Clomid for male factor infertility

[kaliki_kila]

I just wanted to put this out there for anyone who is struggling with male factor infertility and hasn't tried Clomid yet.

We started trying 5 years ago and after the first year we were diagnosed with male factor infertility.  The diagnosis was devastating - 9,000 count with 0% motility.

They told us our only option was IVF-ICSI.

We tried vitamins and herbs, which helped gradually increase the numbers over the years but the numbers were still extremely low.  We also tried varicocele surgery and that helped the motility improve gradually over the course of a year following the surgery.

Last year, we came across some information that said Clomid works for some men.  My dh didn't have low hormone levels and so we doubted that it would work for him, but we gave it a try.  The urologist prescribed him a 1/2 tab of Clomid a day.

He started taking it in October of 2011 and got tested in January to see how it was working.  The count, motility, and morphology had increased astronomically.  He was still borderline infertile, but now we had a new option available to us - IUI - and we planned to go that route.

However, in March I got pregnant naturally and our baby boy is due any day now!  We plan to try Clomid again each time we are ttc and hope for the same outcome.

[oliversmommy329]

That's awesome! Congratulations on your pregnancy!

[WildDoula]

How interesting! Congrats! :)

[WannaBeDAD]

Congrats, very happy for you guys, i just wanted to know about clomid, was your husband taking 1/2 clomid of 100mg or 50mg? And what part of the day would he be taking it?

Thanks

[kaliki_kila]

Originally Posted by WannaBeDAD 

Congrats, very happy for you guys, i just wanted to know about clomid, was your husband taking 1/2 clomid of 100mg or 50mg? And what part of the day would he be taking it?

Thanks

He was taking a 1/2 tab of 50 mg.  He took it at night, but the doctor didn't tell him what time of day to take it and the instructions just said once daily.

[TinyMama]

Hmm, very interesting.  Which doctor prescribed this for him?  I'm assuming an RE, but I don't think there's any way our RE would prescribe this for DH.   He's very focused in IVF-ICSI being the only option.

[kaliki_kila]

Originally Posted by TinyMama 

Hmm, very interesting.  Which doctor prescribed this for him?  I'm assuming an RE, but I don't think there's any way our RE would prescribe this for DH.   He's very focused in IVF-ICSI being the only option.

His urologist prescribed it.  That's who he was seeing for all of our infertility concerns.  We had to do our own research on everything though (like asking for the varicocele surgery) because their only solution was always IVF-ICSI.  We had to ask for the prescription and weren't sure the urologist would even know anything about it, but luckily the doctor went along with it and gave us a prescription no questions asked.

[TinyMama]

Huh.  Thanks.  DH hasn't even seen a urologist in years now--his problem has been identified, and we have used the RE for all problems since then.  We haven't been doing anything in a while now, so maybe we could try a urologist again.  Thanks--always interesting to hear new solutions.

[kaliki_kila]

Originally Posted by TinyMama 

Huh.  Thanks.  DH hasn't even seen a urologist in years now--his problem has been identified, and we have used the RE for all problems since then.  We haven't been doing anything in a while now, so maybe we could try a urologist again.  Thanks--always interesting to hear new solutions.

Good luck.  We never saw an RE (I'm guessing that means an infertility specialist).  We were kind of in limbo for a few months because it was my ob-gyn who ordered the tests for my husband and found he was infertile and then told us to go to the infertility clinic, which we knew was a dead end as far as our options would be over there.  I think we figured out that he should see a urologist and then he asked his doctor for a referral to one.  The urologist didn't specialize in infertility, but was open to anything we wanted to try including countless semen analysis tests, surgery, and then the Clomid prescription.  What I learned from my own experience is that you have to be your own advocate because nobody cares about it as much as you.

[MichellyAqua12]

It's good to hear a success story! My husband is on Clomid for low testosterone and also low count, motility, and morphology. He hasn't done the follow up SA yet so we don't know if there's been any improvement, but his testosterone has increased, so we're optimistic. I hope his count will be good enough to try IUI.

[kaliki_kila]

Originally Posted by MichellyAqua12 

It's good to hear a success story! My husband is on Clomid for low testosterone and also low count, motility, and morphology. He hasn't done the follow up SA yet so we don't know if there's been any improvement, but his testosterone has increased, so we're optimistic. I hope his count will be good enough to try IUI.

They say that it works best for men with low hormone levels so I think you guys have a good chance!