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Newbie-what’s left before IVF? And has anyone used sperm donor?

LKT1 profile image
LKT1
20 Replies

Hi, I’m new to the group. My partner has Azoospermia. He has had x2 semen analysis which confirmed this. He had a physical exam and are awaiting results from his genetics blood test.

I have had blood tests to check hormones and just had a transvaginal ultra sound which thankfully was normal. Anyone know what other tests to expect or how far down the process we are?

Also bit daunted as Dr said to seriously consider a sperm donor. Anyone used a donor and can advise process of selecting a donor?

Any advice about ivf or sperm donors would be gratefully received.

Thanks.

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LKT1
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20 Replies
DianeArnold profile image
DianeArnoldPartnerNurseFertility Network UK

Hi LKT1. Looks like you've both been through a lot already. I wondered whether your partner has had a scan of his testicles? However, this may follow once the genetic tests are back. if they are normal, there may be a chance he has some trapped sperm that could be aspirated from his testicles somewhere and used in an IVF/ICSI process. If you do need to use donor sperm, then your Fallopian tubes will most likely need to be checked before going ahead. I do have lots of very happy families that have been created from using a sperm donor, so I feel it is well worth considering if necessary. Good luck and I will be thinking of you. Diane

LKT1 profile image
LKT1 in reply toDianeArnold

Thanks for your reply. He has not had a scan of his testicles yet. We have a meeting in 3 weeks to catch up re his genetic test to find out if further tests are viable....think they are searching for Y chromosomes for a chance he could be producing sperm somewhere...but I could be wrong. It’s always so much information to take in during the short fertility appointments. Think il take a note book next time 🤦🏻‍♀️. It’s nice to hear about positive stories 🙂

Gillyc1 profile image
Gillyc1

My son in law has azoospermia. They actually surgically removed sperm from his testicles. They now have one son and my daughter got another BFP nine days ago . His gp told them they would never have children and thanks to research and groups like this we didn’t take his word for it thank goodness. Good luck xxxx

LKT1 profile image
LKT1 in reply toGillyc1

Congratulation! 🎉 it’s so nice to hear a success story. Do you know what tests your son in law had before they extracted? Xx

Gillyc1 profile image
Gillyc1 in reply toLKT1

I think mainly it was about his testosterone level. They were confident he had sperm before extraction. However they first sent him to see a urologist who also said his tubes were blocked and that he would never Father a child. I said we are going to keep goin until the fertility clinic gave us that news. Obviously they never did. Honestly, don’t give up hope. You will also have icsi as opposed to ivf do research that xx

Gillyc1 profile image
Gillyc1 in reply toGillyc1

Just remembered as well. They found he is a cystic fibrosis carrier which means it can cause his tubes to be blocked . My daughter had to then be tested but she isn’t a carrier so that then wasn’t an issue for them xx

Kyell2 profile image
Kyell2

Hi, welcome to the group. Wr too had a diagnosis of azoospermia. The next step for us was to see a urologist. He did a physical exam and ordered lots of blood tests to rule out genetic issues.

We have had to move to donor sperm due to the genetic issues but only after we had a surgical sperm extraction to ensure that we had tried everything first. I know lots of people have had success with this procedure.

Let me know if you have any more questions and good luck x

LKT1 profile image
LKT1

Thank you. It is reassuring we are not alone.

It sounds like an extraction to see if there is anything being produced will be our next step to.

Xx

aamiller405 profile image
aamiller405

Hi I dont have any answers for you unfortunately but me and my husband are in the same situation. He is awaiting a biopsy or scan now to see if any sperm are trapped inside. like you we havent had a lot of information so just taking everything as it comes.. wishing you all the best! xo

SnottyCow profile image
SnottyCow in reply toaamiller405

Good luck. We were third time lucky so it does work, keep the faith x

My partner has Azoospermia. He had all the tests. He had a micro tese op and they found sperm. We had 2 rounds of ICSI so far. They both failed sadly but we still have sperm left for more rounds. Good luck x

SnottyCow profile image
SnottyCow in reply to

Good luck with it x it was third time lucky for us, it does work 💕

SnottyCow profile image
SnottyCow

Hi LKT1

My husband is azoospermic! We were diagnosed in 2011 and in 2012/13 he had a micro tese operation to extract sperm. The op involved the use of a microscope to look for pockets of sperm before extracting clusters of cells where they thought sperm might be. We retrieved 5 ampules and our 3rd round of IVF was successful resulting in our now 4 year old boy........ a happy ending for us but that was in no way the end.

Enter secondary infertility, we so wanted a sibling for our son and when he was one we tried again with our 1 remaining ampule of sperm, we also had one frozen embryo. The last ampule produced no fertilised embryos and the frozen embryo resulted in a chemical pregnancy.

My husband (who is an absolute trooper) went through the op again in 2015 but we were eventually advised to give up with his sperm after multiple failed attempts to fertilise. We opted for sperm donor which worked first time and now I’m 29 weeks pregnant with twins.

It’s been a long journey. The donor route was a tricky one, we had councilling and we met with sperm donor families (which really helped) before being happy with the decision. My husband want ready until all hope was gone with his own sperm but the operations were not easy on him.... it’s really their call because it’s so intrusive.

Good luck on your journey, please ask away if you need to know anything else xx

aamiller405 profile image
aamiller405 in reply toSnottyCow

Hi snottycow...

sorry to jump in but my husband is currently awaiting a scan for sperm and then hopefully an extraction if any is there.. could you tell me anything about that op? hes a bit nervous as he doesnt really understand what happens..thank you x

aamiller405 profile image
aamiller405 in reply toaamiller405

and massive congratulations! twins hows exciting!! xo

SnottyCow profile image
SnottyCow in reply toaamiller405

Ah thank you. Sorry to hear your hubby needs this op, it’s a long journey to get where you are. I think my husband would be the best person to answer this. I can tell you that after the second time his words were “please never ask me to do that again”... of course he wanted to do it I never pushed him but that was a clear indicator he’d had enough. He was quite delicate after the surgery and if I can remember correctly needed a few weeks off work. I’ll reply again tonight with some links to medical papers explaining the op and maybe get him to type something up that might be useful. Don’t want to scare your hubby off x

aamiller405 profile image
aamiller405 in reply toSnottyCow

Thank you very much i appreciate that.. does sound very invasive... but I know hell go ahead with it anyway so nice to have some information xo

LKT1 profile image
LKT1 in reply toSnottyCow

Thank you so much for your reply and big congratulations! It’s so nice everyone is able to talk about their journeys as it sometimes feels a very isolating process x

Tati14680 profile image
Tati14680

Hi, I found my sperm donor via Cryos international. Very useful website you can see pic of the donors as children and they have a very detailed questionnaire. I went for non anonymous,bit more expensive. you can play with their research tool. It is free to use.

About using a donor I don't really see a problem as at the end of the day the person that raises the child is the real father, but my ex partner could not accept it as he wanted to be the biological father (but he couldn't, aazospermia as well). So just be sure your husband is on board. For men seems a big macho fail...

Sweets1 profile image
Sweets1

Hi and welcome! Here is the best place for advice and people are so friendly! We are going through something similar! I’ve had a few test, bloods and HSG, and everything was fine but they did find PCOS. My husband suffers with a genetic problem, so we are going for donor. We had an appointment yest, and we are now being put on the list to see the sperm donor

co-ordinator . We have been offered IUI or Ivf. We are going to opt for IVF. They couldn’t tell us how long that was going to be. Hope that’s helped a bit, here if you want to chat! Good luck xx

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