Husband has a fever - what would you do?

[MiniCeeCee]

Hi all, in a 3 month prep period ahead of a hopeful egg collection (our 3rd) in March. My husband and I have both been really good diet wise, but today he’s come down with a horrible fever, been really ill all day in bed and has a really high temp. Can’t help but worry this might impact our success…. Despite going with ICSI (as he has poor morphology) our 2nd cycle wasn’t great (fertilisation was poor, and only 1 made it through to day 3, and then didn’t implant)… so we were trying to throw everything at this next round. What would others do - wait another month and go in April so he has 60/70 days for sperm to renew? Or go ahead in March when timing wise it’s slightly better for us? Any view and perspectives would be hugely appreciated! X

[Zinger22]

it’s depends on what he has. My husband caught covid and we were advised by his urologist to wait 90 days for our cycle. We were having IVF for MF, so we didn’t want to risk it earlier than that.

[Hopewhite]

hi lovely I’m so sorry to read you’re stressed about this ! Do you know what is it ? My husband got Covid in September off me, he had it really mild but did have fever 1 day. we tested sperm 2 months later and the parameters dropped drastically vs summer (ICSI failed round) , so we didn’t go ahead in December, tested again in January and still not recovered. Hopefully you’ll get better luck than us, but I’d advise to test and wait if you can , I was really grateful that we tested instead of going straight into another heartbreak.

I know it’s awful when you get thrown curves like this that derail you from the original plan but probably wise to check first . Having said that we might just go ahead with ICSI this month or next , as in reality there are no guarantees and we don’t have the luxury of time !

Wishing you all the best of luck !

[MiniCeeCee in reply to Hopewhite]

Thanks for your reply Hopewhite , it doesn’t seem to be Covid, more of a 48 hr bug it seems which he’s now coming out the other side of, but his temp last night was sky high, so I am thinking waiting an extra month and doing April instead of March, to give us a good 3 months for the sperm to rejuvenate might be best. Thanks again for your reply and sharing your experience! X

[Hopewhite in reply to MiniCeeCee]

Ah glad it’s not Covid !, that’s sounds like a sensible thing to do , hopefully he’ll bounce back within that time, test the sperm ahead just to be on the safe side xx wishing you all the best of luck !

[soccerkt6 in reply to MiniCeeCee]

Hey lovely, sperm takes approx 90 days to regenerate so if he had a fever last night, waiting 90 days would put you in May. If you do it it April his sperm is liable to still be affected. As Hopewhite said, I would test the sperm in any case before you start your meds for the next cycle to see if it's recovered yet.

Also, apologies if I've mentioned this to you before (I can't keep track of who I've told what!), but has your husband ever been tested for sperm DNA fragmentation? We had a diagnosis of unexplained infertility for years before we found out that my husband had high sperm DNA fragmentation. In retrospect, his low morphology was the only clue that something was off because his semen analyses always came back great otherwise. In light of the poor fertilisation and blast development in your last round, there's a real likelihood that DNA frag could be at play. Unfortunately, there's no point in testing it in the next few months due to his recent fever, but since you have a few months to kill I'd suggest booking in with a urologist and have him get an ultrasound to check for varicoceles. They're one of the most common causes of high DNA frag so you can at least rule that out in the meantime xx

[MiniCeeCee in reply to soccerkt6]

Thanks soccerkt6 appreciate your message! Looking at my dates, reckon we would be on around 80 days by the time my cycle comes, so hopefully that will be enough (I’ve ready somewhere it’s 62 days and other places it’s 90 days). I’d love to get your insight on DNA fragmentation - we’ve been tempted to get the test done, do you just book with a private urologist? Or do clinics usually offer it? Also if your partner does have high dna fragmentation, what is the treatment for it? We’re already doing very healthy lifestyle, but good to know if there are any other treatments that would be on offer should results come back as high! X

[soccerkt6 in reply to MiniCeeCee]

Ah, that's good about the dates. Hopefully 80 days will be long enough.

For the DNA frag test, a lot of IVF clinics will offer it. If yours doesn't though, there's a private lab called Fertility Solutions that has locations in London and Bucks where you can get it done. It's self-referral and you can book and pay for the test online: fertilitysolutions.co.uk/dn...

If the results come back high, the next step would usually be to book in with a urologist who specialises in male fertility (like Dr Jonathan Ramsay), who can run some additional tests to figure out what's causing the high frag. The most common causes are varicoceles, infection in the urinary tract, or hormone imbalances. All of these issues can be fixed with appropriate treatment. In our case, we discovered my husband had a varicocele and once he had it embolised, we conceived naturally. This was after three failed IVF cycles and almost 5 years of ttc... I SO wish someone had told us about DNA frag earlier in our journey. 🤦‍♀️

In your case though (since you wouldn't want to do a DNA frag test until your husband's sperm recovers), I would just find a private urologist locally who can do an exam and ultrasound on your husband to check for varicoceles. They are, by far, the most common cause of DNA frag issues. If nothing is found then you could always still do the DNA frag test in a few months just to be sure, but if they do find something then you should consider having it fixed before doing any more cycles.

Let me know if you have any other questions! xx

[Blessed5510]

hi, this happened to us. My husband had a fever about 2 weeks before…and when we went to fertilize our eggs, he had No sperm! They were all dead! The high fever killed them. We waited a couple of months and were able to get good sperm, which results in our 10 week old little boy. We were devastated when they told us that his sperm wasn’t moving and that we would have to come back.

Just my thoughts, I would wait as you suggested and get him to take supplements. Wishing you the best!

[MiniCeeCee in reply to Blessed5510]

This is super helpful Blessed5510 thank you so much, I think we will just wait that extra month given what I’m hearing on here - hard as an extra month feels like she’s when your counting down to starting, but in the grand scheme of things it’s not too long at all. Thanks again for your reply and congrats on your little boy! Xx

[Blessed5510 in reply to MiniCeeCee]

My husband took zinc and other vitamin supplements too. We also use the Zymot process where they picked the best sperm for fertilization. It was about $300 extra but worth it in the whole scheme of things.

ZyMot is a sperm separator device, often known as a chip, that is used in IVF laboratories to prepare and choose sperm for IVF, ICSI, or IUI. ZyMot utilises a membrane filter within the chip that lets only the most motile sperm to pass through.

Fingers crossed for you!

[Nabsal]

please wait if you can