When we first went for fertility investigations they tested Hubby's swimmers and we were pleased that he had a good sperm count and normal motility and morphology. But then they asked us if he played rugby or some other contact sport but he doesn't. They thought he might have had an injury to his testicles, which can sometimes happen. It turns out that he has 55% Sperm anti-bodies and the normal range is 0%!! We asked what this meant in relation to our fertility and they said it just meant that his sperm is sticky or can clump together which can affect the morphology but his swimmers were still good enough for IVF rather than ICSI.
During IVF #3 while I was coming round from the anesthetic used for EC, Hubby was told that his swimmers weren't good enough for IVF and they needed to do ICSI. Poor Hubby was shocked and mortified. He was told that he could try to give another sample if we definetly wanted to do IVF. He was trying to explain this to a me when the embryologist came back and said they'd made a mistake and his sample was good enough! Apparently they take a tiny bit of the sample and check it and they just happened to take a bad part of the sample! Phew!
After our IVF #3 cycle we decided to maybe look elsewhere for answers and went for a consultation at a clinic in London. At this appointment Hubby was advised to clean his pipes every other day! Apparently this keeps swimmers fresh and gets rid of old and damaged ones which can affect the good ones. The clinic also suggested that he get tested for sperm fragmentation. Luckily I persuaded Hubby not to get this test after he found out that the test cost £400-£600, was relatively new, and if you did have fragmentation there is no cure anyway apart from taking high doses of vitamin E and C. He now takes these vitamins anyway.
Hubby has always been very healthy but now he is like a saint in his quest for the best swimmers to aid our positive cycle. He has been caffine free for a couple of years, only drinking rooibos tea. He researches everything we should and shouldn't be eating, and cooks delicious meals that even include healthy versions of naughty food like chocolate brownies!
His latest research means that he now taking:
- Wellman Conception multivitamin
- Folic acid
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin E
- Maca
- Selenium
- L'arginine
- Iron
- Zinc
- Omega 3
- Garlic capsules
He is currently considering Melatonin after we found some studies about it:
http://www.natural-remedies-review.com/melatonin-for-fertility.html
If babies were given out for effort and positivity, Hubby would have won us our own football and cheerleading team! He's what keeps me going.
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