Can flu/ fever affect egg quality?

[Rol81]

My husbands semen analysis today was diagnosed with Oligoteratozoospermia

It’s normally good but because we were both quite sick the end of Dec with flu we decided to get it checked before we start our next cycle.

Being sick clearly made an adverse effect.

As I was quite sick too, do you think it would have had an effect on my egg quality too?

Thinking about starting this month but should we push it back a month?

Any advice appreciated xx

[JA-fnuk Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

Have you discussed your concerns with your fertility clinic and have they suggested rechecking your OH sperm in 3 months ? Being unwell can certainly effect the sperm results -maybe try vitamins[ C & E] and antioxidant supplements [zinc ,selenium ,coenzyme Q10] -ask clinic what supplements etc they would suggest for you both as a couple.

Take care

Janet

[Rol81 in reply to JA-fnuk]

Thanks, I have just received the results so I’m waiting to discuss with the clinic. He is on all the supplements already, but been sick must have made a massive impact as it’s always been a good result in the past.

I was just curious if anyone had an idea of me been sick would affect my egg quality too.

We were meant to start out next cycle this month. 🙄 Will see what they say about going ahead.

Thanks x

[Koala365]

COVID can affect sperm and embryo quality according to a medical article I read. Are you sure you definitely had flu and not COVID? I thought I had flu as I did an LFT when I had full blown symptoms and it was negative. Apparently this is happening to a lot of people with the current variant. I only tested again a few days later as my husband caught it too and we were a few days before Christmas and going to be seeing elderly relatives so wanted to protect them and avoid them if necessary. By then 4 to 5 days after first symptoms it was brighter than the sun positive within 2 seconds. The advice I read on the medical article about the effect of COVID on IVF was to wait 3 months presumably as that is the time it takes for eggs and sperm to go through their maturation cycle. So if you wanted to be certain about it, you might decide to wait 3 months just in case.

[Rol81 in reply to Koala365]

Hi Koala,

Thanks for your reply. We definitely didn’t have Covid, we tested everyday day for 10-12 days to make sure because I was aware that the current advice was to wait 3 months if it was. Just a horrible flu , but it’s clearly still made a noticeable affect .

I spoke with the consultant last night, she’s asked us to wait 6 weeks and retest.

I’m now possibly going for a laparoscopy so unfortunately we may have to wait longer anyways .

Hope all ok with you.x

[Koala365 in reply to Rol81]

Maybe a lot of flu type illnesses can have this effect?! Who knew!?! Hopefully by the time you have your next cycle everything will be back to normal. I guess it stands to reason that while your body is fighting something nasty off it isn't concentrating so hard on other processes like egg quality or sperm making etc. I don't think I thought about any of this for any of my cycles but don't think I was ill at all as I was shielding most of the time so I can't even blame that for all my failed cycles Hopefully your next one will be the one! Xx

[Rol81 in reply to Koala365]

We were meant to start another cycle this month, but we will have to put it back and retest in 6 weeks…🤞