[jojoD]

Our embryologist gave us a great piece of advice. He said don't get caught up on numbers, morphology and all of that. He said once you accept that you need assistance bear in mind that you only need one good sperm per egg. So you don't need millions, thousands or even hundreds. Sometimes not even double figures. We had the lowest count results yet but the best fertilisation. They used 'picsi' for sperm selection. So def hang on in there. There is still hope, big hugs xxxx

 

[PinkDragonfly]

Sorry, it's might be a daft question... What's "picsi"?

And you're right - we only need one sperm per egg and I'm not going to produce a million eggs!

 

[jojoD]

Not daft at all, I didn't know what it was until last week and it was our third ICSI. Third ICSI but first PICSI. It helps the embryologist to choose the best sperm. I copied this off a website:

'PICSI technique improves pregnancy rates and reduces the number of IVF miscarriages.In the ICSI procedure, an individual sperm is selected and injected into an egg. Until now, the only technique available to embryologists to select the sperm has been visual observation.

Using PICSI procedure we are able to determine sperm selection in much the same way it happens in human biology. Sperms are placed in PICSI dish containing samples of hyaluronan hydrogel. Hyaluronan is naturally occurring and found in all human cells, including the gel layer surrounding the egg.

Mature, biochemically competent sperm bind to the hyaluronan where they can be isolated by the embryologist and used for ICSI. This procedure mimics a key step in the natural fertilization process, the binding of mature sperm to the egg complex. As a result, the selected sperm is essentially the same as one that would be successful in the natural reproductive process.

The research proved that hyaluronan-bound PICSI-selected sperm are, in the vast majority of cases, more mature, exhibit less DNA damage, and have fewer chromosomal abnormalities'.

Hope that helps to explain... all rather scientific

 

[PinkDragonfly]

Thanks for that! The things they can do thanks to science, eh?