male factor infertility

[Snapdragon]

Is anyone else on this board dealing with male factor infertility?
This is our situation at the moment and I was just looking for others to discuss it with more.

I have had many responses from the ttc board but I wanted to try over here and see if anyone else's dh his dealing with no sperm!
We go to a specialist TOMORROW! ( I am excited to maybe have some solutions)
Anyone else been through this?

[by-the-lake]

Welcome to MFI (male factor infertility) land. After a life saving surgery of my DH 3 years ago, he became anejacuatory (can orgasm, nothing comes out). We went to have the sperm electriclly stimulated and removed for IUI this May. The sperm then was frozen. Anyhow, after it sitting around for 3 years, the quality is less than optimal. We have just done our last IUI with his sperm, and I think AF is on her way. She will be here Tues. After 6 months of this, and using the last of his sperm, we have decided we cannot afford IVF, so we are going with donor sprem. An easy decision, no. Its heart breaking for my DH, and all along he said no to donor. Now the time has come, and there are no more options, he did say we can use donor sperm. He equated it to adoption in his mind. So thats my experience.

[EmmaJane]

Our main diagnosis is obstructive azoospermia -- my husband makes sperm, but he's missing the tubing to get it outside (congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens, resulting from his cystic fibrosis).

My impression is that true azoospermia comes in two flavors, obstructive and non-obstructive. For both, IVF with ICSI is the only option for having children that are genetically your husband's -- and the sperm must be surgically extracted. With obstructive, it's usually pretty easy to find the sperm. With non-obstructive, it's harder, and people are more likely to go to highly specialized urologists for the surgery.

Assuming sperm can be found, it's common for this type of male factor case to be pretty straightforward, as IVF goes -- typically the partner is fertile, and often younger than a lot of IVF patients, so it's pretty easy to get high quality eggs.
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My husband had one biopsy, in 2003. They got six vials, but had to rip up his testes pretty hard to get that much. We decided that one of our limits in treatment was that he's not getting any more surgery.

I turned out to be a sort of poor responder. It took 3 cycles and a change in clinics to get pregnant the first time (DD is 3), and 3 more cycles, including one cancellation, to get me pregnant again.

When we changed clinics, we had to ship the frozen vials several hundred miles. At that time we bought some donor sperm -- if it turned out that our vials hadn't survived the trip, then donor was the next step anyway, and we didn't want to leave my eggs hanging! But my husband's vials defrosted fine. After we had DD, we destroyed the donor vial -- we want any additional children in the family to have the same genetic relationship to us as our daughter does.
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Good luck! It is exciting when there's a possible solution on the horizon.

[Snapdragon]

Thanks for responding, naturalmom and EmmaJane.

EmmaJane did your husband know he had cystic fibrosis before coming up azoospermic?
My partner seems totally fine, had had no surgeries or incidents that might have caused this that we know of yet.


I have heard sometimes the man can have an infection that causes azzospermia. I am wondering if my dh does, as they said in the s/a he had many leukocytes in his semen.
Also- after 6 months of ttc I got a pain in my ovary that comes and goes ( for 8 months now) still undiagnosed- and I wonder if his semen may have caused something in me to be infected?

[by-the-lake]

It seems unlikely he has caused you a problem. I have never heard of that. Could you be feeling your ovulation and are just now knowing it because you are TTC and paying attention?

[Snapdragon]

I agree it is probably not his semen causing me pain.
This pain I have is so frustrating- it has been going on for EIGHT MONTHS and is more than just ovulation pain.
It may be a cyst though none showed on the u/s 3 months ago and I am thinking of having another u/s though I have to pay for each thing as I have no insurance.

[IncompetentHousewife]

Me! My husband's sperm is abnormally shaped and we don't know why. It has 0% normal morphology (yes, zero) on Krueger's Strict Scale.

We have two daughters. Our first was an absolute miracle, in my book. We did IUI with my husband's own sperm, which was just to make me feel better because there was no way it would work. Then we did ICSI + ZIFT (a couple steps beyond regular IVF) and it actually worked on the first time. Believe me, I realize how lucky we are.

We had one frozen embryo left. It did not survive the thaw when we were ready for a second child. We tried another round of IVF that did not work. This time they didn't even get any fertilization.

We did donor insemination, and at this moment I am nursing my beautiful 2.5yo daughter to sleep as I type. We are now advocates of DI as a wonderful way to build a family. We also considered adoption very strongly (to the point of meeting with agencies), but breastfeeding a newborn that I know was raised healthfully from the womb is important to me, at least this time around it was.

We're thinking about DI again for child #3. Well, I've decided. But my husband is thinking about it.

[EmmaJane]

Katie34,

Yes, my husband was diagnosed before he was 3 and was raised expecting never to have children. We married in 1994, when ICSI was still quite new, but we knew all along that we'd have to go through some pretty extreme stuff to have children related to him. We waited 9 years before we started trying -- in retrospect, that wasn't a great move.

He has two copies of the most common mutation. I was tested and am unlikely to be a carrier. DD is a carrier, of course.

Asymptomatic variants of the CF gene are one possible cause for azoospermia -- but they can check for absence of the vas deferens with what my husband described as "a quick squeeze," once there's any reason to suspect it.

[nummies]

We are. We are dealing with 0% normal sperm morphology as well.

We did IVF to concieve our 18 month old son. We are trying an IUI this month.

Sorry that you have to go through this! It is not fun, but it does get easier.

