# Low sperm count, want to TTC naturally, not ready for IVF - any point?



## raemie3001 (Dec 21, 2012)

Hi everyone

In short, I'm a newbie to this. Found out week before Christmas (rubbish timing!) that my darling hubby has a very low sperm count (motility good). His SA showed around 300,000 sperm, nowhere near enough for us to conceive so we were referred to a fertility clinic. Hubbie has another SA first week in February and I guess we go from there.

Thing is, I don't feel ready for IVF yet! We desperately want children but I just don't feel ready, both emotionally and financially. DH has been on Wellman Conception for a couple of months now so we're hoping that makes a difference. But here's my question for you lovely ladies - are we crazy to try for a few months in the hope of a miracle, despite his low count? Or should we just bite the bullet and go for it?

Any advice would be welcome!

Xxx


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## NatalieP (Mar 5, 2011)

Hey raemie

I don't think your crazy to try but the sad reality is unless that count goes up your pretty unlikely. What was his morphology (the way the sperm is formed) like? 

Have you spoken to your clinic about IUI? Means the sperm are put straight into the womb cutting out most of the journey.

To be honest I don't think you are ever ready for ICSI I have had one cycle and I still go wow am I really having to do this. 

Get your hubby to keep taking wellman, have a healthy diet, wear boxers not breif's, no hot baths, keep the laptop off his knee and mobile out of his pocket. Stop smoking, cut down on alcohol, no cycling, cut down on caffeine and make sure he keeps releasing his little swimmers every few days.

Good luck hun, I know ICSI is scary but if it works it will give your miracle and you can keep trying in the mean time. 



Nat xxx


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## raemie3001 (Dec 21, 2012)

Hi Nat

Thanks so much for the reply! Means a lot to a newbie like me.

They couldn't count his morphology as the count itself was too low. It was only his first SA so we're holding a very small hope that it might have improved by the next count. He sits all day in his job and although he's pretty fit and healthy, he could go three four hours with the laptop on his lap. Needless to say, he's cut all that out, plus drink and cigarettes which he only did once in a blue moon.

Tell me about IUI. Our fertility doctor didn't even mention that as an option, just went straight to IVF/ICSI. Because its quite expensive here in Ireland (up to 6-7k), I'd definitely like to explore other options first.

Is IUI only if the sperm count is lower than normal but not too low? This is all do new to us so we kind of tool what our doctor says at face value. 

Any advice you have would be so welcome and I wish you loads of luck on your journey!

Xxx


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## raemie3001 (Dec 21, 2012)

BTW, typing on an iPhone, hence the spelling mistakes!!!

Xxx


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## BECKY7 (Feb 2, 2011)

Hey ramie  I go to reprofit or IUI  it very similar to basting with turkey basting but in different way and it all about timing too and it so much cheaper as in London it would have cost me £1 k but in reprofit it cost me €330 including serm donor otherwise with our DP sperm it will cost you €130 then you to the flights and hotels to pay for  so all in all for me it cost me £450 each time.
Becky7 xx


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## Sheilaweb (Mar 21, 2006)

Hi Raimie, you're not crazy at all, my hubby was diagnised as NOA (no sperm in the ejactulate) but we did manage to get pregnant once.....(albeit it took over 8 years!) but he took Wellman for 9 months in the run up to my icsi and our sperm donor was left on the bench!
Wishing you all the luck in the world.
Best wishes
Sheila


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## Starry34 (Jan 11, 2013)

Hi raemie, 

Your definately not mad to try for a couple of months naturally, i've heard really good things about wellman increasing low sperm count.  Don't be afraid to sign up for the ivf treatment though as it will take a long time to get to the stage of actually being treated and you will have several months of trying naturally while they sort out all your paperwork.  I had ivf treatment and signed up for it at the beginning of the year but didn't get the treatment until october simply due to the paperwork being processed, and of course you can cancel the treatment at any time if our not happy with it.


