DH age 53 - I am 33...1st attempt IVF/ICSI

[Betty ICSI]

Hi Ladies,

ICSI Girl - my dh also has children (3) from his prior marriage (also concieved naturally). After that he had a vasectomy. Now we are using the sperm extracted from his testes. Our doc said that the sperms and eggs which were used during ICSI were good. Plus he said that all 2 embryos transferred were good quality too and we had a very good chance to succedd. ???

Kellym - with all your 5 prior IVF did you have a sonogram? The first symptom we knew that there was something alarming was that my third HCG test result was lower that it should have been. We had the fourth HCG test performed, but it showed only the slight increase. Then we had a sonogram and it showed that there was yolk sac missing. (I assumed that was the reason why my HCG level was increasing so slowly.) The doc said that we should expect a miscarriage within 3-4 days. Well, needless to say, it happened right on the 3rd day we stopped taking any medication. (((((( When we asked doc what the reason of this miscarriage he suggested that there must be chromosomal abnormalities of egg. ??????????

Also last IVF round I produced only 2 good embryos which were used for the first round. Now we have to start all over again. How about you? Did you use frozen sperm for your last 4 IVFs?

Thank you for the link on the research. It is very interesting and I am going to ask the doctor about it!

Well, we did not do the vasectomy since my dh doc said that it would take time for dh body to adjust and produce a "baby" carrying sperm. So we had a surgical extraction of sperm. Yesterday I read online that sperms extracted surgically are inmature. But if my dh sperm was immature then it would not produce a good quality of embryo (my assumption)!

I have some many questions but I cannot find answers. Is it normal???

Well, we want to start our next cycle in Sept, but it will be outside of USA. We used to live overseas where my dh still have frozen sperm taken 12 yrs ago. We think that it will be a much better quality sperm than the one extracted last year and stored here (USA). Plus, the treatment overseas is much more affordable than here.

That's all I have now. I will definitely share anything new I find.

Good luck to You!
Betty

[julianna26]

My name is Julianna and my DH and I are starting our first IVF/ICSI cycle end of July/early Aug. I am scheduled to start shots 7/28 and egg retrieval approx. 8/21. I am 26 and my DH is 48. We are in a similar situation as some on this thread. My DH has three sons from previous marriage. After the third boy, he had a vasectomy. We met 5 years ago and married 2 years ago. He had a reversal April 06 which failed (15 years from vasectomy).

I will admit I have been positive so far because all my tests have been OK and I'm still fairly young. They retrieved six vials of sperm from DH during the sperm extraction process. So we have been excited!

But now I am reading the earlier posts on this topic about sperm chromosomal abnormalities after prolonged reversal. Now I am honestly depressed and less optimistic.

Has anyone on this forum been in a similar situation and been able to successfully give birth to healthy child? Does anyone know if sperm abnormalities (if undetected) can cause health problems for child?

I have now called my Dr and left message for a return call to ask him about this. He has never mentioned it to us.

I hope I can get some of my PMA back but thinking about getting a BFP and then having to go through a miscarriage because of chromosome abnormalities is very depressing!

Everyone out there stay positive and baby dust to all! I will do my best to try and not think about what I read and stay positive, too.

[kellym]

I am so sorry if i scared people with the research about the sperm chromosomal abnormalities. i was so excited to find that research because it might answer the questions i have as to why it hasn't work for us after 5 attempts when I am supposedly completely fine and the only problem was that the sperm count/motility was low.
There is a test that you can do to find out whether the sperm carries the abnormality so if your first attempt doesn't work then it might be worth looking in to.
A vasectomy reversal doesn't mean that your DH has chromosomal abnormalities, but if it doesn't work for you then it is something to consider. My RE never mentioned it to me either but it certainly is useful for us given our repeated failures and chemical pregnancies.
Definitely keep your PMA - you have nothing to show that it won't work for you. I am sure there are loads of examples of cases that have worked - your RE wouldn't proceed if that were the case.
good luck to you!

