Fertility after COVID with miscarriage history

[PenpalLdn]

Hi everyone,

We had a challenging year with 3 miscarriages all happening in one year. After my last one, it took me few months to be mentally ready, so this month we started again. Today I'm dpo 11, and after initially feeling like I could be pregnant, I started getting worse and yesterday we both got tested positive for COVID. I had my COVID vaccine in October, and we are both having flu symptoms and mild temperatures (still under 38 degrees Celsius). Still managing ok, nothing like having COVID first time few years back. But now I'm worried we messed our chances for a while...

I've read that it can impact male fertility (sperm quality or quantity?) and mess with female cycles. Due to miscarriage history, I'm worried that sperm quality lowering may increase risks of further miscarriages.

I have quite low AMH and would need heparin, progesterone and aspirin on next positive result. These are all very surprising given how easily I seem to conceive but were uncovered while testing in recurrent miscarriage clinic. Time is not on my side, though I'm only 36 years.

Does anyone know if sperm quality (not just quantity) is lowered with COVID? Can lower sperm quality increase chances of miscarriage?

If anyone has history of miscarriages, and is in a similar situation, please dm me, it is a lonely road.

Thanks in advance.

[JA-fnuk Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

Stressful time for you - make sure have people around you for support For some reassurance please take a look at nhs.uk " Pregnancy ,breast feeding, fertility and COVID -19 vaccination"

Hope you both feel better soon

Janet-Partner

[PenpalLdn in reply to JA-fnuk]

Thank you!

[RekaV]

I’m really sorry for your loss! I can relate, I had 4 miscarriages so far, I’m 38 with low AMH (6.2pmol or 0.86ng). I’m not sure about the Covid implications but generally speaking sperm quality does have an impact and can cause miscarriages. I’ve always been able to conceive quite quickly naturally but given the recurrent miscarriages we tested my OH sperm and at the beginning of the summer he had low motility and fragmented sperm. We made some lifestyle changes ( less drinking, healthier eating) and he has been taking vitamin supplements and on our last round of IVF they said the sperm quality was excellent. If you haven’t already tested his sperm, I would go for a DNA fragmentation test and as I said don’t worry it can be definitely improved in a few months time if taken seriously. I wish you the very best of luck , baby dust and stay strong!

[PenpalLdn in reply to RekaV]

Thanks, and I'm sorry to hear about your losses, what a stressful time.May I ask what supplements is your partner taking to improve the quality? Were you advised anything for low AMH?

[RekaV in reply to PenpalLdn]

My OH is taking Wellman conception tablets from Vitabiotics. It did not change the quality straight away but we were told lifestyle change makes a significant difference. I think for us it was the combination of drinking no or very little alcohol on top of taking the supplement. It wasn’t easy because your social life might be a bit limited but definitely working. For my low AMH and history of miscarriages combines with poor response to stimms I was told to consider donor eggs but we are not ready for it yet. I’m going to find another clinic to look into mild stimulation, apparently high hormone dosage effects eggs quality badly and mine seem to be not so good. Just because you have low AMH you might react better to stimulation, everyone is different. Is that the case wi th you? Also did you have your NK cells tested? I will also need to be on heparin injections if I get pregnant but also might need steroids/ intralipids because of high NK cells.

[PenpalLdn in reply to RekaV]

Thank you so much for replying. I will take a note of the vitamins for DH. We were hoping to try after I got mentally ready but then got COVID. I am not really sure what to do next because we have been getting pregnant naturally but obviously not successful yet

[Ivfcandothis]

hi so sorry to hear of your previous losses. Couldn’t just read and run as thought my experience may reassure you.

We naturally conceived the month we both caught covid and were both quite unwell for a good fortnight. Unfortunately it ended in an ectopic at 9 weeks (didn’t realise I was pregnant as was a shock after 4 years ttc and multiple ivf attempts to conceive our dd) but the baby appeared that it would have been otherwise viable so was just unfortunate.

