On Monday my husband had his appointment at the fertility clinic to have another sperm assessment and then a freeze in prep for when we start the IVF. Initially we were worried that he might find it tricky to ‘do the do’ after having his op last week but I was thrilled to hear that he hadn’t had a problem and was able to produce ‘the goods’. Yay!
Our joy was short-lived however because on Tuesday morning my husband was told that there were no live sperm in his sample at all! That means he went from a count of 2m in July to 0.5m in November and Om now! Not good.
In my opinion there can only be one thing to blame and that is the dreaded Crohn’s and everything that has happened to my husband over the last 6 months. The timings of the reduced count down to zero tally up with the treatment he’s been having recently. I fear that the surgery he had on his perianal area has damaged part of his reproductive system. Who knows if it will ever repair itself!
The doctor at the clinic said that we had 2 options. We could wait 6 weeks then have the semen assessment again to see if there is an improvement or we can try SSR (surgical sperm retrieval) although this may take 4 weeks or so to get an appointment. Well if we go for a repeat test and that doesn’t show an improvement (which i really don’t think it will) then in total we are looking at 10 weeks minimum before we can move forward with the IVF process. Argh!!
We chatted about it last night and have decided to go straight for the SSR. I have my fingers and toes crossed that the docs manage to get what they need so we can start our IVF. If they can’t get any live sperm by this method then i think we run out of options – it’s either donor sperm or the realisation that I will never get to experience a pregnancy. Both of these options make my blood run cold so I’m trying very hard to not let the thoughts enter my mind. There’s no point worrying about something that doesn’t need to be worried about yet!
I hope with all of my heart that the SSR is a success so we can get busy with this baby making business (with a little helping hand from the wonders of science).
I’ll keep you informed.
PS. If there is anyone out there who has experienced SSR, infertility due to no sperm, success stories etc then we’d love to hear about them. Please do leave a comment.
