Conception with DNA Fragmentation - ICSI max and IMSI

[Melrey]

My husband and I have tried ICSI and embryos arrested on day 3 most likely due to husbands poor sperm dna - we have had a dna fragmentation test.

Has anyone conceived despite having dna Fragmentation?

If so how and what method worked for you?

I have booked next cycle IMSI macs but haven’t actually heard any success stories.

Any other tips? We have tried supplements, changed diet etc.

Thanks

Mel

[Hidden]

We have been recommended Micro-TESE with IMSI. This should reduce the fragmentation, but your husband should see a urologist before another cycle to determine what might be causing the fragmentation. Supplementation will only do so much, depending on how much sperm is fragmented x

[Missl73]

My husband has extremely high DNA fragmentation first test average 57% (although it has slowly been improving with the high damage number dropping from 75% to 6% and low damage number increasing) . We had ICSI on our first cycle, only got one top quality blastocyst on day 5 (5AA) and had a MMC at 10 weeks which was down to the egg (just our luck!!). On our second cycle we switched to IMSI instead and the difference was dramatic - 100% fertilisation, 100% made it to day 5 blastocysts of which only one was poor quality. I’m now nearly 7 weeks from one of those and have some in the freezer still. I know the evidence isn’t fully there yet on IMSI but based on our results I genuinely think it made all the difference and is definitely worth it in cases of high fragmentation.

Separately, our leading male factor urologist put us on a trial for a new test for DNA fragmentation where not only do they test for damage but they look to see if they are mostly single or double helix breaks - it’s called a neutral sperm comet test. Single helix breaks can be fixed by a good quality egg and can be overcome using ART. Double helix breaks suggest the damage is occurring at production and is harder to manage. Luckily with my DH they were single helix breaks and I am managing to get pregnant. Now we just have to hope this one sticks xx

[Melrey in reply to Missl73]

Gosh that’s wonderful news and so encouraging thanks for sharing and wish you guys all the best. Xxx

[Melrey in reply to Missl73]

How did you manage to lower the dna fragmentation? X

[Missl73 in reply to Melrey]

The main thing was keeping them cool. My DH had a varicocele which was making the sperm to hot so he had an operation to have that removed. He also would sit with an ice pack down his shorts for 30 minutes a day. He took Fertilisan M male fertility supplement and Ubiquinol. Then healthy diet and exercise - no alcohol, no more than one coffee a day and plenty of healthy veggies especially high in antioxidants so lots of blueberries etc xx

[Abs37 in reply to Missl73]

sorry for jumping on the thread, but we have found out that my recurrent miscarriages are probably caused by my husbands poor results from the DNA fragmentation test. How much extra did you have to pay for the testing and did it delay your cycle by a long time? We are under the Lister and communication hasn’t been great. Any advice much appreciated xx

[Missl73 in reply to Abs37]

We paid around £200-300 for the test I can’t remember exactly. It didn’t delay us persay but the important bit is what you decide to do once you have the results. If your husbands sperm is highly fragmented making improvements to the sperm requires minimum 3 months (as that’s how long it takes to generate new sperm). We found IMSI overcame a lot of our issues instead of ICSI and although much improved DH’s sperm was still highly fragmented. We were also at the Lister.

[Abs37 in reply to Missl73]

That’s really helpful thank you and good luck x

[Missl73 in reply to Abs37]

No problem! IMSI did the trick for us I’m now 24 weeks pregnant (having had a miscarriage previously too). Good luck to you, I hope you also get your rainbow xx