HI all
We are going through ICSI using donor eggs but we’ve been told by our clinic that partners sperm quality is very low. I know all the risks about success and live birth but wondered if any of you has any knowledge about the risk of disability to the child should we be successful. I’ve read some online material published by king’s college and asked my clinic as well but wondered if you lovely people know anything about it whilst waiting for the clinic to respond. Xx
Hope you get some replies to your post Hope the clinic is able to give you the information you are looking for Make sure have people around you for support
Thinking of you both
Janet-Partner
There are health risks associated with low sperm quality. Have you thought about trying sperm donation (and your own eggs)? Clinics tend to severely downplay the male factor and put woman through more procedures than necessary.
My partner is strictly against using donors sperm. We are doing an egg donor and my consultant came back to me yesterday advising that using ICSI doesn’t bring more risks than natural conceiving. That being said I still know that his sperm quality is not great and we will just be doing what we can. It’s really sad for me that he is not prepared to compromise which narrows down our chances of success and may result in health risks. It’s a tough game as I don’t want to lose my relationship over having children but at the same time I know I will be living with the loss for the rest of my life …
You are a very strong woman. I would not be able to play along. IVF and pregnancy is hard but mostly on women so I would not be able to compromise and would at least want to try my eggs and donor sperm. Anyway I really wish you all the best. I hope you get your miracle baby soon! And that the guy never turns out not to be worth your sacrifice 😉.
It's my understanding that a lot of the research focuses on the importance of having good eggs, but of course the sperm quality has an impact on embryo development. This can be seen in the IVF lab starting on day 4 because day 1 to 3 is when the egg influences development of the egg and days 4-6 is when the sperm quality comes into play and you will see the effect in either less blastocysts or poor quality/ low grade blastocysts. The good news is that men can improve the quality of their sperm by making certain lifestyle changes for three months prior to an egg retrieval including avoiding or minimal alcohol use, not drinking excessive caffeine, exercise, avoiding use of hot tub, and frequent ejaculation at least 2 -3 times a week ( per my clinic.) I have seen the difference in our donor egg fertilization results - in our most successful IVF cycle we had a 5AB and 4BA embryo via icsi with fertilization of 6 frozen donor eggs. However for this last cycle when my husband did not modify his alcohol use until two weeks prior to donor egg fertilization, we had two average quality 4BB blastocysts and the rest were poor grade 4CB and 4CC. Finally you may opt to pgt test your rmbryos but there is the risk of damaging the embryos so we chose not to do this. Take care of yourself. Wish you the best!
Hi. I’ve been doing this for many years and have not come across any disabilities, just one cleft palate but no hare lip, so it got sorted. All I can do is to wish you well and hope you have the family you so deserve. Diane
Hi,
Hope you’re doing okay. I’m sure you’re having a really challenging time with all of this. Maybe you have already sought an outside the clinic opinion on sperm quality. Myself and my partner went to see Mr Ramsay he was lovely and offered us great advice about my partners sperm quality. We did a sperm DNA frag test before we went to see him. We found it really useful as there is so much that can be done to improve sperm quality. His waiting list was supposed to be 3months but we only waited 2months for an appointment. I know it’s an extra cost before a cycle which are expensive but might be worth a try. We traveled over from NI. I wish we had done it sooner.
Hi, i did a round of icsi as my husband has low sperm count and currently 28 weeks pregnant with a perfectly healthy baby.
Hey Milo,
I am 41 and also have a husband with low sperm count, motility and morphology.
I just wanted to say I completely understand your pain having a partner with poor sperm flat out rejecting the donor sperm option. My husband will not even discuss it, and seems offended if I mention it, yet is open to donor eggs if that eventually becomes necessary for us…
In both of my retrievals, the vast majority of our embryos stopped at day3. The knowledge that the sperm is failing some of my last good eggs but I am expected to continue going through egg retrievals (and one day lose the option) can definitely be infuriating. It really is a gamble, isn’t it, and so hard when so much is on the line.
In my case, his compromise was that we would always PGT-A test the embryos in our attempt to diminish the risk of any heartbreak from carrying an aneuploidy or disabled embryo.
In your case, the younger donor eggs are more able to fix the sperm deletions during incubation so the donor egg option should at least help reduce that risk if this knowledge helps alleviate your worries! But if it does not, it may be worth getting the genetic testing done to give you peace of mind.
We really are so much stronger than we realize. Good luck with your fellow stubborn partner😵💫 Keeping you in my thoughts💕
We had our first round of ivf with icsi. Today we found out we got 8 mature eggs and 4 fertilised. My partners sperm is 1%. I was frustrated to think we had 8 and now only 4 most likely due to sperm issues. We discussed donor sperm as he's is on alot of medication for his health. Like you he's stubborn and won't even consider it 😒 I can understand his feelings and it's not a blame game, but apart from coq10 and folic acid which he's just started to take both, I'm not sure what else we can try to improve his sperm. We might get super lucky and have 4 healthy blasts but I'm very sceptical 😒 l feel your frustration. I'm gearing up for round 2. We find out Saturday if we have any blasts Xx
Boyfriend considering being a sperm donor 
‘Egg quality is bad’ 
Sperm morphology 
embryo quality
IVF, sperm quality and alcohol 
