Been wondering about this for a while so I thought I was would ask 😂. My husband has now been told (after years of perfect sperm tests) that he has low motility. We are wondering if it’s due to him taking a lot of gym supplements (pre-workout, protein powder etc.) prior to our last ICSI round. The gym for him is his little haven and I don’t want to take it away from him but I do wonder about the supplements.
At the same time I’m wondering if our last failed ICSI cycle was due to egg quality. I was 36 at the time, good AMH. Got 10 eggs with 9 mature but only 2 made it to a 3 day transfer (and they were slow growers). They transferred both and the embryologist said they were good quality. Had a very faint positive test but then a week later it was negative. I feel like I’m focused on my husbands sperm but now wondering about me.
Gosh Infertility has robbed me of so much and now my anxiety levels (not helped with insomnia) are turning me mad over analysing everything!!
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Tryingtostaycalm
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Gym supplements definitely can have a very negative impact on sperm quality, see this article for example thetimes.co.uk/article/gym-... - if the embryos are struggling to make it to day 3, though, I've been told that can be egg quality problems. All of these things are to some degree to do with both egg and sperm obviously and it's hard to work out what's going on, but ours if they fertilise do very well to day 3 and then stop developing between day 3 and day 5, which I've been told is more typical of sperm problems (which we definitely have).
Hey, not a stupid question at all! Unfortuantely there is no definitive test for egg quality....its usually an educated guess to be honest. For us, I was 38 (AMH 7.19), hubby had very low sperm count. We always collected between 7 to 9 eggs. Fertilisation was almost always 100%. Our embryos were slow to develop to day 3 and only one or two made it to blastocyst. We got told it was egg quality and when questioned could it be sperm....they said highly unlikely due to good fertilisation and at the points the embryos were slow to develop. Your clinic should be able to tell you what their thoughts are....mine were brutally honest when asked and I was a bit annoyed as there was no test. However we moved onto DE and out of 8 fertilised eggs we got 6 top 5 day blastocysts so I guess they were right....I couldnt really deny it after seeing how the eggs went on compared to my own. Ask you clinic, they will have ideas lovely. Im the same with over analysing, googling, reading studies etc however I do believe its better to be armed with info rather than being blind in this!! PS I agree with LCharlton that protein shakes for men arent good from what Ive read too.xx
Hello, just wanted to say that I agree with the other ladies about gym supplements. Protein shakes were an issue for us. As soon as the doctor saw my husband’s results she asked if he took protein shakes. He was advised to stop taking them and saw a significant increase in sperm count and motility in three months. Our issues were male factor and we had good fertilisation rates (7/10) with ICSI and our embryos did well up to day 3 but beyond day 3 they struggled and we had two slow developing morulas at day 5, no blastocysts. Xx
I think there is so much focus on eggs and the woman and so little focus on the male side of things, and I am discovering this more and more - I think you are right to question his side of things. Its always assumed when we are slightly older that its our eggs... I am 43, our last round I got 9 eggs but 7 of them fertilised but in an abnormal way and had to be discarded, and the two I had were transferred on day 2 as looking poor, I immediately blamed myself but the embryologist came out afterwards and asked if my OH had been ill at all a couple of months before we started - he had been really poorly (we think maybe he had covid) and she said that was what likely had caused the poor embryo quality. Sounds to me like protein shakes could well be the culprit in this instance, I think its fair to ask him to give up on them for a few months (but not the gym) although good luck because I struggle to get OH to do anything that involves any perceived sacrifice he doesnt do it 'because they only need a few sperm out of millions' aarggghhhhh xx
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2 week wait, how do you know it’s failed?
How many donor eggs did you purchase?
Frozen eggs - do you have to pay to have them implanted?
How do you pick a donor?!!!
