consultation IVF IVF prep IVF/ICSI IVF#2 low sperm MFI ttc

Gearing up for IVF Cycle 2: The Follow-Up

Hello everyone. Oh my! I had no idea that it had been so long since I have posted. I sincerely apologize for not writing, but truth be told there hasn’t been much to write about. You were there via Instagram for the devastating blow of #BFN after the faint positive from the blue dye test. (Note to self: Never EVER use blue dye again). Then, there was the celebration of my ttc sisters who succeeded on their IVF journey. That was exciting and fun and sad at the same time. But I am still thrilled for them. Now, it’s back to reality.

I started birth control for IVF cycle number 2 on November 3rd. That tiny little sphere was basically my “here we go again world” war cry. And here we are taking it day by day. So what does today bring? Today brings intake. Yesterday was our follow-on What in the World (WITW) appointment.

 The news gave me a lot to think about.

The new pill regime begins
I talked to Dr. G and her response was the protocol worked beautifully. We produced 12 good quality eggs, 9 of which were mature. Four fertilized. Two eggs divided quite nicely. One was a beautiful blast, the other only slightly behind. They were implanted. One of the remaining stopped growing pretty quickly. The other actually looked like it was going to continue dividing. It was in the same stage as the slightly behind blastocyst when it stopped dividing as well. And nothing remained.

I asked if it was an egg issue, a sperm issue, or something else. And she explained that it could have been anything, but if she had to guess, she would have guessed S.’s sperm count. It was low. Really low. Much lower than it had been for the IUI and that was significantly less than 1M. When counting sperm per grid, S. only had 7 moving per grid. I’m linking this Mayo clinic page that breaks it down much better than I, but here’s my layman.

Sperm is looked at under the microscope to see how many normal sperm appear in squares on a grid pattern. If they use a big 4 corner squares gril, they are looking for a number x50K to determine sperm per ml. If done by 9 big squares grid, they are to look by x22K to determine sperm per ml. S. had 7 or 350K. A normal minimum is 5M and my husband (if I understood correctly) had 350K after sperm wash on the day of retrieval. 

Not exactly a great number
 All of that being said, Dr. G reminded me that it only takes one good sperm and one good egg for success. She also said that with counts this low the very DNA of the sperm can be affected and the embryos can stop developing if the pregnancy will not be viable or if there will be genetic issues. She suspects that is probably what happened to us despite the blastocyst and morula looking very good.

We’ve gone to one of the top specialists in the nation for male factor infertility and he said the S. had no findable issues. I think it’s time for a follow-up. Either way, we are pushing forward and I pray everything works out. I’m a couple of days away from ordering some of the meds and our community has been able to help with others. I am investing in no stress and just focusing on God.

We will conceive.

-K

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