How did you approach low sperm counts and quality?

[Anonymous]

Just found out and husband is in a funk. Feels like it’s all his fault. Doctor suggested he lose weight and we try IUI. Waiting on a re-test tomorrow to confirm results to decide a plan of action. Anyone have any BTDT advice?

[Anonymous]

if his sperm count is low - go directly to IVF (ICSI specifically) as IUI will be a waste of time. what was his count / motility / morphology stats? how long have you been trying

[Anonymous]

I think insurance requires 6 rounds of IUI before IVF. We aren’t sure we will do IVF if it comes to that. Been trying for 7 months, I’m 36 so we headed to the RE pretty quickly.

Count: 19 million
Motility: 31%
Morphology: 1%

[Anonymous]

IVF with ICSI

[Anonymous]

Could a doctor suggest some things that might help, vitamin wise?

[Anonymous]

Try the Fertilaid for Men vitamins. I know it has helped some people. Definitely worth a shot.

Also thinks like switch to boxers from briefs. Avoid hot tubs. Avoid cycling, both outdoors and spin classes. No laptop on his lap, no phone in the front pocket. Good luck. The good news is male factor infertility is often easier to overcome than female factor. Now you know where the issue is and can take steps to help it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think insurance requires 6 rounds of IUI before IVF. We aren’t sure we will do IVF if it comes to that. Been trying for 7 months, I’m 36 so we headed to the RE pretty quickly.

Count: 19 million
Motility: 31%
Morphology: 1%

We did ICSI with 3% morphology and skipped IUI altogether - first IVF egg retrieval resulted in 8 embryos. With your DH’s stats your insurance might approve IVF immediately instead of requiring IUI first.

[Anonymous]

My husband had very low sperm count (much lower than 19 million if that is any solace to your husband)
After some research, I tried to green our house as much as possible. My take was at worst it was innocuous and at best it would help a bit
I bought glass containers and stored everything in glass - no plastics
I bought him natural body wash, shampoo, etc. (not deodorant because well, I just couldn't do that to him unless he wanted to switch). I used all natural detergent, dishwashing tabs, cleaning supplies, etc.
We ended up having two really good cycles.

[Anonymous]

And this is the PP, we always ate organic so we didn't have to switch to that. But I might consider adding that too.

[Anonymous]

Our insurance let us skip IUI. We moved directly to IVF+PICSI.

[Anonymous]

Go see a urologist that specializes in fertility. They can provide suggestions. Sometimes clomid can help, but IVF with ICSI is probably the best solution. Insurance may cover it. Ours did, but we also have insurance through a state that requires fertility coverage.

Any supplements, medications or changes in lifestyle will take about 3 months to be effective. The docs DH saw said the lifestyle changes r good, but probably not going to make a big enough difference to increase pregnancy chances significantly.

[Anonymous]

FWIW we had success with IUI with similar numbers. Unless your age is really a factor I would try at least one or two rounds. It's a way to ease into treatments and at worse wastes two months, during which you'll likely be waiting on IVF stuff (paperwork, tests) anyway.

[Anonymous]

We saw a urologist in NYC. DH had awful morphology, motility and low count. He stopped DHs prophecia addiction, started DH on walnuts (they contain a fatty acid critical to sperm that our diets lack if I remember properly), changed to boxers only with less sitting, also greened up everything as PP did. Got pregnant 3 months after changes with no further interventions..

[Anonymous]

My DH had high count but worse motility and same morphology as yours. The motility and count seem to be the important factors. We actually did the 6 IUI cycles (covered by insurance) before moving to IVF with ICSI (not covered; success on first cycle).

I don't regret the IUIs at all. I started the whole process very skeeved out by needles and medical procedures generally. IUI helped me ease into things and by the time we did IVF, I didn't feel overwhelmed at all.

Have your DH see a urologist just to cover your bases. During the final IUI months, my DH saw a urologist and was diagnosed with two varicoceles. He had the surgery and a few months after that, his sperm parameters were all excellent. However, by this point, I was 37 and starting to really worry about my age and possible declining egg quality. We'd been saving money this whole time with IVF as a possibility, so we decided to go for it instead of continuing to hope for nature to come through. Maybe now that his sperm issues are gone, we will be able to conceive #2 naturally. But if not, we have 3 frozen embryos, PGS-tested and waiting.