Azoospermia, Sperm Donor IVF

[infertility_journey]

My husband has Azoospermia with the cause currently unknown. We will explore if sperm retrieval is an option, but if it’s not or if it’s not successful, then we will have to go the sperm donor route. My husband is conflicted because he wants to give me the opportunity to be a mother, but he is worried that he won’t have a the strong biological bond with the child. My concerns are more about the ivf journey itself which I know can be extremely challenging.

I was wondering if anyone is in the same position or has been through this before and had any advice or reassurance for us?

Thanks in advance!

[Ree_Laine]

Hi,

I can resonate as my fiancé is azoospermic. He was referred to a urologist and went for mtese surgery in the hope of retrieving sperm but unfortunately could not be found. Having harsh chemotherapy drugs was the cause of his diagnosis. It’s a really tough at 1st accepting that you will not be able to have a biological family together but he always said before we went ahead with any further treatment that if we have to have a family via sperm donor that he’d rather have half of us than none of us. We chose our donor via a cryobank in the USA and our hospital in UK had to have a contract and certificate in place to accept the vials by import. The IVF process is pretty straight forward as the sperm is kept frozen until egg collection when it’s needed to be thawed and used for the fertilisation stage. We’re currently on our 2nd round of IVF as the 1st failed to implant. As we’re having our treatment on the NHS it’s compulsory to have counselling and we had 3 sessions in total before going on to treatment.

Families are made in so many ways these days and it’s beautiful that there are people in this world willing to help this happen. We will be sure to tell our little one when it happens how loved and wanted he/ she was that mummy and daddy went to great lengths to have them and had a helper ❤️

I’d recommend having the counselling 1st so you and your husband can get any thoughts and feelings out in the open with the counsellor. I think it’s a pretty normal feeling for husband to think he may not have bond but you never know how anyone will feel when you have a baby as the same feelings also happen with a newborn and biological parent.

Wishing you all the best in your journey . If you have any more questions feel free to pm me xx

[Kitkat10]

hi, we have a son via donor sperm as my partner is infertile. I hope you are able to retrieve some sperm but if not, I hope I can reassure you that the bond with a baby conceived via donor sperm can be just as strong as a biological father. My partner bonded with our son from the moment he was born and they have a very strong bond.

The IVF process took 3 cycles (mainly as I was 40) but the sperm donor side of things was very straightforward. We used the European Sperm Bank. We had 2 counselling sessions which were very helpful.

I’m not saying there won’t be challenges to come for us but we joined the donor conception network to connect with other families in a similar situation.

It’s a hard decision but I hope I can reassure you that you don’t need genetics to have a loving and close family unit xx

[Rhubarb5]

Yes we have been through this. My husband has azoospermia, cause unknown. He had surgical sperm retrieval which was unsuccessful. We decided to proceed with donor sperm and had our daughter after 5 attempts. The fact daddy and daughter don’t share genetics has not meant they don’t have that bond. In fact they have a very special relationship as we waited so long to get her.

The diagnosis is a difficult one to come to terms with. My husband found it very challenging and the unsuccessful sperm retrieval was heartbreaking - it is an intrusive procedure. IVF is hard too but people are resilient and can do hard things. Surround yourself with support. Wishing you the best on your journey. Xx