Monday, January 26, 2009

The boys might be broken

So I'm on CD7 now, still spotting as usual. Took my femara 7.5mg CD2-6, and added in the 112.5IU Gonal-F from CD5.
I'm working at the hospital my DHs urologist is at right now, and (yes, I'm a bad bad girl) looked up his latest semen analysis results (he hasn't made a follow-up appointment yet). Low volume, low motility, low morphology. And the DNA fragmentation test I asked if we could do (to the tune of $200) came back 27.44% fragmented, with the interpretation of 25-30% fragmented being "fair fertility potential".
So off I went to research what this might mean, when I should have been studying for my big exams. I think there may be about 3 different versions of this test, two of which are fairly similar in terms of results. Another seemed to say the cutoff for bad IVF/IUI/reproductive outcomes was 18%, but for the type of test we think we had done, I've seen numbers from 27-30% being the cutoff for you're likely shit-out-of-luck. Great.
Turns out sperm defragmentation typically leads to problems with implantation, and then to early pregnancy losses. Last month I thought I was heading for BFP with the OPK getting steadily darker by 12dpo, and then it got lighter again and AF arrived. And I've had my 8.5wk and my 4.5wk losses. Hmm. Sounding familiar at this point?
I've got this sinking feeling that what I've been blaming myself for all along may not really be due to my problems, but rather due to some pretty bad male factor. Good thing I've already been planning to get an IVF referral when I see my current RE tomorrow. I'll keep on going with the multi-follicle IUIs in the meantime, but I seriously think IVF with transfer of 3-4 embryos (assuming we get that many) is the way to go, so that I have a little more hope of having one actually stick around after implantation. I'll be very interested to see what the IVF doc I've got picked out has to say on the matter.
Back to the books now!

3 comments:

Elisabeth said...

Kate I know you already told me all of this but reading it again my heart goes out to you. We are both struggling for the same thing I hope IVF works out for you

Barreness said...

Kate

Hope things are going alright over there, both with the IF and the study. When are the exams?

Any news on the IVF front? I've got a consenting appt next Thursday and then I guess it's all on from there.

xx
B

one-hit_wonder said...

Oh gosh, male factor news is so effing heartbreaking. Wishing you all the best - am curious to know what Hannam will think. I do feel that you're in the best possible care.