Fresh or frozen sperm

[HelzBelzUK]

Hi all,

So my husband & I are about to do our 7th and final cycle with OE.

We had a MMC at 7 weeks last year and my husband has been really affected by it. Our clinic is in Greece and he has extreme anxiety about going over there again even though he pushed for this cycle.. I didn’t want to do it.

From our retreival at Christmas we have one vial of sperm frozen and he also left a sample two days later incase we need to move to DE. The total morphology is 84% which is great.

As our date of travel gets closer my husband’s anxiety is through the roof. He has done great with his impryl, exercise etc to keep his sperm as healthy as possible but yesterday he asked if he can stay at home and we use the frozen sperm for fertilisation, which the embryologist is happy to do.

Has anyone done this and had good fertilisation? Obviously I know frozen sperm is used for DE but I’m just worried about the sperm dying off as it’s thawed.

I was thinking of suggesting that I travel solo and he flies over the day before EC to provide a fresh sample & keeping the frozen samples incase we don’t get suitable to transfer (we’re doing pgta ).

I actually don’t know what i’m asking for in this post. I obviously don’t want to exacerbate his stress levels, however I think he’s being unfair considering he was the one pushing for this cycle. Has anyone been in a similar position?

My husband works overseas so I will be discussing everything with him in person when he’s home next week xxx

[Nabsal]

I think fresh sample will be good as it will have less fregmentaion and you will have good embryo grade aS well. You should consider fresh sample as compare to frozen. Good luck 🤞

[HelzBelzUK in reply to Nabsal]

Thank you xx I just worry about his stress levels as surely that negatively impacts sperm??!

I am hoping I can go alone initially and then he flies over the day before EC to minimise the amount of time in clinic x

[Anonimatoz]

Frozen sperm should be fine as long as the sperm quality and quantity is good. You lose about half of the sperm when you freeze and thaw, but if you have 15, 20 million that makes no difference as you still have loads to choose from.Now, it would still be good for you 2 to talk about why he doesn't want to go. He could be traumatised by the process, I had PTSD. It is not a good place to be in both if the treatment fails or works. If it fails it can be really bad for him mentally and if it works, there will be new challenges around pregnancy and paternity. Have a chat with him and look for therapy if needed, this process is really tough.

[HelzBelzUK in reply to Anonimatoz]

Thank you

yeah we have talked about it and he has therapy

Each vial has 65 million sperm so I suppose it’s still a good amount even if we do lose 15/20 million during thawing x

[Endofitall]

Ooph what a horrible situation.

As my husband works away a lot (and has always been at risk of COVID with travel) our clinics have always advised having a back up frozen sperm. However we’ve always been told fresh is preferable if at all possible as frozen sperm is more affected by dna frag and losing numbers.

I guess you can only explain to him calmly and without judgement that fresh will provide the best chance of good fertilisation and good quality embryos, if he thinks he could try - frozen always there as a back up if he can’t. However as you’re clearly already aware it is best not to pressure him about this if he really doesn’t want to. Xx

[HelzBelzUK in reply to Endofitall]

Thank you xxx

Our cycle before Christmas he flew out later than me which he preferred. He thought he would only be there for 4/5 days which he said he could handle. I had an unexpected hysteroscopy and he was there for over a week.

I’ll give him the option but the Dr has told him fresh his best so he does know this.

I’m hoping he will fly out the day before EC and then we can fly home the day later. We’re doing pgta so no transfer and I won’t need another hysteroscopy xx

[CyclingAddict]

Ah dear. That must be awful for him and stressful for you. I think fresh is better. My husband had some frozen but that was in case of an emergency - like if he didn't produce enough sperm on the day. Having said that, mental health is the priority but if he can push through his anxiety it would probably be better for this cycle. Best of luck to you both x