The nurse called to tell me Zach's SA results (some have asked what SA means....it means Semen Analysis...this is "The Big Test" for guys--you can click here to read more about it.)
The results weren’t quite as good as we expected...in our minds we thought it would be just peachy; he had one when we first started trying and everything was “amazing”…so local OBGYN hasn't really needed to do another SA due to his last test results being so good.
He results…He had:
2.5 milliliters (they like to see it 2.0 or above) {so this is good- by there books}
48 million sperm count (they like to see it 40mil or above) {so this is good- by there books}
Motility is 47% (they like to see it at 50% or above) he is a little low but they said they weren't concerned. {so this is ok, but could be better- by there books}
Normal Morphology is 4% (they like to see them at 30% or higher) so he is really low on his mortality. {This is very low and they are concerned- by there books}
My RE is out of town this week; which we knew, so it was my nurse giving me this information. She said that my Dr. will want to go over the results and he will make a plan from there and let us know his plan next week (remember in my "recap 1st visit post" I stated that the IUI/Injects plan was not set in stone until we had the SA report, the blood work back and he had my videos...well this is why). My nurse told me that "normally" he does one of two things in a situation like this if not both—however he may do neither. He could send Zach to an Urologist to get checked and if he is able to be put on medicine they will put him on medicine, and/or suggest IVF as they can pick out the bad sperm. We defiantly don't have the "worst of worst" news...but defiantly not the "best of best" either. Zach feels awful...it took me a while to accept the fact that my insides were not "normal"...well know he is going through this faze. Zach nor I have anything against IVF, we would do it in a heart beat...but it's so expensive...it will take us a while to save if that's the route we have to take...I still am hoping that my Dr. will come back and say that we still have an excellent chance at IUI/inject. as we will be able to jump right into that, however if it's IVF then we will take it one day at a time and go from there.
I know that God has a plan, we are finally getting answers and that is what we want. God doesn’t give you more than you can handle…if he thinks we can handle this we trust him; after all he is trusting us with this journey. Last night I told Zach that we will get through this, some how…some way. He is ok, just feels extremely bummed since 2 bumps in the road are harder to get over vs. one bump…but I reminded him that even if there were 5 bumps, if we believe we can get over them!
I am sorry that I did not write you all yesterday with the details, however it was a hard day for my husband which made it a hard day for me. But today is a new day and we are not going to let a couple little bumps in the road stand in the way of our dream! We have Faith...We believe...and we Trust that Our Lord and Savior has an amazing plan in store for us. Please say a tiny prayer for my husband and that he remains strong!
{If any of you are familiar with a low % of normal morphology, please email me and educate me on anything you might know…I am new at this! If any of you have success stories about low % of normal morphology please send me them b/c I would love to be able to show my husband…thanks}
Monday, July 13, 2009
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26 comments:
Hi Tiffany,
I know exactly how you are feeling yesterday and today. I am going to send you a email shortly. I just hope that you both still have faith and hope! Take care!
im sorry to hear the news girl. Tell zach to keep his head up as well as you
Bumps in the road are very stressful and make times depressing, but there are still several options. I am praying for you and your husband. My husband and I did IVF. Not because of his SA but because of me. However, it is very expensive but there are also some programs out there that can help. Ask your doctor. My insurance covered the procedure so I didn't look into the programs but I have heard several others talk about that. You will be parents one day or another when God is ready for you to be.
I'm sure everything will turn out great. I've known many men with worse numbers then that, that go on to father 3 or more kids.
Mike has to go in for a SA and he's so nervous. I feel back it must be terribly awkward for a guy to have to do that. However, he wants a baby bean as much as I do so he said he'll do it!
Those numbers all look great and remember everyone keeps telling me it just takes 1. :0)
Keeping you in my prayers today! I know this news was not easy but just keep your eyes on Him. He's gonna take you through it!
Sending a big hug your way. :)
I've been following your blog for a while now. My husband and I went to a fertility specialist after trying to conceive for a couple of years. I was diagnosed with PCOS. My husband's initial SA indicated low motility and low morphology. Our doctor recommeded a prescription vitamin (I can't remember the name) that is supposed to help. Also recommended for him to not workout or do anything out in the heat around when were trying to conceive. We did injections and IUI for our first non-clomid cycle. His levels showed still fairly low motility and morphology, but we went ahead with the IUI and it was successful! My little boy is 4 years old now! So there is hope and I guess it depends on the doctor if they'll try an IUI, but we were so glad we did and it saved us from having to do IVF. Good luck!
