Long wait for sperm retrieval

[Annalea]

My husband has azospermia so we have to have sperm retrieval. He is on the 40 weeks waiting list😢. It is so frustrating, we started the process last year. It took 9 months to get to this point. What if after 40 weeks they are not able to get any sperm? We were not offered any advice or support in our clinic. He's on the waiting list that's it. Im 39 should I really wait till next year to find out. What if in a meantime my eggs.... I can't even say it. Should we not have them frozen just in case? Is this normal for NHS? Do they just leave us here...

[Judy18]

It is so frustrating having to wait. Their timescales are ridiculous so i can understand how you feel. Do you have any option to go private? I know it’s a lot of money but at least you would not have the wait. I wish i had more advice. Sending lot of love and hugs xx

[Annalea in reply to Judy18]

Hi Judy. Thank you for your support. I think we will have to go private at least for retrieval. It doesn't look like we have a choice here. We have been told its £3500 for procedure, but there is no guarantee they will succeed-which is the worst part. But I guess it's better to know now than give yourself false hope.

I cant carry on until next year not knowing if we even have chance to get pregnant.

Thank you again for kind words.

[cache_cache]

Hi Annalea, I totally understand your frustration...in March my husband got an appointment for sperm retrieval in August. We have been in this process for one year and a half and we are not even close to the end. It is a never ending waiting. We tried to speed the things up by having the retrieval privately, but then we had to wait 2 months to obtain a copy of the test results from the hospital so at the end we had only the consultations with the urologist privately and he advised us to do the retrieval itself on NHS, he said that probably we will save 1-2 months if we pay for the procedure.

[Annalea in reply to cache_cache]

Hi. Yes the waiting is just unbearable. I feel like my life has been suspended. I am not able to think about anything else. Thought we have at least one more year ahead of us like this makes it difficult to get up in the morning.

I have requested form from the clinic to get our results because I will try to check for clinics abroad.

I'm glad you seen urologist who has been honest and didn't just take your money. So two months to go and you will be able to start. I keep my fingers crossed for you guys. I hope it all goes well. Hugs

[Ladypii in reply to Annalea]

Hello, my husband has azoospermia and we have been on a waiting list for SSR for nearly a year, we were passed from pillar to post before they got us on the correct waiting list. And we have only been given a 20% chance of finding any sperm but the wait is just ridiculous, the nhs said it will be another 6 months before the nhs Newcastle hospital will contact us for an appointment. We had looked at private clinics in Manchester and we were also quoted about £4K for SSR alone. We also want to use any sperm that is found fresh so we would have to pay for the ivf up front even if they didn’t end up finding sperm.

Exhausted by all this, we have now found an agent abroad (recommended from someone I know) and we have just returned from a clinic in Athens yesterday. We went for a holiday but also to have a look around the clinic and meet the doctors. SSR there is about £1000 so quite a saving. We also had quotes from a clinic in Spain and Cyprus and the price is roughly the same. We think we will go ahead with the Athens one.

I know exactly what you mean about your life being on hold and that why we can’t wait on a list anymore. We were diagnosed with male factor infertility a year ago and the nhs have just made us wait on list after list and it’s affected both our mental health and marriage. We just need to know what our options are post surgery so we can move forward. But all this waiting around in limbo is no good for us. We decided we want to have the SSR done before the year is up, I can’t bear another year go by and us be none the wiser about whether we can have our own children or not.

I really feel your pain and it’s honestly affected my work life and friendships because I just feel so low all the time. We have to stay strong and hold each other up though. I recently met two other ladies on here who live locally to me and they have been of great support xx

[Annalea in reply to Ladypii]

Hi. Thank you so much for sharing this we me. I think I would rather to know now if we have to use donor not to wait a year for this. I'm driving my husband crazy because its the only thing I can talk about right now. Thats why I need to find place to help us soon.

Do you know how long you will have to wait for SSR in Athens? Will they transfer the sample to UK or are you thinking about doing the whole procedure over there?

I have sent an email to few clinics yesterday and hopefully get some answers soon. Hugs

[Kyell2]

Hi Annalea.

We were in the same situation 2 years ago. Didn’t bother with NHS as the waiting list was too long and we just didn’t have the patience for it.

We paid £2500 to go private in Scotland so it is quite a bit cheaper up here. I guess once you factor in flights/hotels abroad you might not be massively far away from the prices you’d pay if you shop around.

It didn’t work for us so we moved to donor sperm but even once we knew that it took us some time to make that decision emotionally.

If you can afford it I wouldn’t wait but it’s a lot of money!

Thinking of you x

[Maybay]

Go private