Azoospermia

**littlesunflowers** · 20-01-2012 23:35

Thanks for your replies RunningWithScissors and nicole83 - it's so great to have words of wisdom from people who have gone through this. 48ish hours after finding out, we're doing ok. We know we still want to raise children together, and if we need a donor to do that then we'll come to terms with it. As DP pointed out, we have two fur children (cats) - they're two of the most precious things we have, we love having them in our lives, and they aren't even the same species as us.

So many families have step-parents/kids these days, and no one thinks twice when the step-parents have a closer bond to the kids than a biological parent that doesn't have much to do with them. And in the case of a donor, not only have they 100% agreed to the existence of a child raised by someone else, there's also no access visits to worry about or arguing about child support - that's a better scenario than a lot of families I know!

We did have a moment last night when we realised that the family trees we'd traced recently might not be relevant to our offspring (we got back hundreds of years). That kinda hurt, and I suppose those little moments are going to keep coming for awhile. Still. We still have weeks before we know what we are up against, so for now we'll just wear loose underwear, keep taking menevit and elevit respectively, and see what happens!

**RunningWithScissors** · 21-01-2012 15:54

Good luck... its a lot to take in so take your time! It was about 16 months for us from finding out to actually going ahead with the donor...and about 13 months from a firm decision to actually going ahead with it.
We still have our moments now, not of regret, but a little sadness that things just won't be 'socially' normal, but we will do our best! And besides...this little nugget was so much more wanted and planned for than lots of babies out there. Thats one thing he/she will always know...we'd go the the ends of the earth to have his/her in our life, however he/she got here

**peoniesarepretty** · 23-01-2012 15:40

Hi littlesunflowers. So sorry for your news. I understand completely - we've been through exactly the same thing.

In fact, there's a thread going about this over in the Fertility Assistance forum.
Here

In my DH's case,they double checked the semen analysis result. Still zero. Then he had the fine needle aspiration and a biopsy, and still nothing - he was diagnosed with Sertoli cell only syndrome. But there is nothing to indicate why - no chromosome issues etc. We're now seeing Dr Golovsky (if you're in Sydney, can recommend him) and he is going to do a full micro dissection, and time it with egg collection on an ICSI cycle for me. We are hoping he finds something - he thinks it's a 50/50 chance. We had been previously given no hope by another doctor, so had already come to terms with it and decided we would go the donor path. But now we've been given hope there might be sperm found in DH. Who knows, but

!!

Good luck with everything. Happy to talk further if you want to!

**littlesunflowers** · 23-01-2012 22:08

Thanks peoniesarepretty, and I hope your new doctor is able to find sperm. I'm really quite amazed at all the stories I've been reading over the past few days - the number of times sperm just aren't where they're expected. When the doctor gave us the news I really thought that was going to be it for us but I have a lot more hope now. Is there an icon around here somewhere for sending someone sperm dust?

Thanks also for the pointer to the other thread, I hadn't managed to locate that yet but I will definitely be popping in!

**lego** · 08-02-2012 09:57

>littlesunflowers - I hope that things go well for you.

I've just received a call from a scientist at the lab, and they've asked me to provide another sample, as they weren't able to find any sperm. I knew that it wasn't a good call, so i did some googling and the info that i've found doesn't sound so promising. It was a bit of a shock to get that kinda news over the phone, and i'm a little shell-shocked by it.

>nicole83 - I'm really glad that you've posted your good news, and that you've been successful at changing the zero sperm count situation. I'll be regularly taking the ultivite now, and adding the goji, fishoil and aloe vera. I'm hopeing that things will be good in 3 months too.

**littlesunflowers** · 10-02-2012 09:42

Hi Lego. I am guessing you must be male! I can imagine what a shock it would have been to receive that news over the phone. Our GP called us back for an appointment to tell us in person, and also told us we still had options - and we were still shocked. So sad that you had to find out that way.

I've also done a lot of reading about causes of azoospermia - my DP has opted to wait and find out his actual cause rather than getting distracted by possible scenarios (and we should find out pretty soon now). But if you want to read up about it the best summary page I've found is at: http://sharedjourney.com/define/motility.html

**littlesunflowers** · 13-02-2012 22:15

Just a quick update from me...we got back DP's blood / chromosone / DNA fragmentation test results. Everything normal there.

Which is both helpful and yet not helpful at all.

We have a referral to a fertility specialist - which is both progress, and more waiting. Argh!

**RTT** · 09-09-2012 17:57

Hi littlesunflower... I hope your journey has turn to become a more positive one. My DH and I were in the exact same position as you and I'll never forget how heart breaking, scary it all seemed. We had to wait 8 weeks to see FS as everything shut down over Xmas. By the time the appointment came we were both a complete mess.
My husband ended up being a carrier of the cystic fibrosis gene which resulted in him missing the vas tube. So in other words he was born with a vasectomy. We were so lucky, this meant that we could have our own biological chn, the sperm was retrieved from DH via a needle to his testicals and icsi. We now have pur very beautiful 7 month old son.
I hope this post sees you well xxx

**dgl** · 10-09-2012 13:14

Hi everyone! I'm new to bubhub

My hubby and I found out last week that his SA result came back saying no sperm - azoospermia. We were both devastated

I have been doing a lot of Internet searching and been hearing stories which has given us some hope..

Hubby has done some blood tests on Friday, and we're meeting with the fertility clinic on Wednesday. We are in Perth so was wondering if any of you have any experience with clinics/specialists in Perth?

Thanks and hope there has been good news all round for everyone!

**littlesunflowers** · 11-09-2012 23:37

Hi dgl and RTT

dgl I am so sorry about the diagnosis - it's such a blow, isn't it, you never think it can happen to you. Make sure you look after each other whilst you wait for the test results. There are so many causes for azoospermia, and there is indeed hope, and even if the results are not what you think you want there are still other options open to you.

Thanks RTT for your story - ours is briefly summarised in my signature. We had a TESA (needle extraction) in June, but no sperm was found. A small biopsy found only spermatocytes (a few developmental stages before sperm). All DH's blood test results were normal, with no genetic abnormalities, and he's never had chemotherapy or worked with dangerous chemiacls - so essentially, his azoospermia is completely unexplained. The cells just don't mature.

We have chosen a donor that we are very happy with and very grateful for, so next IVF we know we will have some good sperm regardless. We're probably going to do a TESE (surgical biopsy) first; it's a difficult decision to make as the chances are low and no-one can say how healthy any sperm found will be, whereas we know the donor sperm is great quality. TESE or donor or childlessness are our only options now, and like most people in this situation we want to make sure we are making the right choice for our family. If only we could ask our future children which option they'd prefer!