Our infertility was also male factor with 0% morphology and <5 million count so god knows how we conceived in the first place so the Covid obviously had no negative implications for us xx

[PenpalLdn in reply to Ivfcandothis]

Fertility is so strange, it's a thing we cannot control 😔 I'm sorry to hear of the ectopic pregnancy, hope it wasn't complicated and I wish you lots of luck for the next times.May I ask if you have COVID while ttc or after conception? My fear has been that somehow the mild temperatures messed with the sperm so if we try in Jan/Feb that increases my risk of miscarriage. But I think from my reading COVID reduces quantity and quality but then it's not likely to implant anyway?! I just can't bear to go through another miscarriage, my body gets so tired. But we will probably keep trying anyway, and then turn to IVF in the next few months.

[Elmo13]

Hi there,

Sorry to read about what you’ve been through this year. That’s so tough and such a lot to have to deal with.

My husband and I both had Covid in late August. It was 2 wks of feeling so rough! I have irregular cycles due to PCOS but for the past couple of years my cycle length was around 45 days. After Covid, my next cycle was somewhere around 60-70 days, and it’s taken some time to regulate.

We weren’t planning on doing another cycle this year as we are having other investigations for recurrent miscarriages, so can’t speak to the results after, but our consultant, and there is increasing data out there, suggests that Covid can affect sperm quality. As a precaution we’re trying to be better with our diet & lifestyle and got the husband on Impryl (we’re already on a bunch of other supplements) but who knows!

There’s so much to worry about in this journey and so I’ve stopped worrying about this as there’s only so much you can do and the stress doesn’t help.

Hope you start to feel better soon and best of luck! X

[PenpalLdn in reply to Elmo13]

Hello! Thank you for replying. Have you tried acupuncture? I think it helped me although I was sceptical, it regulated my periods and brought forward my ovulation day. This is despite a year where my cycles were quite irregular due to miscarriages. I'm also taking supplements and have done a lot of tests, though definitely not every test out there. I feel like I have some answers but not all, as you say there is only so much we can do. I hope you get diagnosis/answers soon.

In addition to multiple miscarriages, what really worries me is my AMH. But I'm reading that it's not definitive, so keeping hope I'll get to try the new protocol with another pregnancy.

Good luck 🤞

[PenpalLdn in reply to PenpalLdn]

Oh also, after covid jab in October I got really delayed ovulation the next cycle and then I ovulated much earlier the cycle after that (this cycle). Also I got my period last week shortly after covid and it was horrible, very heavy and large clots. It seems it affects cycles a lot...

[Olive8000]

Hi there,

I’m so sorry you’re going through this and I completely understand why you were worried. We had suspected Covid back in March and because my partner had a temperature we decided to push our ivf cycle back to June. There is some research to say that a higher temperature can impact sperm parameters. I had no idea if we were doing the right thing by delaying, but had to trust in how we felt. The ivf didn’t work when we did eventually have it, but we had ivf complete and through PGA testing they confirmed it was maternal factor that cause the chromosome abnormalities is our blastos. Since then I had another miscarriage (5 in total) and was diagnosed with endometriosis. I had laparoscopy to remove it (some of which was on my ovary). I don’t know yet if it’s helped because we are holding off trying until the new year, but I’m 41 soon so that’s another huge worry as it could be too late. Anyway long story short, if you haven’t considered endo and you have pain during periods and ovulation (it doesn’t need to be severe, mine wasn’t) and my bleeding was never severe either, it might be worth considering as an underlying cause. I asked my ivf dr twice if it could be endo and he said he didn’t think it was, so at my wits end I did my own research, got referred and low and behold it was. I’m not saying it is as there’s so many underlying reasons that it could be, but im just saying to consider it as I didn’t for years.

[PenpalLdn in reply to Olive8000]

I had a few intrauterine scans where endo wasn't mentioned, also I don't have painful/heavy periods, so it was ruled out. But it seems the only sure way to diagnose it is with keyhole surgery. I have painful ovulation so wondered if it might be possible but so far, noone suspects it. I have blood clotting though, so need to have daily injections when I get positive test result.

[Olive8000]

Well it’s really great that they found an underlying cause, because next time you’ll be doing something different and you have so much more chance of it working out. I really hope it all works out for you next time x

[PenpalLdn in reply to Olive8000]

I hope next year will be a good year for us 🤞 I wish all the luck for you x