[samandaw1]

I was in the same boat...and I have a beautiful three month old girl. I just got done playing with her. It can work jus tthink positive. I know I am lucky that I got pregnant the first time with ICSI (my husband had a reversal but is now back down to nothing). We did not have any chromosome abnormalities so obviously that helped. But again, I only had two good embroys and one took.

Hnag in there it does happen. In fact we are going for baby number two here shortly.

Good luck

[ICSI GIRL]

Hey Julianna --- another thread you might enjoy is the "JULY/AUGUST Cycle buddies - come join the fun!" under the General Forum.....is kinda nice cuz we got people who started meds 1st of July and people starting meds 1st of Aug......

Hopefully you've regained your PMA......is vitally important as you get on board the roller coaster ride!!! I just got my meds over this past weekend.....dh and i go tomorrow to see nurse for lupron inject and to teach dh how to give all injections (i think he's looking forward to it!! ha, ha) my tentative procedure week (ER & ET) is Aug 6.....

~~~~~~ if i don't see you on other posting board (where i spend most of my time) ----- lots of baby dust to you!!!! ~~~~~~

[shantala]

hi ICSI girl...just realised, not only are we in a similar situation re age gap, male factor and ICSI but our schedules are also very similar! my anticipated week for EC and ET is the w/c 6th August also!!! best of luck!!

xxx

[ceiba]

Wow, it is great to hear so many stories about male factor infertility and IVF/ICSI. Julianna, I am having a similar reaction as you because I was very optimistic about our chances, based on my very healthy test results and our RE's positive prognosis. But it has been 23 years since my dh's "vasectomy" (he was in an accident as a teenager and it severed his vas deferens), and after hearing kellym and betty's stories about ICSI after long periods of sperm blockage I am wondering if this will have an effect on us too. Thank you, kellym, for the chromosomal abnormality link. If our first attempt doesn't work I will ask our RE for the test.

Until then I too am trying very hard to think positively! Good luck to all of you out there and keep us posted on your results. There's not much info out there on male factor- everything I find seems to be geared towards female factor- so it's wonderful that we can all talk about this!

[ICSI GIRL]

shantala: very COOL to finally find somebody out here on almost same schedule.....what med regime are you on?? when do you start what??

i started bcp's july 1st.....i go TODAY (7/18/07) for my lupron injection and also injection teaching for dh....AF expected next week.....once AF arrives - i start Gonal-f and Menopur.....and that's about all i really know right this moment.....the scheduling is all very contingent on everything else leading up to each step!!!

the thread you'll find me in most often is the "JULY/AUGUST cycle buddies -- come join the fun!" under the General forum area (GREAT support and ladies over there -- which, i'm finding to be the case EVERYWHERE actually!!) anyway....keep in touch....keep me posted... (if you want)

where are you located anyway?? i'm in US - MICHIGAN....just curious

[uncleI]

Hi, DW and myself are in the same boat as everyone lese here. I'm going in for an sperm extraction this monday. Wife is already on BC in hopes the extraction works. I would be most gratefull if someone of you would tell me how long it to your husbands to recover from the extraction. I've heard everything from nothing a little asprin won't fix to I might need to take a week off work!

Not quite sure what to expect....

[ICSI GIRL]

uncleI ---- sorry unable to help you out.......my dh will be providing his sample the old fashioned way!!! - w/ the help of video's/magazines!! while he is 53 ---- he never had vasectomy so he doesn't have to do extraction thing (that will require any kind of "recovery" anyway!! ha, ha)

GOOD LUCK TO YOU!!!

[julianna26]

Uncle1 - My husband had to have sperm extraction. He was given a prescription for pain meds and was sore the next 2 days. Only slightly sore the 3rd day and back riding his motorcycle by the 5th day. Not sure he was supposed to, but he did it anyway. LOL... I'm sure you are a little nervous but he said after it was done, that it wasn't as bad as he expected. Don't know if that helps or not but I wouldn't plan on going to work Tues, or maybe even Wed... Take it easy and make your wife get you ice cream and rub your back. Milk it while you can and WISHING YOU ALL THE BEST - that this helps you on your way to a little bundle of joy.

[uncleI]

