Ttc male infertility is there hope?

steveouk

Hi

I and my wife went for a fertility MoT last Saturday at a private clinic. We have been trying forr over 2 years and had no luck. We got the results on the day and although we my other half needs to lose weight it turns out i am the main problem.

My sperm count is 4 million when it should be at least 15 million and i was told the other 2 factors were also not good. I have been advised to lose a little weight and a healthy lifestyle. I don't drink a great deal and have now cut it out totally. My diet was not good but i have now taken action on this and have cut out cake, biscuits, and chocolate. I am sticking to whole grains and much more fruit and veg. Nuts and spinach as well.

I don't really have hot baths or sauna etc and am now trying to be more active and do 30 mins exercise a day. I am very stress and am going to try to take time out to relax.

My question really is will this help, and has anyone any further advice from experience? We are going back for another sperm test at the end of May.

kingfisherblue

I haven't had any experience of infertility, but I've heard that men should wear boxer shorts and should not cycle if possible. This is because wearing close fitting underwear or cycling can both cause sperm to die because of overheating. Whether there is any truth in it, I have no idea.

Good luck with the next test, and I hope that you and your wife are successful in the future.

sassyblue

In answer to your question 'is there hope?' I would answer YES, absolutely.

You do have a sperm count, it might be less than normal or average (or whatever) but it only takes one swimmer.

You've been given some good advice to get healthy and there's every chance you could increase your sperm count.

Doctors never found anything wrong with me or hubby, ours was 'unexplained infertility' (annoying because you don't know what to treat if you could), it took us 8 years but we are blessed with one son. Don't ever lose sight of your goal and I wish you luck you aren't waiting for long x

ETA. don't get hung up on the stress you are under, lots of people conceive whilst under great stress, hopefully whatever your other two factors were can be treated or can improve.

steveouk

Thanks.

We have been recommended that i take a supplement for 4 months. It is called Condensyl and only the company who makes it sells it so its not cheap at £165 for the 4 month supply, not cheap but not as expensive as IVF if we had to go for that. Has anyone tried this supplement i have not ordered it yet.

Gloomendoom

A quick google shows it available for £35 for 30 tablets.

steveouk

yes but they say i need to take for 4 months in order to make sure it works as it takes 3 months to fully have new sperm made by the body

FBaby

Sorry to ask but how old are you both? If you are both in your 20s, then there is no harm in giving it a go and have another test in 3/6months time as indeed, sperm quality/quantity can improve. If your wife is young and healthy, she could get pregnant with a less than good semen, however, if she is getting closer to 40, the chances with a sperm count under 5m makes it almost impossible to get pregnant. IVF/ICSI success is significant higher the younger, and is falls to under 10% after 40, the early you can try IVF, if you can afford it or get it on the NHS the better (most NHS have a cut off of 40yo at start of treatment anyway).

steveouk

I am 35 will be 36 I'm October. My wife is 34 and turns 35 in may. Looking into it we could wait 6 months for seeing someone on the nhs then have to wait 12 months before ivf can start.
I don't know if they would shorten this given that we already have test results.

The private ivf us nearly 10k I don't know if you have to pay in the nhs? There are only two cycles funded here.

djohnst

We went through pretty much exactly the same, I know how frustrating it can be. I too tightened up my lifestyle, avoided tight clothing, knocked off the electric blanket, avoided cycling, but unfortunately for us didn't solve the issue.

Looking back at it now, if we had our time again we wouldn't waste so much time on testing with the NHS. That's by no means a criticism of the NHS and the great people who work for it, but a recognition of the fact that the machine moves slowly for something non life threatening. We probably spent over a year searching for a diagnosis for exactly the reason you describe - huge waits between appointments.

We were lucky enough to be able to opt for private IVF/ICSI which worked first time on both occasions and we are now parents to a 3 year old and a 6 week old.

Interestingly, I did get a lot fitter between the first one and the second, and my sperm count the second time had rocketed by comparison to the first - still low enough to be problematic, but a huge jump from previous.

steveouk

djohnst wrote: »

We went through pretty much exactly the same, I know how frustrating it can be. I too tightened up my lifestyle, avoided tight clothing, knocked off the electric blanket, avoided cycling, but unfortunately for us didn't solve the issue.

Looking back at it now, if we had our time again we wouldn't waste so much time on testing with the NHS. That's by no means a criticism of the NHS and the great people who work for it, but a recognition of the fact that the machine moves slowly for something non life threatening. We probably spent over a year searching for a diagnosis for exactly the reason you describe - huge waits between appointments.

We were lucky enough to be able to opt for private IVF/ICSI which worked first time on both occasions and we are now parents to a 3 year old and a 6 week old.

Interestingly, I did get a lot fitter between the first one and the second, and my sperm count the second time had rocketed by comparison to the first - still low enough to be problematic, but a huge jump from previous.

I wish we had the check up last year then at least i could have made the changes sooner. It does sound like it takes a lot longer than 3 months to make a difference.

Well i have moved to new loose underwear. Don't cycle and have not really. I am trying to not consume caffeine or alcohol. I am not massively overweight but did have a very high fat % so am trying to get that down. I have been told that relaxing and reducing stress has a major effect but that is easier said than done.

It seems that we may have to go down the IVF route but while i think it is worth a try my wife says 10k is a huge amount to spend when it could not even work and its 10k gone that we had in savings.

I suppose the other thing is that most of the savings we have have been built up by my wife. It does not feel right that she has saved all this money and i am the one with the problem yet i cant put as much into the pot to help as my wages are much lower than hers.

FBaby

Anything you can do to help is a bonus, but in all likelihood most likely not to be enough. Your wife should be tested for FHS (if not already done) and AMH. This will give an indication of the quality of her eggs. Fertility start to decrease quite a bit after the woman turns 35, so if I were you, I would get going with IVF/ICSI right away, with the NHS if you can't afford it privately. If you go the ICSI route, your semen becomes irrelevant as they will be able to pick good swimmers, it is then all down to the lady and her eggs to make it happen, although of course, there is then also nature and what we don't understand that gets into play to decide whether the egg will get fertilised, grow to become a feotus.

Djohnst, congratulations on your second baby! You were very lucky that a pregnancy resulted from IVF both times.