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Columbia Fertility in DC and Male Factor
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Anonymous
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Just wanted to share our experience with Columbia Fertility in DC so that others may benefit. My husband and I were trying to conceive to no avail so we went to Columbia Fertility to get checked out. After going through all the tests, we discovered my husband had extremly poor sperm, poor in every category across the board. We straight away jumped into IVF. 2 fresh cycles and 1 frozen embryo transfer, none worked. Everyone was puzzled b/c I was totally healthy. In the middle of treatment, we found out that we had to relocate to another state for 2 years because of my husband's job. We recently moved across the country and saw a new RE, who reviewed our records and the first thing she asked was why wasn't my husband's thyroid checked? We told the new RE that we didn't know that was necessary and no one at Columbia told us or checked it. The new RE ordered the test and sure enough it was low. She prescribed Clomid for him and told us to come back in 72 days.
We just went back a few days ago and everything was rechecked, his testosterone went from 233 to 670 (600 is normal) and sperm count is totally normal now. She told us to begin trying on our own for a couple of months and to come back if we didn't get pregnant to try IUI. Now, if you google Clomid use in men, you don't get a lot of positive feedback. But, it's worth a shot, our RE told us that she had another patient go from ZERO sperm to totally normal. If our experience helps just one couple, it will be worth sharing. Here we are, thousands of dollars later, and all it took was a 90 day supply of clomid at a $30 copay and 2 office visits to resolve our fertility issues. So, if you get the poor sperm diagnosis, it doesn't hurt to ask and if your doctor thinks you are crazy, switch to find someone who is willing to try other approaches. |
Anonymous
| that's very interesting and good to know. if you went through IVFs you presumably made it to transfer and your eggs fertilized (probably with icsi) and decent embryos were transferred. at that point, what difference does the sperm make? are you saying low testosterone makes for low quality embryos? |
Anonymous
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But are you pregnant or will you get pregnant? That is the million dollar question. Improved Studies of men who have had varicocele surgery for varicoceles (not an issue with you but a common cause and treatment of male factor infertility) show that while in many cases the surgery can improve sperm parameters, very few of these men actually succeed in getting their partners pregnant.
In our case, we did IVF for MFI (bad counts all around tests done multiple times) and were successful with twins. Returned to the clinic 2.5 years later and the sperm counts looked fantastic. Had sperm tested several more times---all results off the charts good. Tried to get pregnant naturally for a year. Still no natural pregnancy (I am young (33) and all my tests have always been normal. We ended up doing IVF again----successful with a singleton. It seems like in our case and many others, MFI involves more than just improving the 3 parameters (count, motility and morphology) that a semen analyses checks for. |
Anonymous
| thyroid? did you mean testosterone? |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Just chiming in on MF IF. When we were ttc #1, we found out that DH had low sperm count and very low (less than 1% normal morphology.) We were in our late 20s at the time and the RE gave us the option of going straight to IVF or to a urologist who specialized in male IF to see if we could get more answers about the reasons for DH's issues.
DH went to the urologist, who diagnosed a varicocele and low FSH. DH had varicocele repair surgery and was put on Clomid (which did result in his FSH rising to a normal level). The urologist did say that the research is very mixed on whether or not these things help with pregnancy, but that it was worth a shot. The urologist also said that these treatments have been shown to help with count, but have not been shown to help with morphology but that if you can increase the count, you can still improve your chances as 1% normal of 5 million motile sperm is better than 1% normal of 2 million motile sperm.) 3 months after the surgery, I got pregnant on a natural cycle. We thought DH was "cured", but after unsuccessfully ttc #2, we went back to the RE. When DH had a repeat semen analysis, his count had improved somewhat (was still low, but now in the low normal range) but morphology was still less than 1% normal. We needed 2 rounds of IVF/ICSI to get pregnant with #2. |
Anonymous
our RE said that while you can get great quality embryos, once they are transferred, after 2-3 days, the embryo needs protein to keep growing which the sperm provides, if you're dealing with really poor sperm it will fail to provide protein to keep the embryo going. |
Anonymous
yes, but at least its worth a shot before jumping straight into expensive IVF treatments, but more importantly, the point that I am making is that our RE at Columbia failed to even address that possibility with us, neglected to even check his thyroid. I'm not saying everyone will get pregant, but it is something everyone should be aware of. For most of us, IVF treatments are a financial stretch so it would be nice to conceive naturally, if possible, even though it may be a long shot, which even IVF can be for most people. |
Anonymous
the RE checked his thyroid and it was low. Taking clomid raised his testosterone. |
Anonymous
| My husband and I had an appt with our RE at Columbia Fertility earlier this week to discuss my husbands sperm analysis results. His advice was to retest in a few weeks, but if it's still low he would recommend that DH go to a urologist for further testing (inc thyroid). He also said we might need to go with IVF (we were able to concieve our first child via IUI and were hoping we could for #2, as well). |
Anonymous
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Just chiming in regarding my experience at Columbia Fertility. We were not dealing with MF, but I was not ovulating. After 3 unsuccessful IUIs there, I switched to Shady Grove. They did more (thorough) testing, and discovered that I had a thyroid problem. A few dollars later, some synthroid, I ovulated on my own and became pregnant.
OP, I am sorry to hear about your experience. I know a lot of women have success at Columbia Fertility and rave about it, but I simply do not think that they cover the very basics first. I think they jump you to the most expensive and invasive treatments. |
Anonymous
| I seem to have the opposite experience w/ Columbia. Even though I have several confirmed issues, in addition to a thorough blood panel for me, they did the same for my husband. He came back fine on everything but it was nice to have the confirmation. I should also mention that i am pregnant after my first IVF with dr rifka |