Really disheartened - very crappy semen analysis results

[Anonymous]

TTC for 3 years. I have PCOS. One pregnancy resulting in miscarriage last year. DH finally did semen analysis today and 70% are immotile, and of the 30% motile, 29% are non-progressive... this seems like really bad news to me...
we have an appointment with RE in a couple of weeks where he will advise on treatment and next steps (couldn't get in earlier), but in the meantime I am going a bit crazy with questioning what's next for us.

If you had similar issues can you please share your experience? Does this mean going straight to IVF probably? Will it even be possible with his sperm? Is there anything DH can do to improve motility??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TTC for 3 years. I have PCOS. One pregnancy resulting in miscarriage last year. DH finally did semen analysis today and 70% are immotile, and of the 30% motile, 29% are non-progressive... this seems like really bad news to me...
we have an appointment with RE in a couple of weeks where he will advise on treatment and next steps (couldn't get in earlier), but in the meantime I am going a bit crazy with questioning what's next for us.

If you had similar issues can you please share your experience? Does this mean going straight to IVF probably? Will it even be possible with his sperm? Is there anything DH can do to improve motility??

Sorry for the bad news similar situation as us. I have PCOS and my husband has low sperm count (less than 1 mill). We did 2 IUIs last year (which failed)
Previous RE said that IVF was our only option if we wanted to get pregnant quickly. We switched REs for a different reason and our current RE advised us to go see a urologist before making the IVF decision. We saw a urologist and he basically said it could take more than 6 months to see any results if something can be fixed. My husband is still seeing the urologist (appointments are hard to get) and we made the decision to proceed with IVF.
Maybe you could try to get an appointment with the urologist? We had to wait months to get in.



and we are about to start IVF this month.

[Anonymous]

Have him start taking Fertilaid for Men (vitamin supplement to improve fertility). Also have him wear boxers instead of briefs. No laptop on his lap or phone in his front pocket. No biking or spin classes. No hot tubs. Does he take any meds, including any that seem unrelated? Things like acne meds can mess with male fertility. Give it three months, and then have him test again.

[Anonymous]

how old are you? if you are over 30, I would do IVF. With ICSI, you might get a successful pg (and frozen embryos for a sibling) with one cycle

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone - we are 33 and 34. He is not on any other meds and is otherwise healthy. Will see if we can get a urologist appointment and have him start taking the supplements. He does do Peloton - can this cause fertility issues?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone - we are 33 and 34. He is not on any other meds and is otherwise healthy. Will see if we can get a urologist appointment and have him start taking the supplements. He does do Peloton - can this cause fertility issues?

Yup

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone - we are 33 and 34. He is not on any other meds and is otherwise healthy. Will see if we can get a urologist appointment and have him start taking the supplements. He does do Peloton - can this cause fertility issues?

It’s likely not the cause of these issues, but it’s also not doing him any favors. Our doctor told us to keep it under 60-75 min a week and my husband has no sperm issues.

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry. That’s hard. We tried IUIs and one round of IVF with ISCI but even that failed.

However donor sperm IUI worked! And it was affordable. It may not be the right option for everyone but wanted you to know it’s out there if you end up in a dark place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone - we are 33 and 34. He is not on any other meds and is otherwise healthy. Will see if we can get a urologist appointment and have him start taking the supplements. He does do Peloton - can this cause fertility issues?

It’s worth trying to take a break from it. Studies do show an impact with high use. https://arm.coloradowomenshealth.com/doctors-blog/bicycling-affect-male-fertility

[Anonymous]

Have him eat walnuts too

[Anonymous]

This is a sensitive topic and I don't want to offend anyone, because I remember how annoying these stories were, but just to offer some hope: we had TERRIBLE SA results. We decided to do an IUI while we prepared for IVF. The day of post wash numbers were so bad our RE basically wanted to cancel it but we went ahead anyway. It worked! Then eight months after that baby was born we got pregnant naturally.

My husband didn't really change much. He did start taking supplements and eating walnuts, as well as looser underpants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a sensitive topic and I don't want to offend anyone, because I remember how annoying these stories were, but just to offer some hope: we had TERRIBLE SA results. We decided to do an IUI while we prepared for IVF. The day of post wash numbers were so bad our RE basically wanted to cancel it but we went ahead anyway. It worked! Then eight months after that baby was born we got pregnant naturally.

My husband didn't really change much. He did start taking supplements and eating walnuts, as well as looser underpants.

Were the SA issues also motility?

[Anonymous]

I am sorry. You can always use donor sperm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a sensitive topic and I don't want to offend anyone, because I remember how annoying these stories were, but just to offer some hope: we had TERRIBLE SA results. We decided to do an IUI while we prepared for IVF. The day of post wash numbers were so bad our RE basically wanted to cancel it but we went ahead anyway. It worked! Then eight months after that baby was born we got pregnant naturally.

My husband didn't really change much. He did start taking supplements and eating walnuts, as well as looser underpants.

Were the SA issues also motility?

It was everything. We put down the deposit for IVF and were going to use ICSI because the RE thought that was our best shot (she is an amazing RE, one of the best in our city, so it's not like I think she didn't know what she was talking about).

With ICSI you have a really good chance of success. You only need one sperm out of millions!

[Anonymous]

My Dh had no sperm at all in his first semen sample. A urologist used a drug to alter his hormone levels, but he continued to have fewer than one million sperm in future samples. We did several rounds of IVF w/ ICSI, had very few decent quality embryos to work with, none made it to freeze, but we were blessed to have fraternal twins, using the only viable embryos we ever created. That was 14 years ago, so the technology is even better now.

Good luck!