God WILL make a way sweetie!! I love that someone else said "it only takes 1" - so very true and God is certainly possibly of 1, 2, 3, 4..or MORE! Keep your eyes on the cross and your heart with Him - you guys are doing AMAZING and you have SOOOO many people praying for you and your precious baby to be!! By the way..this just came to me - we are in the process of thinking of baby names - so of course names are at the top of my head right now and the one that came to mind for your precious family would be Journey (for a sweet little girl :) because you have been faithful throughout this whole Journey!!
Love, hugs and thousands of prayers for you and your hubby!!
God bless!
Kelly and Family
God is in control! I firmly believer that! :)
Hey Tiff! We had a morphology issue too. The RE decided that we should still try IUI's. We did 4 without success and then tried IVF where they could pick the good sperm. This worked. The RE did feel that we had a chance at IUI's being successful though so yours might think so too! GOOD LUCK! YOu're in my prayers!!
Praying Zach is doing well, emotionally and mentally!!! *HUGS*
Hey TIff! On a similar note my hubby was at the bottom of the normal range in everything. Never above or even in the middle. If normal was 40 he was 40 so def. lower end normal...Personally I think one day we will ultimately need IVF him+me seems to not be equaling a baby on our own BUT what great knowledge to now have. Knowledge is power so you and your Doctors can do everything necessary now...
I know how you can feel overwhelmed and like there are so many bumps in the road. Hubby and I went over adoption finances last night and just kept thinking " How is this possible?" honestly we still don't know...but God knows and that is what we can have faith and hope in..and I know you know that cuz your awesome :)
We will be praying for you and all the future decisions you have!
I'm so sorry. I remember the day that our nurse gave me the bad news about my DH's SA. They couldn't find any sperm and wow was that a hard thing to tell my DH. I hope that IVF is not in your future, but if it is just remember that if this is God's plan then He will make a way for it to happen. He won't let the financial part of IVF stand in your way.
Carson had low motility and mortality as well. There are vitamins Zach can take and I read some stuff about Clomid for guys. Carson wasn't about to try anything... but then again, we already had Kamryn the "easy" way.
We're praying for you everday. I know how frustrating the whole process can be. Even with my PCOS, the low sperm motility and mortality... we conceived Mr. Owen all natural when we least expected it. God knows what he's doing.
Good luck!!!! :)
I forgot to mention.. we went to the urologist. Warn Zach before going. They do the man "feel em' up" and then they did a very unpleasant rectal exam. My husband was mortified and I think it scarred him for life. I on the other hand, had a case of the giggles because we have the OB invading our privacy all the time. Just a little notice, before the fact.
This is what I know about it. I am dealing with the same thing as well as unexplained infertility. My RE told me that i could try IUI with injectables but it probably wont work. So we are at a stand still right now.(it would be our
4th one)
Sperm morphology is routinely evaluated as part of a standard semen analysis. Morphology refers to the size and shape of the sperm. The results of a sperm morphology exam indicate the percentage of sperm that appear normal when semen is viewed under a microscope. Abnormal sperm morphology may be a contributing factor in infertility.
Normal sperm have an oval head with a long tail. Abnormal sperm may have head or tail defects — such as a large or misshapen head or a crooked or double tail. These defects may impair the ability of the sperm to reach and fertilize an egg.
Causes of abnormal morphology include:
Testicular abnormalities that are present at birth (congenital)
Enlargement of veins within the scrotum (varicocele)
High fever
Illicit drug use
Infections
The best recommendation is to repeat the semen analysis in four to six weeks to determine if the changes in morphology are temporary or permanent. Even with poor morphology, pregnancy may still be possible. Intrauterine insemination or in vitro fertilization methods are sometimes needed.
Tiff...so sorry the results weren't what you were hoping for. Continuing to pray for you both. Just glad that ya'll are getting some answers.
Hey Tiff-
It is ironic that you just posted this, because just THIS MORNING me and hubby went through the same thing. He had his first SA 3 weeks ago, and it came back with everything fine except the morphology was 1.5%. My clinic likes it to be above 4%. So we have started down the road to IVF with ICSI. Well today was his repeat SA, and it came back at 5.5% normal morphology!!!
