Infertility

[nachoyely]

Hello,

I and my wife are being treated in a fertility clinic. After several tests, I have been identified non-obstructive azoospermia. They carried out a testicular biopsy (I believe this is called technically TESE) and they found 3 sperms (not thousands, just 3) in two samples that they frozen.

My wife is 27 and healthy.

I have got no other information apart from the blood test and hormonal results which look normal. I also had an ultrasound to check the structure of the testis. I have smaller than normal testis but normal otherwise at first glance.

The clinic has suggested to undergo ICSI but they have suggested that our chances are 5-10% and we should consider donor sperm as an alternative.

I have read articles about non-obstructive azoospermia and chances to find sperm in biopsy but they never talk about how many sperms are necessary to perform the ICSI.

In summary, what are my chances? should I undergo more advanced sperm retrieval techniques (such as microsurgerial retrieval of Epididymal sperm or microdissection) before going ahead with ICSI?

Thanks

Juan

[radostfx]

Dear Juan

I know exactly what you are talking about. I was also diagnosed with non-obstructive azoospermia. My results were even worse. I had ZERO sperm not even 3 in multiple samples. I had to do a biopsy myself which I now know (unfortunately too late) is a total hoax and unnessesary as primary evaluation. Just to cheer you up my results after one year are totally different.
After 3 urologists diagnosed me as hopeless and 3 IVF’s (with TESE which means testicular sperm extraction and it has nothing to do with the biopsy) which financially ruined me (all in all 200’000 USD) we were so frustrated and nearly gave up. I convinced my wife that we should try acupuncture and Chinese herb treatment (it was very hard to convince my wife to just try it because she is a MD and Ph.D herself and she considered these options as ridiculous and scientifically not proven). There is a chinese fertility specialist in San Francisco her name is Dr. Lifang Liang.
Surprisingly after starting that treatment I moved from Azoospermia (0 count) to low count Oligospermia (average sperm count appx 1 million) within 2 month (max. count was 3 million).
I have also changed my urologists to THE BEST MALE INFERTILITY UROLOGIST there currently is in the US (Dr. Paul Turek www.theturekclinic.com) his motto is “there is no such thing as total azoospermia”. He is officially the Guru of male infertility treatment. So I combined his treatment with the Chinese treatment.
The bad thing about our story is that after all we went through and beating all odds my wife now has infertility issues (because of all the unnessesary hormonal treatments of IVF’s which finally resulted in multiple collapses, hospitalization, dangerous weight loss, hair loss, anxiety, panic attacks, etc.).
Good luck, don’t give up and never trust your regular doctors. Inform yourself through books and internet and challenge your urologist. I am now convinced myself that there is no such thing as final diagnosis. Experiment, be open to anything and don’t stress yourself. Even change your lifestyle if it is necessary (I dropped 40 pounds, exercise every other day and eat healthy and believe it or not I still smoke 1 pack of cigarettes a day).
Good luck and don’t give up.

Tibor

[nachoyely]

Hi Tibor,

Thanks very much for your words of encouragement.

I will certainly follow your advise. If any, I have always fought my way out in life and this is not going to be the exception.

Good luck to you and your wife too.

Thanks

Juan