Low sperm count (58.) and ICSI

[Hopefully1111]

Hi all,

My husband (Ron) is 27 and I am 29. We have been trying for a baby for a year now (13 cycles) and have recently had a fertility MOT. Ron’s sperm count was just 58 per ejaculation. So low they couldn’t get any results back for motility and morphology.

Our doctor will now look whether anything is blocking the sperm and Ron’s hormones, however also suggested freezing his sperm as soon as possible and taking the ICSI path.

I guess my question is, has anyone ever been in / know of a couple in the same situation - with a sperm count not even in the 100s - who have had a successful ICSI cycle.

We will most likely be doing this privately and we both want to get everything right to make this successful as possible.

It’s all felt like a bad dream.

[JA-fnuk Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

Important to make sure you both have support at this difficult time Take a look at our website fertilitynetworkuk.org for information on all aspects of fertility treatments and investigations For support see Access Support to find Regional groups and much more .Support for your OH can be found in Learn about Fertility then scroll to HIMfertility Also this Forum is an excellent source of peer support and information

Take care

Janet-Partner

[Hopefully1111 in reply to JA-fnuk]

Do you know of any positive stories?

[JA-fnuk Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK in reply to Hopefully1111]

For peoples experiences while on their fertility journey take a look at Your Stories - can be found on our website Get involved then scroll to the site mentioned previously

Janet-Partner

[Positivechangeplease]

if there’s a problem with sperm count you will get treatment free on the NHS and there’s is (in my experience) no different to private

[Hopefully1111 in reply to Positivechangeplease]

thank you - my GP said this. However, it is just the one round free, if that fails you have to pay. They also said the waitlist for ICSI is a year long and we would have to start from scratch (we have done all the initial tests privately but would have to do them again with the NHS, adding to the wait time).

[Positivechangeplease in reply to Hopefully1111]

Ah okay. Bear in mind if you harvested more embryos you can freeze them and then it’s less expensive to transfer the eggs. You also have a lot of time on your side. And in the meantime your partner can work on getting his sperm count up. More meat and lots of exercise increases sperm count. I know as my partner did this. Also bear in mind it takes 3 months for sperm to make it from effect to product so any changes he makes today takes 3 months. Is he also taking well man or those kind of vitamins as they help too. Brazil nuts also improve sperm and I think I read something about eggs having a good effect. There’s lots your partner can do to improve if he puts the effort in and so he should as all the rest of the tough effort is on you. Xx

[Ricecrispies2024]

Hello, I’m so sorry for what you’re going through. I don’t have positive news yet but I hope to in the future! I think if there’s something there, then you/ we have a chance, and the good news is you’re young so you have time on your side. My husband also has extreme male factor and we did 1 round where he froze 8 vials of sperm, but unfortunately nothing survived the thaw and although they found something in 70% of his samples, on the day we were really unlucky and there wasn’t anything so I had to freeze my eggs. My advice would be to freeze as much as possible, closer to 20 vials and take your time on this. Then you will also have more data on how many progressive sperm are in each sample. If he ever gets a 0, you could opt for egg freezing or even freezing half your eggs when you do a round - I say this because my clinic aren’t sure if they froze my eggs quick enough. You can always then attempt ICSI at a later date when you have a good sample. If you haven’t already, see a male specialist (we’ve seen Dr Ramsey if you’re in London) as he might be prescribed clomid. It’s quite complicated but feel free to DM me and I can explain about what we’re trying - we definitely wouldn’t be able to do this on the NHS as you need something very tailored x

[Hopefully1111 in reply to Ricecrispies2024]

Thank you so much - do you mind me asking how low your husband's count was? I hadn't even thought about it surviving a thaw. How long did it take to get 8 vials? Sorry, I have so many questions. We are doing another analysis of him next week with a consultation two days later (this is all privately and I am so thankful we can do this because I'm not sure I could be patient at this time...).

We will be going down the ICSI route I believe, and we are looking to get the ball rolling pretty fast. After the next analysis, they want Ron to see a urologists (we are hoping we can get referred to Dr. Ramsey - we are in Essex but both work in London).

We are opting to go privately whilst we can (not that we can, but we'll make it work).

I will DM you now, thank you so so much for the message. This is all very new to me, a week a go I didn't even know what ICSI meant and I just had to look at what a vial was...