Cancer & Infertility Male Factor

[jenniferm]

Hi. I am new to this and have some questions. My Husband had cancer and a bonemarrow transplant 10 years ago. He is fine now thank god but now we want to have kids. We did a SA and it came back with no sperm. We never spoke to the Dr. about this since I got the results faxed to me and the Dr. never called. He is our GP and kindly ordered the test. We have an appointment in August with a reproductive team/doctor and I am nervous. I dont know what to expect and what our chances are. I am guessing that TESE is our only route to a genetic child but dont know the odds of anything being viable. Also, I have been reading posts on these boards for a while now and dont know anything more then when I started. I have no idea how long IVF takes to retrieve eggs..is it one month or 5? Anyone free to offer advice/timelines?

[AliasR]

Dear Jenny

WElcome to the boards. You'll find it a wonderful place to share information, to cry on someone's cybershoulder or just a laugh - it's very eclectic around here.

We are also a male factor problem due to Hodgkin's when DH was a teenager. We had a SA too that came back negative and then went for a biopsy to check for sperm "in loco"- small cuts made in the testis to look for swimmers. They also collected tissue samples to analyse. Unfortunatly it was negative too. If they had found any sperm then we would go for ICSI.

At our clinic the normal procedure would be to have the biopsy done to coincide with egg retrieval, perform ICSI and then implantation.

Not really sure about your other questions but i'm sure anyone will get back to you real soon.

Id there's anything you need, just ask!

A hug
Rita

[Sand]

Hi Jennifer - Welcome to the Site.

"Fertility and Conception" by Zita West is a good resource of info ... It's more than worth the £15.

Your question - how long does IVF take to retrieve eggs ? - depends on which protocol your clinic decides would be best for you. A short protocol can be as a couple of weeks. A long protocol could be on average around 4 weeks - whereas some girls need to take drugs for much longer to prepare their bodies.

I would urge you to read the book. Knowledge is power !

Take care

Sandra x

[k]

Hi Jenny

My DH had cancer too, 8 years ago. We had only been together 6 months when he was diagnosed. It was hard having to go through treatment to save his life, but know that the chemo was affecting his fertility. Obviously at the time him making a full recovery was the most important thing. I surpose the good thing about it was we have known we would need IVF for a while, which helped us come to terms with it. I hope your treatment works and you are able to procede with ICSI. You will learn so much from everyone here and they are all so supportive.Good luck!!

Rita - my DH had Hodgkins too. Im sorry you couldnt have ICSI. Good luck with your future treatments.

Love Kim

[NickiMark]

Hello.

My dh has no sperm. unexplained. We are using a donor. It's the only way for me to have children.

Wish u all the best.

But let me just tell u my BIL had cancer and 2 yrs later after being told he cant have kids his GF is pregnant. They weren't trying. Didn' use contrceptives due to no sperm and it' happened. So there is hope!!

[CARINABOO]

Hi there,

My partner had/has testicular cancer so had 1 testie removed, that other had had an doperation on it when he was young so it didnt function properly. He went for a SA and we were devestated to learn it was 0.00 NOTHING......what they didnt tell us til futher testing is that any ejaculate with under 100'000 sperm was classed as NO COUNT! they centrifuged (spun it under high speed) and found the occasional swimmer, as these few could not be used after his cancer treatment we went under IVF instantly. I had egg collection yesterday so we will see how they fertilize, in the mean time I am trying to overcome overstimulated overies...thats another story, anyway......................they had more that enough for ICSI so its all good..........good luck!

[k]

Hi Carinaboo

We had ICSI too and compared to IVF fertilisation rates are better. Its amazing what they can do nowadays. We had half IVF/half ICSI. None of the IVF fertilised (No reason why), so if ICSI wasnt available I wouldnt now be pregnant, so very thankful.
I hope everything works out for you!
Take care
Love Kim

[NickiMark]

Jennifer. How are things now? x x