Low motility, what can be done?

[Anonymous]

DH has 30% motility. He has good count and high volume. No one has said there are morphology issues, so I'm assuming there aren't any. We've had 3 SA's done all with the same results. First was done by my gyn, then we went to Dr. Sherins at CFA and he did an SA and it was the same. We then found that low motility was a side effect of one of DH's medications, so he reduced the medication to 25% of what he was taking before, so we re-tested to see if there had been any changes, but the results are exactly the same, so we don't think there's any connection with the medication.

I know a lot of people think Dr. Sherin's is great and we did too after our first appointment with him, but he's done nothing since that first appointment or to suggest DH do anything following the SA results (which he took over a week to get to us after I called multiple times). I looked up the meds DH was on and we approached his gp about reducing the meds to see if that was an issue. Then I requested a repeat SA from Dr. Sacks, who I see for PCOS. But we've had nothing from Dr. Sherins other than our initial appointment in July.

I'm starting on injectibles next cycle with TI. I know that I can't get pregnant without ovulating, so I understand the need to focus on me, but I feel like if I'm doing everything on my end, shouldn't we try to do something about the motility issue? or is there nothing that can be done except IUI? In which case, does it make sense for us to continue with TI? We've been TTC for 16 mo.

[Anonymous]

OP here, after speaking again to the nurse at CFA she told me morphology is also very low at 4%, then said it's "the same as before." Yet no one ever mentioned it before!

So if I have PCOS, failed to respond to clomid and am now starting injectibles and DH has 35% motility and 4% morphology, should we really be bothering with anything other than IVF? Is it odd that no one has mentioned IVF and keeps telling us to do TI?

[Anonymous]

My husband has low motility and the doctors (a urologist + SGF doc) ultimately weren't able to find anything "wrong" that they could fix to improve his numbers. I had him start taking a daily men's multivitamin and his numbers got better, but I don't know if there is a connection. IVF is what ultimately worked for us following trying on our own for a year and then two IUI cycles at SGF. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Talk to you doc re: ICSI. Demand answers. Doing an IVF cycle is hard enough without worrying about whether there is even a point to it. Have docs explain why they have you going ahead w/ the cycle. Hang in there, I have endometriosis, high FSH, a polyp and possibly the start of premature menopause. My husband had a 0% (yes, zero) live sperm count on multiple SA but right now I'm pumping breast milk for our 6.5mo son. We did microdose lupron protocol, ICSI, my husband took clomid and had sperm surgically removed from his scrotum (although ejaculated sperm was used b/c the clomid worked). We saw Osborn AT SGFC. Good luck!!!!!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

My husband also had low motility. We were successful on our first medicated IUI. He did change his diet and cut back on alcohol, but I am not sure if that had any impact on his numbers or our success.

I am not sure why they are recommending TI rather than IUI if you have motility issues.