Intro...

[Anonymous]

I thought I'd introduce myself instead of always being a "PP" or "Anonymous"! I gets hard to keep track if I've posted

I'm 31 (32 in March) and my husbadn is 27. We haven't been TTC long at all - 2 months seriously, 4 months in total. My husband was born 6 weeks premature and had undescended testes, which were surgically corrected as a toddler. Because of this, he knew he had a 30% or so chance of fertility problems, so we decided to get him checked out before we really started being invested in TTCing.

Turns out, I have a smart husband - he currently has a low count and very low morphology.

We went to GW and met with Dr. Gindoff who, I do believe has a personality that you have to gel with. He is actually a really funny guy, so if you get over the personality clash you might have early on, he's decent. He told us that we have less than 1 in 100 chance of getting pregnant naturally and we really need to move on to IVF w/ ICSI given the morphology issue. IUI wouldn't work because of the count and morphology. I definitely appreciate his honesty - don't waste my time saying, "we can try this, but it probably won't work and even though you're young enough, it's still time you need" basically. I had my sonohystrgram (?) yesterday - not a fun experience - but Dr Frankfurter did it and he was great. He said everything looked great, no signs of any problems. Dr. G told me that he has no reason to believe that we won't have a family and that we are excellent candidates for ICSI because I seem to have no problems that he knows of. Not sure that's reassuring, but it wasn't BAD to hear!

Our next step is the IVF class at GW on the 30th and then I get my Day 3 blood test (which I had JUST missed...).

I currently have Aetna CDHP and will switch to MD IPA because while the referrals seem like a pain, I have confidence that GW will assist me. They gave me costs up front and aren't hiding anything - I like how transparent they are.

So - I just wanted to share our experiences and if anyone else is like us (male problems) who wants a buddy to vent with, I'd like that. Or if anyone is also going to the Oct 30th class.

Lastly, if anyone has a good PCP on MD IPA, I'd appreciate the info. My PCP doesn't and she became a members only clinic, which really irks me....

Best to all - and having read a lot on here, there's a lot of good info, which I hope to contribute to as we go through this.

[jindc]

Well, DCUM didn't put my name up so I'll just sign that as
-"JinDC" and when I post, I'll sign 'em like that!

[Anonymous]

Good Luck OP!

My dh had low morphology all along the process and then after conceiving #1 he got an infection (epididymitus) which then led to a very low count also. We now have four children, two via IVF and two naturally (also one m/c natural pregnancy). His morphology was always between 1 and 3% on the strict Kruger scale. His count was as low as 2 million at one time. I know everyone's situation is so different and there are always many factors but I hope my story gives you hope on this difficult journey.

[Anonymous]

HI OP we did NC-IVF with ICSI due to my husbands low count/motility/morphology and it took two cycles but we have a beautiful DD. I'm considering returning to my RE for another round in 2013, but it's a pain for me to travel to VA so I may try GW.

[jindc]

GW said we were fine candidates for NC-IVF but recommended against it in terms of the fact that 1) they said they closely monitor of over-stimulation and 2) if we're going to get IVF, it's more bang for our buck to do regular IVF and if we're ok with twins (which we are - I'm actually hoping for twins) we would hopefully have more to transfer than just one.

It's nice to see other women who are going through or have gone through IVF due to male factor - I wonder what the realistic stats are (is it more successful if it's male factor). I doubt I'll find any, so instead I have to trust the docs that we are good candidates.

As for GW - it's the only place we've been and I've been happy with them. They are honest and the desk people are helpful for us so far. The nurse even went out of her way to get me scheduled for a sonohyst yesterday because on paper, there was no other time in October during my 6-11 day window.

Still wondering if anyone else would be at the 30 Oct class at GW!

fingers crossed for everyone - this the start of our journey, and I'm trying to stop thinking so much about the cost. It's not easy!

[Anonymous]

Hi OP, do you mind saying who your nurse was?

[jindc]

The nurse that helped schedule me was Christine Hoffa and the nurse the day of, whose name escapes me because I was a bit nervous, was also very sweet. She kept chatting with me to keep my mind off the discomfort.

[Anonymous]

jindc, do you mind sharing what your husband's morphology number is? My husband has a 2% morph number but the count is good. Our RE is recommending a few cycles of IUI but I don't know if that is what's right for us.

[jindc]

His morph was 1% and and post-wash count was under a million. There are ways for us to try to improve (more regular release, which given the recent issues isn't happening, but I am almost over it and ready to get back to intimacy) and probably vitamins (he's a vegetarian and probably needs iron and zinc).

I don't think Dr G would recommend IUI under 3% but we didn't chat about that.

His motility was good so there's that!

What clinic are you with?