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## the_tempress89 (Oct 19, 2011)

hi raeme. 

i too do not think your crazy for wanting to try naturally. i think its great you have your partner n wellman ( got mines on them too in the hope he will get a good result at his upcoming SA!) i dont see any harm in giving it a go, sadly atm your chances seem unlikely for a natural conception but miracles do happen.... sometimes. 

i would however give serious thoughts to other options, wether that be ivf or iui.. speak to your docter and see what they would suggest. as some of the other ladies have said the waiting time between signing up and starting treatment can take months. that would give you a few months to try naturally and if you have no success at least your on the waiting list. 

good luck hun xxx


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## raemie3001 (Dec 21, 2012)

Ladies, thanks you all so much for your replies and advice. It's so appreciated! This is only the start of our journey so it's been great to hear everyone's experience. 

IUI confuses me a little! I would love to try that as an option but our fertility doctor didn't even mention it. Something to remember for the next time we see her anyway.

So glad I found this forum - it's hard not to feel like there's something wrong with you when you can't do what seems to be the most natural thing in the world! But hey, I guess that's what modern medicine is all about.

One quick question about IVF/ ICSI if anyone has advice - is it something that's best done when you've time off work? I'm already thinking ahead to the summer as a possible time to do it when it's not so pressurised at work!

Hugs back to you all

Xxx


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## Sheilaweb (Mar 21, 2006)

IUI is not usually considered a viable method for couples when the male has a poor sperm count.  No-one would ever envisage going through ivf to have a family - we went through our one and only icsi over the bank holiday - celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary.  Dont rule out anything at this stage, if youre undergoing treatment via the nhs - nowt will ever happen quickly!


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## raemie3001 (Dec 21, 2012)

Thanks Sheilaweb! Unfortunately our health system in Ireland doesn't provide for couples with infertility issues so it will have to be funded with what's currently known as the 'house deposit account'!!!

Hence why we're going to wait a few months, just in case we're blessed with a miracle.

Thanks for clearing up the IUI v IVF for me!

Xxx


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## BroodyChick (Nov 30, 2009)

IUI seems to make absolutely no sense in your situation - am I missing something?
My ex was HIV+ and needed sperm washing in order for us to conceive by IUI, which means he would ejaculate outside my body only for the washed sperm to be put into me.
If you can have normal sex naturally without a health risk, why waste time and money on invasive IUI? It's like using a doctor as a middleman for no apparent reason.
If they sold you an IUI cycle there would be no higher chance of you getting pregnant than during a natural try, so that wouldn't be a medical option to recommend at all from an experienced doctor. Hence the suggestion of ICSI as they can select a healthy-looking sperm and place it directly into your egg.
However everything he is doing could provide the miracle you need, and increase his count: Zita West has talked about this at length during the Fertility Show and had actual cases of couples (laptop use/fireman) where making these adjustments brought the desired result. So don't give up yet!
Best of luck|!


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## raemie3001 (Dec 21, 2012)

Hi BroodyChick!

Really appreciate your advice. Just to clarify, our doctor never suggested IUI and I was just debating with the other lovely people who replied to my post whether it was even an option. And it doesn't seem to be so at least we cleared that up! Wasn't sure as it's all still quite new to me and although the Internet is great, people's experiences here have been invaluable in helping me understand a bit more about this. 

Hubby hasn't used the laptop in about a month and is well on the Wellmans so we'll see what happens with his next SA. All I can say is that I feel a lot more positive now than I did a couple of weeks ago so I'm going to do my best to hold on to that!!!

Xxx


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## BroodyChick (Nov 30, 2009)

Just remember, it takes only ONE spermie to get pregnant


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## NicL (Nov 11, 2011)

hi there

sorry you are going through this.  I agree with some of the other posts here that it is worth getting an idea of what the timescales for treatment are at your chosen clinic. 

We were diagnosed with MF issues two years ago (low motility). This appears (fingers crossed) to have rectified itself. DH was on a whole host of vitamins but also had high viscocity (where the semen is too thick for the sperm to swim through) which i think was responsible for the low motility and was possibly down to an infection or the anti-depresants he takes. Anyway since the diagnosis the motility rates have increased and  high viscocity has gone. We had ICSI in november and his motility was over 70% (from 16%!). We got our bfp but sadly miscarried two weeks ago however we take strength from knowing we can get pregnant.

