DNA Fragmentation & Varicocele
So, my husband & I have been ttc for 2 years with ‘unexplained infertility’. It’s been really hard & all the tests have been focused on me, including an investigative surgery (all normal). We were just about the push the button on IVF (NHS) when I got my BFP in early March, only to miscarry at 11 weeks in late April - it was really traumatic.
We decided to get him checked out. He often had achey downstairs & asked the GP about it - turns out it’s a varicocele, but the GP said there’s nothing they can do because he’s not in loads of pain & it hasn’t changed. He asked her about DNA frag test & she told him to stop searching for answers about our loss.
We decided to get the test anyway and we had devastating results. My husbands sperm looks fine in a normal semen analysis, but it’s wayyy out of the fertile range.
The embryologist basically said that it’s going to be very hard for us to conceive naturally or through IVF/ICSI & we are a huge risk for more miscarriages & said we need to see a male fertility doctor for a full work up including looking at the varicocele. We’ve emailed a few docs including Dr Ramsay and are waiting to hear back.
I’m so devastated. I’ve been clinging onto hope that IVF/ICSI would help, but now feel like my road just got longer & I’m terrified of more losses. I haven’t told my clinic yet, but I know they don’t do the DNA frag test & would just suggest ICSI if anything. Also, the funding expires next Feb & I don’t know if we have enough time to get my husband sorted. I feel like no one looks into men enough and they are 50% of the baby making process. I’m 35 now and I’m starting to worry about my age too.
Has anyone experienced something similar?
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Get a referral to the fertility clinic and they will send him to an urologist to look at the varicocele. Dr Ramsey is great, if you can go he is well worth it
My husband had pain down there as well so he pushed for a scan and they found bilateral varicocele. He kept calling the GP everytime and said it hurts when he workout and stuff. So they did the embolisation. We havent conceived yet though. Its been six months since his surgery. We had low morphology before that. He ddnt have his semen checked again since. He was taking coq10 600mg for a couple of months. We are doing icsi now after 6yrs of trying.
Hi, me and my husband have been in the same position and I hope this gives you some hope and positivity. We have been trying for a baby for 5 years, we have had 2 rounds of ivf through the NHS. The 1st round didn't work at all and the 2nd we did get a positive test but ended in a chemical. After a few more months of trying naturally with no success we bit the bullet and decided to go private. We went for a 3 cycle package, where we do 3 cycles of egg collection and then transfer the best embryo. The 1st cycle we only ended up with 1 day 3 embryo, which is in the freezer. Our 2nd we ended up with no embryos, all failing after day 3 and not making it to the blastocyst stage. Our consultant said this could be due to dna fragmentation in my partners sperm but doing a test is expensive and he said not much could be done with the results.
I wasn't happy with this explanation and pretty annoyed at this point. I found Dr Ramsay and he has been Our hero. We had numerous tests and it did turn out he had high
Dna fragmentation, he advised him to take impryl, drink pomegranate juice, no cycling, no hot baths etc. We went back after 2 months and his sperm had drastically improved. So much so that this morning I have had my first positive pregnancy test after trying naturally. I turned 40 last month. Sorry for the long post but I just wanted to let you know not to give up and if you can get to see Dr Ramsay before starting ivf I would 100% do it. I wish I knew this before we spent a fortune on ivf. Good luck and feel free to message me if you have any questions xxxx
Last July it was 77million count, 0% progressive motility and 0% normal forms. After seeing Dr Ramsay and retesting all were in the normal ranges
You are 100% doing the right thing by seeing Dr Ramsey first. I’ve had three failed IVF rounds before my husband was diagnosed with his varicocele. His count has always been too low to get a dna frag test so he underwent an embolization in Feb…we get our results in two days! Hopefullyyy, any embryos we make now will be healthy. Good luck x
Sorry to hear that - I know how hard it is as I am in a similar position. TTC for 2 years with unexplained infertility. Husbands regular sperm analysis all normal. Just about to start IVF so decided to get the DNA Frag (COMET) test done and results came back at 24% high fragmentation - way out the range for successful natural or IVF.
We just had an appointment with our NHS clinic and told them this - and they confirmed they would do ICSI. It was a nurse and not the embryologist so I wanted to ask about your comment that said the embryologist said that both IVF and ICSI would be unsuccessful with these results? I was kind of hanging on hope that ICSI would be the solution! Xx
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