COVID impact on Sperm experiences - how quickly did it recover?

[Hopewhite]

Hi lovely warriors,

I hope you're all doing well and keeping strong on this crazy journey xx

We just had another curve ball , we are ready to start treatment early next week (expecting period any time now over the weekend), we had our last fresh cycle in June, and then we both got Covid in late august/early September, we decided to wait 3 months to be on the safe side in terms of impact. My husband had a sperm test last week (2.5 months after COVID), and today we have got the results, and sadly it did have a strong impact on the count (we were already doing ICSI due to low count), so from 1.5m count it has dropped to not even in the 1000s, the embryologist said they can work with that on ICSI as he'd get 4 straws from that sample (not sure what that means). If we go ahead now, the sample will likely be needed in 1.5-2 weeks time, he did recommend to abstain for more days on ejaculation before sample, and the other alternative we were offered is to bank sperm, so we have a back up in case the fresh sample is not good on the day. I'm not sure 1.5-2 weeks is enough time for it to make a difference on the sperm. So we are now very confused on what is best to do, shall we wait until January for treatment and re test to see if it has improved? We are not getting any younger and the hospital closes over Christmas , so this would be starting treatment in late January as my next period will fall over Christmas break.

Has anyone else gone through similar situation that could share their experience? I'd like to know how quickly did the sperm recover after Covid? what was your decision on when to restart treatment based on ? I'd like to understand if there are any chances waiting longer will help us, we'd do another sperm test in Jan.

This is just so hard, this will be our 3rd fresh cycle and 5th transfer, last one was June, but it's taking us so long to get to even try again, we are self funded and don't want to just throw money if we haven't got any chances, but i don't know what difference it really makes with ICSI other than having more sperm to chose from. My fear is if count hasn’t recovered probably quality is also compromised.

Thank you in advance, I really appreciate if anyone can share from their experiences, we need to make a decision really soon on whether we start the treatment, but as always this coming at the last minute and I cannot thing straight!.

sorry for the long note, i wish you all the best of luck on your treatments, i hope you're closer to your little miracles xx

[soccerkt6]

Hi lovely,

This is so rubbish, I'm sorry. In my experience, it took about 4 months post-Covid for my husband's sperm quality to recover. I know the extra wait is so annoying and stressful, but in all reality waiting an extra 6 weeks to do your cycle isn't going to have a meaningful effect on the quality of your eggs but it may well make a noticeable difference on his sperm. Covid can worsen sperm DNA fragmentation so, as you say, it's not just the count that might've been affected.

xx

[Hopewhite in reply to soccerkt6]

Hi lovely I hope you’re well , thank you for taking the time to respond and share your experience. It is rubbish indeed but luckily we have realised just in time , I can imagine we would have ended heartbroken if we had gone ahead , he’s going to get another test in January and hopefully we’ll see progress then and start treatment in late January. Did your husband do anything to try to help ? Mine was taking impryl already but wondering if there’s something else xx

I hope all is well on your end , many thanks again xx

[soccerkt6 in reply to Hopewhite]

Hey, I also had mine start taking Proxeed Plus once a day. I know Impryl says not to take any other supplements that contain antioxidants, but I think they just don't want people going crazy and taking mega doses of antioxidants. Proxeed has some antioxidants but nothing is very large quantities so I felt very comfortable having my husband take both. Plus, Proxeed has carnitines which are very good for sperm energy production.

Glad he's getting re-tested in January, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that everything looks good then!

xx

[Hopewhite in reply to soccerkt6]

Thank you very much , I’ll tell him to order that too, I did read the label saying not to mix with antioxidants so we haven’t mixed the two before , but I feel we need to reinforce on the vitamins ! Thanks again for your kind wishes xx

[soccerkt6 in reply to Hopewhite]

Oh yes, I forgot to mention - the recommended dose of Proxeed is two sachets per day, but since we were mixing with Impryl I just had my husband take one sachet. I think he took Impryl in the morning and Proxeed at night or something similar xx

[Hopewhite in reply to soccerkt6]

Thank you very much for the advice, we’ll follow this too xx