Well, looks like I might belong here now...

[Orglethorp]

My fiancé and I have been TTC #1 since October 2014, and we just had a chemical loss this cycle (@4w2d). I've suspected 1-2 others, but this is the first time I caught anything on an hpt before the witch showed up.

Anyway, I saw the ob/gyn today (had an appointment scheduled anyway, but it just happens to also be CD1 after the chemical), and we're now being referred to the fertility specialist because our latest test results are in and while all my numbers are great, his aren't. Good count, low motility.

What should we expect?

We've been hoping to conceive by June, because our wedding in next summer and I don't want to be due/just gave birth and trying to squeeze into my dress! Now I'm getting very worried that we're not going to make that deadline, and I'll have to deal with actively preventing again even though I desperately want to be pregnant

He's 26, I'm 28 (actually only 1 year apart but my birthday's Feb and his is Sept). He's a carpenter, so very active as a part of his regular day-to-day life. Not a smoker, doesn't drink in general but tends to put away at least 5 beer in a night when we're at the cabin. He doesn't believe me that he does this, and if we stay in at the cabin he doesn't, but if we go visiting at other cabins, he drinks whatever others put in front of him and it quickly gets up there. In terms of diet, he eats a lot of fast food & processed frozen food for lunches on work days that I wish he wouldn't, but at home he eats well. My biggest concern about his diet is the sodas. He'll put 2 cans in his lunch box and still drink 1-2 more in the evening. Still doing it, even though I'm trying to lead by example and have stopped buying soda for myself. I only drink it at restaurants or the cabin now.

 

[highhopes2013]

We had a similar issue - I have PCO but the fertility specialist said the sperm motility was why we weren't getting pregnant. We ended up having icsi and now have twins. Best of luck to you, hope it all works out x

 

[messica]

What you can expect from a fertility specialist is lots of information and lots of testing for you both. Have you had any tests done? Has he only had one sperm analysis or at least two a minimum of three months apart?

While I am sorry to hear of your loss it is a good sign that you are able to conceive. While youre right to be concerned about diet playing a role please be reassured that his soda and beer intake don't sound significant enough to cause your issues by most standards.

 

[Orglethorp]

My ob/gyn did every test in the book when she did my pap back in January, and I've had blood draws for all the various hormones. As per her referral then (which didn't get processed in time for last new cycle) I'm supposed to schedule an HSG, but now that we're being sent on to the specialist she suggested possibly holding off to see if the specialist still wants to do that.

It was only the first sperm analysis for the fiancé, and it'd be great to find out it was just an off day when we do the re-test, but honestly it makes a lot of sense if the problem's his swimmers. I've had 1 chemical in the past, when I was 20 and definitely not trying with my ex. That one was an oops conception right around the time I started birth control for the first time, when my ex and I first started to need it, and we were perhaps a little too eager I conceived back then right away, albeit unintentionally, but now that I want to, it's taking 17+ months? Makes sense that the partner is making a difference.

 

[tinadecember]

Hi,

We are in kind of the same boat as you guys, I have no known problems but my husband has low counts/motility and we have been trying for baby 2 for 2 years and 8 months.
We started off with all kinds of tests including multiple SA tests and medication to try and improve his spermies but none of it worked. I had to have a HSG and bloodwork and we tried clomid too for 3 cycles but it didn't make a difference.

In the end the only thing that was likely to work for us was IVF with ICSI, we've done 2 rounds but so far both have been BFN.

I imagine your fertility specialist will send you down a similar route to what we are on

good luck

xx

 

[Orglethorp]

Due to the cost of procedures, since we're building a house this year and having our wedding next summer, we've decided no matter what the test results are and no matter what the specialist thinks will work best for us, the rest of our "trying" months for 2016 will continue to just be trying the natural way. If he gets prescribed something, or recommended a vitamin or a diet change or something, then we'll try that obviously, but no procedures.

We're going to stop trying temporarily if we don't have a pregnancy by the end of the summer, just so that I don't end up still pregnant too close to the wedding date. If it comes to that, we're taking a break until April. So if March-August and next April-July has given us nothing, then after the wedding we'll do procedures. (I know in my original post I said stopping after June, but last night I ran each of my next likely ovulation dates through a due date calculator, and even late August will still have me due 2 months before the wedding.)

(Yes I'm in Canada where we've got "free" health care, but infertility treatments are not covered in this province. If it comes down to IVF, that'll be super expensive, because there isn't even an IVF clinic in this province, so we'd both have to take significant time off to fly to another province for it.)