[nummies]

Originally Posted by SueSB

Me! My husband's sperm is abnormally shaped and we don't know why. It has 0% normal morphology (yes, zero) on Krueger's Strict Scale.

We have two daughters. Our first was an absolute miracle, in my book. We did IUI with my husband's own sperm, which was just to make me feel better because there was no way it would work. Then we did ICSI + ZIFT (a couple steps beyond regular IVF) and it actually worked on the first time. Believe me, I realize how lucky we are.

We had one frozen embryo left. It did not survive the thaw when we were ready for a second child. We tried another round of IVF that did not work. This time they didn't even get any fertilization.

We did donor insemination, and at this moment I am nursing my beautiful 2.5yo daughter to sleep as I type. We are now advocates of DI as a wonderful way to build a family. We also considered adoption very strongly (to the point of meeting with agencies), but breastfeeding a newborn that I know was raised healthfully from the womb is important to me, at least this time around it was.

We're thinking about DI again for child #3. Well, I've decided. But my husband is thinking about it.

We have the same issue. What are your husband's other counts like? Thanks in advance mama!

[Snapdragon]

I am so glad to have this thread up!
Being the female partner in a couple ttc with male infertlity certainly has its specific challenges.
We are heading off to the specialist right now!
I guess I am feeling excited that we can hopefully resolve this.
I understand it may be a challenge, but I also know there are some simple solutions out there too.
We would love a simple solution.

DH and I felt his testicles and we are pretty sure we felt some tubes ( vas deferens) but it is hard to know!
Anyway- I will post tonight when we get home.
Let's keep this thread going it is helpful to have support.

[by-the-lake]

Best of luck!

[poetgirl]

: for your appt. today Katie. I hope very much that you both felt comfortable with the urologist and that you have a good game plan.
Let us know how you are.

[Snapdragon]

The appointment told us nothing we don't already know- maybe a tiny bit.
Now we must wait for more tests etcetera.
Meanwhile- I am freaking out hardcore over here.

I have wanted a baby for over a dozen years. I have been with this partner for 3 and a 1/2.

I think we are going to check out one more doctor. This first one was a specialist but there is another who is a more specified specialist.
it seemed like the guy we saw today didn't have much help to offer us so I think we will keep looking.

[Snapdragon]

Does anyone have any good recommendations for specialists in male infertliity?

We went to one guy and are scheudled to see another on Monday.
But then I heard the guys at Cornell in NYC are excellent.
Anyone know about this?

[FayeO]

Male factor-antibodies

So glad you started this topic. I feel like no one else deals with this--which is ridiculous, of course.

We have a different male problem that is, apparently, not very common.

My husband has two different kinds of antisperm antibodies that are disabling/attacking his sperm very effectively.:
We have one miracle child (almost 6). Not sure how that happened??!!

But we now know that he has one type of antibody attaching to 85% of his sperm (heads) and another type attaching to 95% of the tails. These antibodies pretty much render the sperm useless.

I have had 7 failed IUIs and am at a point of frustration (we started trying in November of 2005). I test fine (hormones, ultrasound, everything) and am contemplating all kinds of things: donor sperm, adoption, doing nothing at all, IVF (which we can't afford).

I really feel the need to have another child and now that my husband knows what the problem is, he has become very non-chalant about the whole thing. A "take it or leave it" attitude that seemed to develop right after we got the diagnosis.

Anyway-I know I ran into one person on the board that had MFI, involving antibodies.
Would love to hear from anyone else that has this situation or knows about it.

Thanks. So glad to have you all.

[jjawm]

We have sperm antibodies on 99% of the head, and 100% of the tail. Crazy. We had to do IVF w/ ICSI to get dd.

Dh had a vasectomy, and then had it reversed, which is why he has the antibodies. No extra embryos

We simply cannot afford IVF again, so I'm trying to get my head around not having another child, which breaks my heart. I should seriously look into using a donor, but when dh and I talked about it before we did IVF, he said he couldn't do it.

SueSB, was your dh always supportive of using a donor?

[FayeO]

asa. Thanks jjawm

Thanks for the info. jjawm. Not easy to hear but realistic. I am sure IVF/ICSI is our only option as well.
I feel like the RE has really been wasting time and money with these numerous IUIs. I guess it makes sense though... b/c we were no where near being ready to commit to IVF. And our insurance covers nothing.

jjawm--was your IVF successful on the first attempt?

My dh feels the same as yours re: donor sperm. Don't think I could ever change his mind about it.

We don't know why my dh has asa. It's unexplained. Maybe a childhood injury they say.

Lesson learned=protect your little boys "goods".

[by-the-lake]

RE: donor sperm. DH and I tossed this one around for the last 6 months with failed IUI after failed IUI becuase of male factor. This past IUI he did say he would consider it. He equated it to adoption. Then after AF arrived and we had to actually commit to using a donor, he got really upset. He says having a child from a donor would remind him of what he could not do. He says he cannot give life. I told him yes, a father does give life and love and everything important. The sperm is a tiny detail in this. Anyhow, we are using donor next cycle, and he did pick it out. He also says, nobody will ever know, and we are to tell nobody, which is the best for everyone. Its bittersweet; I cannot have my husbands baby, but I can have a baby with my husband, which is the next best thing. We cannot afford IVF, so this is our option.

[FayeO]

donor sperm

Does anyone know how it works with donor sperm?
Do you actually look at photos of the donor?

Or is more like a resume with a physical description?

What is the cost, typically?

thanks. And Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.