Anyway i am rambling now turning in to a me post and this is about you - what i am trying to say is that things can change (i know we have been relly lucky) but we still didnt fall pg naturally, and it took almost 18mths to get to treatment from diagnosis. In that time i was diagnosed with low overian reserve so time is not on our side and we had to get cracking.

My advice would be keep doing everything you can naturally but also start to look in to treatment. Also if you haven't, make sure you get basic tests done (AMH for ovarian reserves, FSH, 21 day progesterone etc) and also thyroid. Lots of doctors seem to think once an issue has been found thats it and dont investigate the partner, but i think its in around 40% of couples there are issues on both sides.

On finance side is egg sharing an option in Ireland? If you are eligible you would get almost free treatment. Its not for everyone, but its there as a possibility.

good luck

xx


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## raemie3001 (Dec 21, 2012)

BroodyChick, I like your thinking!

NicL, I'm so sorry to head about your MC, sending you hugs. And thanks for sharing your experience with me. 

In relation to the tests, I've had everything checked bar AMH which I had a blood test for yesterday so fingers crossed it's ok. 21 day progesterone is fine as is FSH. These tests showed my thyroid was very underactive but with medication it has normalised now. 

Re egg sharing (another new piece of information!) I don't think there are any problems with me, so far it appears to be mainly a male factor. I'm not sure if it's available here but I think if we hold out a few months we might be able to get the funds together for IVF/ICSI. It will give us a bit of time to get used to it too. The whole seems to work pretty quickly here so that's good. 

Thank you so much for your reply, I wish you success on your journey hun xxx


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## Sheilaweb (Mar 21, 2006)

Raime, if your ovarian reserve seems to be good, and you're under the age of 35, I would consider / look at clinics over here in UK, it might be worth the ferry / quick flight costs to offer to egg share,as Nic said, it may well be an option that you could consider which could save you £££ or - Euros !

Don't be dipping soo deeply into the house deposit fund if you don't need to 

NicL - soo sorry about your loss hunnie.... when I went through ICSI following our one and only natural pregnancy which sadly also ended in m/c, my clinic advised me that ladies who had undergone a m/c it was statistically slightly more likely the treatment would result in a BFP - wish you ladies all the very very best.
Sheila


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## MayUK (Jul 30, 2012)

Hi I can sympathize, its so hard to be told its likely to need IVF. 
I have PCOS and hubby has a low motile count. The NHS wont consider IUI for us unless the count is over 5 million, and they'd like it to be closer to 8. We were told on Friday that they'd try me on Clomid - so at least one of us works like clockwork. But after that it would need to be IVF. I was shocked I think I'd thought there would be dozens of stages before we got to IVF. 

We've both given up booze, we eat super healthy, and take all the vitamins, avoid hot baths etc. The nurse said temperature was key so I've been making him change into loose PJs as soon as he gets home from work. I don't think he will be able to take my nagging much longer though, so maybe IVF although its not what I wanted, would be better for our relationship. 

I think the nurse could see our shock, she said I know people think of IVF as a last chance saloon, but it does have a high success rate. Just don't feel pressured into it, I think people need time to get used to this type of treatment. Its hard not to think of it as part of your identity, but I'm trying to remember that if I had any other medical condition or my hubby did I wouldn't hesitate to get the right medical support.


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## Sheilaweb (Mar 21, 2006)

May, I would look into IVF before you commit to it fully, if there is the slightest chance you can achieve a natural pregnancy, go for it.... sadly, fertility treatment whether it's IVF or ICSI actually only has on average a 20% - 25% success rate.  Plus the number of attempts you get on the nhs will depend on where you live, and waiting times can fluctuate massively from clinic to clinic....  Very sadly, it's not the answer to everyones prayers, but it gives couples a lot of hope.

You're doing everything possible to maximise your chances, going through treatment is hard, so you need to be both mentally as well as physically ready for it.

Wishing you lovely ladies all the luck in the world.
Sheila


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