Well I am in the unique situation of being a pharma rep that works with urologists all day. I asked one this morning as I was working about the 2 tests and what would he believe?
He told me that the way they do a SA is this: they take 200 random sperm from the sample and grade them. Now your sample has something like 150-200 MILLION sperm, so there is a big sampling error. He said do not get hung up in it, unless there is NO sperm, then there are problems.
But we are still continuing with an IVF w/ICSI due to religious reasons, we are able to control the number of embryos that are created w/ICSI, compared to regular IVF where "how ever many fertilize, fertilize" and then you have many many embryos that have to be frozen, destroyed or given away (just something to think about)! Good luck sweetie, dont sweat it, it will all still happen.
-Heather
That's good to know! I am currently under the impression that my husband's SA will be fine (he gets it next month) since I'm the one with all the medical issues....but it's interesting that his weren't as good as you thought. I hope you guys get it all worked out!!!!!!!!
Praying for both of you!!!! Everything will work out...it takes the mountains that we climb to appreciate the easy road :)
Hi! Thanks for leaving me a comment! I will definitely pray for your husband! I'm sure he appreciates such a supportive wife at this time!! We are not dealing with MFI, so I don't have alot of education where that is concerned, but it looks like the previous commenters took care of that! Sometimes it's hard to trust that God has such joyful things in store for us that we can't even imagine, but I fully believe that to be true!
tiffany, i haven't written in a while. anyways, i just had another SA done for my husband today. don't have the results back yet. but, here are my stories of hope for you.
my friend is having twins after iui and injectables. her husbands morphology was at 3% after quitting smoking and eating better it improved.
the best one is my sister in law. her and her husband tried for 14 years to get pregnant and never did until IVF. his morphology has always been under 2%. they ended up having twins. now, the twins are 14 months and she just got pregnant naturally. miracles happen! i know you can get pregnant with morphology but it often times ends in a chemical because of the sperm deformation. but their story is inspiring because they beat the odds. you will be fine. i think you should have a few SA's because they can very. this is my husbands 3rd. he has low motility.
good luck,
erin
I know I've already commented on FB, but I want you to know again that you and Zach are both in my prayers. It's already hard when we women know something is not quite right with us, but to see the hurt on our husband's face is more than we care to see. I have faith that you will get your child from God...somehow, someway (the Tiff motto)! Love ya!
Hey girl. I just want you to remember that the more info you have the better your chances of conceiving. Of course you and ALL of us wanted his results to be perfect but, I truely believe that knowing this info will give you some peace of mind. Knowing that there is something "wrong" helps know that it can be fixed and you are one step closer to parenthood. I still pray for you and know that you will be pregnant!
Hi Tiffany! I saw your comment on my blog...
First off, I wouldnt worry too much about the morph only being 4%. Morph is very controveriasl topic amoung RE's, some think its not a big deal at all and you can coneive on your own (although it may take a little longer, and some condisder it an issue. My RE beleives that it is the least of male factor issues to worry about,meanig if all otber numbers are fine then its nothing to worry about. We got PG with low morph doing IUI's, and I know many others who have as well. Even Dr. Liccardi (the NYU infertiliy blog on my blog list) beleives that morph does not mean IVF, he beleives couples can get pg just fine with IUI's given all other numbers are normal, and your are pretty much, so thats GREAT!! I personally dont really see a need to go see a uro, but see what your RE says. But jsut try and remain poistive!!
As far as injectables go, the month that worked for us was a combined clomid & follistim protocal. I love follistim because it is SO easy to use (comes with a pen to inject so no mixing vials, etc!) and it really doesnt hurt at all! Very easy injection. You may be bloated, etc. but thats normal.
Feel free to ask any other questions and I wish you the best of luck!!
Tiffany, I have been following your blog for some time now. My husband & I had tried to conceive for about 15 months. My uterus is actually backwards and I didn't ovulate each month plus my husband really low motility % as well as abnormal morphology. I just have to say the Lord has plans for you two, stay strong. We did clomid and IUIs for both of our children. Our little girl Gracie is now 5 and our son Cameron is now 2. Keep your spirits high and know you have many people praying for you.
Thanks for your recent comment on my blog. I see that you are taking the injection class today! They did not make us give on during the class, I hope you don't have to either!
I look forward to following your journey, hang in there!
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