Below normal morphology?

[citygirl144]

Hi- Our potential known donor got his semen tested and they found he had "below normal morphology." however, it isn't that far below
(26% of 100% of 200 sperm were normal and they said the percentage they would have liked to see is 30% or higher). however, the lab told him they wouldnt worry since he had a very high volume of motile sperm (the motile count in million was 100). I've tried to do some internet research and it is all very confusing! should we rule him out as a donor for this?
(i will also post this on the fertility thread).
thanks so much!

[FtMPapa]

If everything else is good, and everything is good at your end, and you really feel he's the one, I say no.

You may want to set some limits, though - like if you were thinking, "we'll try for six months at home, and if not, then we'll do IUI at a clinic" you may instead decide "we'll try for three months with at-home IUIs and two insems per cycle, and if that doesn't work, we'll go to a clinic." or whatever makes sense.

You should have gotten some interpretation from the doctor who ordered the semen analysis. If not, call hir up and ask.

Your next step would be a consult with a urologist and/or a reproductive endocrinologist.

Finally, did your donor follow the instructions? Did he abstain from ejaculating for three days, but no more than five days before the semen analysis? A high abnormal morphology count can mean he abstained too long before the S/A so you may want to make sure he ejaculates three days before he donates for you each time.

Obviously, these conversations can be a little bit awkward, but soon you'll get used to having them. Good luck!

[citygirl144]

Thanks so much- we did give him the instructions and assume he followed - but will definitely check in. Yes these conversations are super awkward but we're getting better-good prep i guess for the actual insems...

[erthe_mama]

Originally Posted by FtMPapa

Finally, did your donor follow the instructions? Did he abstain from ejaculating for three days, but no more than five days before the semen analysis? A high abnormal morphology count can mean he abstained too long before the S/A so you may want to make sure he ejaculates three days before he donates for you each time.

Sorry to (slightly) derail here, but does this go for donating sperm as well? Should we ask our KD to not ejaculate for three days before donating his sperm to us? Should we space our insems three days apart??

[citygirl144]

Hi Andrea- I agree it is very confusing to figure out how to time inseminations (in terms of every day vs every other day during fertile window). it does seem strange that the books tell you to tell KD to abstain for 2 to 3 days before the test - but then if they are donating to you every day or every other day, then how does the test result relate?

[FtMPapa]

Originally Posted by citygirl144

Hi Andrea- I agree it is very confusing to figure out how to time inseminations (in terms of every day vs every other day during fertile window). it does seem strange that the books tell you to tell KD to abstain for 2 to 3 days before the test - but then if they are donating to you every day or every other day, then how does the test result relate?

Excellent point. . . ideally, if he does the test picture-perfect, then you know the results are valid. If you get bad numbers with picture-perfect testing conditions then you know there's not much you can do about it (not that yours were, CityGirl, yours were ever-so-slightly less than ideal, but not bad). If the numbers are excellent with picture-perfect testing, then you probably have a little more wiggle room.

My donor does abstain, and then we do every other day...I think. Last cycle, we did two days in a row, this cycle we did something like Monday, and then IUI on Friday...Monday was way too early.

If you get him to do the three day abstinence before each cycle and then every day (or every other if his counts are lower) then you'll have the best shot, in my been-at-this-too-long, read-everything-and-then-some opinion.

Or at least, approximately, I've always had to guess at it, since my cycles are ridiculously long and often unpredictable.

[erthe_mama]

Thanks for the advice!!

[kjm]

I recommend 1 day of abstention between each insemination so if you are using fresh sperm and can do 3 cycles, I'd do 4 days before O, 2 days before O and day of O seeing as though your swimmers can live for 5 days.

[erthe_mama]

Oh, thanks!