 

[tinadecember]

we too have paid for all of our fertility treatment, it sucks that everything is so expensive! I hope you get some luck the natural way before you have to think about the extremities of IVF

xx

 

[Orglethorp]

Just got a call from the secretary at the fertility clinic. She's annoyed with me because she thought it was a second referral for an HSG, which my ob/gyn ordered in late Jan just as my last cycle was starting (therefore too late for an HSG then). Secretary was annoyed not only because she thought it was a duplicate referral, but also because she thinks I've just neglected to call in because it's been over a month. Well surprise, lady, some of us who need your services are experiences irregular cycles.

It took a lot of convincing that the referral is for a consult because of his results after finding out that my blood tests all came back with great numbers, but his SA wasn't so great. Didn't even bother to mention that we conceived this last cycle, so clearly I'm not completely blocked up. I'll probably be booked for an HSG after the consult anyway, but it's clearly not urgent.

Anyway, appointment date will be in the mail.

If I never see that appointment card, I'll ask the ob/gyn for a second SA order when I see her again in June so at least we'll have a 2nd set of results. I don't foresee anything actually getting to a point where we'd be booking procedures until summer anyway, and we've already decided we won't do any costly procedures until after house & wedding.

 

[BronteForever]

Mind if I join you ladies? I'm completely new to this community but am in a similar boat I just got confirmation IVF is likely my only option. I had an ectopic pregnancy back in 2009 and the scar tissue from that likely closed up my one remaining tube.

My first appointment with the RE isn't until May, so I have to wait until then. I'm trying to get all the info I can on IVF in the meantime.

Good luck to you all!

 

[Orglethorp]

Absolutely! Welcome to the club

 

[BronteForever]

Thanks for the welcome Orglethorp. Have you found out the date of your appointment yet? Hopefully they can get you in soon. Even if you don't do anything for the rest of the year due to cost and try naturally, sometimes I find comfort in having answers. I feel like not knowing is sometimes worse.

Sounds like you have a busy year with lots going on. Fingers crossed you get some good news in between all of it.

 

[Orglethorp]

No appointment date yet. It'll be in the mail once they schedule it. My ob/gyn said this particular clinic has been getting people in within a month or so lately, which is pretty good considering I was nearly 4 months waiting to get in to see her when my GP referred me! lol.

 

[BronteForever]

Yeah that is pretty good. Hopefully they can get you in soon. Mine will be about 3-month wait.

 

[Orglethorp]

If they take much longer than a month, by the time we have our consultation, it might to too late to try anything anyway before we need to take a break to prevent me being pregnant in my wedding dress Don't want that! lol

 

[sprite30]

Welcome orlge. Have you been doing opk's? Sounds like you have a combination of male and female infertility. They'll probably do an hsg . If you've fallen pregnant and had chemicals you could have issues with your lp or hydrosalpinx tubes. Have you tried bbt to rule out an lp defect? It could very well be that you just need to take progesterone in your 2 ww. Our re tried to push us for ivf right away too but we had no issues getting pg on our first iui even after they removed my left tube. So I'm so glad I didn't let her push me that direction.

Your dhs story is pretty similar to my husband's but minus the beer and replace it with sugar and fast food. His numbers at first were so horrible. And I always said it was because he was nervous to "provide" the sample. When we got pg with out daughter we had 6 mil and 8 mil and they wanted to see at least 10 million. So just remember it only takes one.

Good luck with the consult. If they're taking awhile to get you in I would try to get him on a multi vitamin and coq10.

 

[Orglethorp]

My ob/gyn is confident it's not me, but since she referred me for an HSG at the same time as all the blood work, that's still coming up. There weren't any appointment times available for this cycle. I've had all my blood work done, and my levels are all excellent. My progesterone this last LP was 16.8 at 4dpo. I do track BBT and use opks. I am ovulating, and I do have 13+ day LPs. The only issue is that sometimes (3 cycles since October 2014), I ovulate 3 weeks late. Seriously, I'm either right when I expect to ovulate, give or take a single day, or I ovulate 20-23 days later than expected. Once O happens, though, it's like clockwork again. LP will be 13 days, and if AF is coming my temps will start to taper off at around 11dpo (but not much until AF actually shows).

As her my fiancé's numbers, we have confirmed normal sperm count, normal morphology, but low motility.

 

[sprite30]

So glad to hear you at least have that all figured out with yourself. So when you go in for the consult you'll be able to really get down to business. Hopefully it's just a case of doing an iui and getting his little guys closer to the egg.