julianna26 Wow, riding his bike in less than a week - that's great news! It's nice to get some ground truth from someone that's been through it.

I see from your sig that you're going for your first IVF cycle next month - best of luck to you. If everything goes well on our side we'll hopefully be doing the ER and ET in September.

ICSI GIRL Yeah, back when this process started I got to help out the "fun way" too. Boy, where we surprised by the results. Best of luck to you on your upcoming cycle!

I'll post back on Tuesday with any comments from the procedure. I know I had a hard time finding information out - so hopefully someone else will find it usefull.

Thanks!

[ceiba]

This is Ceiba's d. husband.

The most important thing you can do is buy several jockstraps. These will be your lifeline. And buy supportive underwear. Put your boxers in a box - you won't need them.

As for pain, UncleI, it all depends on what sort of aspiration they're doing.

The easiest way is when they put a needle between the vasectomy and the testicles and aspirate them out that way. These lucky individuals can do things immediately. The worst case scenario is what I had - they cut open the scrotum and take some tissue from one of the testicles and then cauderize the testicle and sew you back up.

I decided to have the operation with local anaesthesia only, and it was painful, but a minor operation. They gave me some intense narcotics that kept me sedated for three or so days. But whenever the narcotics wore off, I was in searing pain.

It really took about another week before I could move without pain, and even today (8 weeks later), one testicle is swollen and if I don't wear supportive underwear, it hurts. Of course, my situation is complicated that two weeks after the operation, I fell down the stairs and broke my coccyx, so I'm no longer sure where the pain is coming from. But for those two weeks, it hurt like the dickens.

Anyway, the good thing is that my wife can't complain that she's the only one who is going through the pain. But more seriously, I also feel incredibly lucky that my wife is willing to go through several weeks of injections and a whole box of medicines when the fault lies in my body. I feel so lucky that she wants to have a child with me when it would be much easier for her with an "unencumbered" guy.

So, UncleI, good luck, and wear that jockstrap!

[uncleI]

ceiba's husband
Thanks, that's info. When I packed this morning I brought both the boxers and more surportive stuff, not knowing which way I'd feel. After reading your respondce, I'm glad I did that now that I'm half a day away from home.

I also echo your comment about the wife, even with the potential pain, I still don't have to deal with all the injections, hormones, pokes, prods, etc (oh yeah, and the multi pound bundle of joy if everything works out!). I also have the added benifit of knowing this works after the operation, unlike the dreaded 2ww that hopefully will be coming up in the next month or two.

Again, thanks for the good info (even if it is a tad on the scary side)!

[kellym]

So I thought I would give you a quick update on my meeting with my doctor. We looked through my chart and she was (again) shocked that it hadn't worked. I apparently had a phenomenal fertilization rate, perfect embryos at day 3 and beautiful embryos on day 5 with a 60% blast rate which is above normal. She just shook her head. She called in the embryologist so that we could discuss our options.

Based on those discussions, we are going ahead with the SCSA test on sperm. While they said that there is a large grey area with the results, at least it will provide us with more information. The test comes back with an assessment of low, fair or high fragmentation. The fair category is large and doesn't really tell us much. But they said if it comes back either low or high (less than 20% or greater than 80% fragmentation) then we'll be able to determine something. Anywhere in between is wishy washy. But I am still happy with that because at least we'll know if there is no chance with my DH's sperm or if the sperm is fine.

Meanwhile they are going to do an endometrium biopsy before my frozen transfer. So, I go in on Thursday to get that done.

If everything comes back fine and the frozen transfer still doesn't work, we are left with two choices. Either we can do pre-genetic screening on our next batch of embryos, or we can go for donor eggs. We'll have to figure that out when we get there.

In the meantime, I am feeling really good and at least know that we are having further testing done to narrow down our questions.