Sperm Testing

Sperm Testing

The fertility doctor had to also check my husband’s sperm. He needed to get a sample of the sperm and one day we had to go pick up a small plastic container with specific instructions to keep everything sterile. The specimen had to be taken and then within 30 minutes, it had to get to the lab for diagnosis.

My experience – Once we read the information about the sperm sample, I guess some men worry if there will be enough, etc. He only needs to ejaculate one time and that should be enough for the sample. There are certain things that he cannot do to get the ejaculate. He can only masturbate to get the sample and everything has to be clean. He has cannot touch in the sides of the container. (Make sure that you read all the directions).
Once you have the ejaculate, you have to take the container and make sure the sample stays at body temperature. So you have to put it in the brown bag, and not put the sample in your purse or on your car seat, you have to literally put the sample under you clothes near your skin to keep it warm. Once you get to the lab you take it out from under your clothes and give it to the lab. –

We will talk more about sperm tests and outcomes later.

HSG

I took a HSG (trying to get the definition) and they wanted to look at
my fallopian tubes.

This is the procedure - This is what happened to me:

I went into a room and changed my clothes to a hospital gown, everything off including underwear but I could wear socks.

I laid on a table underneath an x-ray machine. They insert a thin tube into your
uterus and send some methyl-blue dye up into your tubes. If it goes out through
the tubes it is not blocked, if it doesn't it is blocked. Because things go outside your tubes in not up through your tubes it may be a little uncomfortable.

Ok. This is completely my experience. It was painful..for about 1 minute I had deep
cramping. Now this is coming from someone that has had very bad cramping all of their life due to menstrual periods. So I should have been somewhat used to it. I held the hand of the nurse and gripped the table with all of my might.. The were counting down..10 more seconds, 9, 8, 7..I felt as if I wanted to rip the tube out from between my legs.. but I wanted to finish this so I just tried with all my might to deal with the pain. The test was pretty quick.

Finally it was over and the doctor started talking to me and showed me that
I had a left blocked tube. When I looked at the x-ray machine I could see the picture of the dye coming out of one side but not the other.

The nurse later while I was walking out of the room and was dressed, asked me
how I felt and I said ok but it hurt a lot. She said that some women feel as if
it hurts and some women it doesn't bother them at all.

I guess I was the unlucky one.

next thing my doctor wanted to do was to unblock the tubes (left side), check the other side (right side) and check my uterus.

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Post - Coitus Sperm Testing

I just heard about this and I am passing this along.  Please check with your doctor to see if this is an option.

If you have a male that doesn't want to have his sperm tested for whatever the reason..

There is this thing called Post coitus sperm testing.

You make an appointment with you doctor for the morning.  You plan for sex that morning and when he climax you have viable active sperm in your body
for a couple of hours. You run to your doctor and he can get the sample of the sperm that is inside of you and test it.

A great day to make a baby

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!

In the beginning ....

I tried using different fertility calendars online and I charted my fertility for months on end.  My periods were normal but nothing was happening.
I awoke in the morning and took my temperature and charted it on a online chart, started counting days after my period....on the 15th or so
a woman normally ovulates.. and that would be sex day...  I spit into a lens that when it dried you could tell when you
were ovulating... There was so many things that I did to try to get pregnant.  I checked myself for mucus in the cervix and I had a chart
that told me, on this day when you see this...this is happening.. when you discharge is clear..this is happening and so on.  So, I would run to the bathroom
and check myself.. how did I feel moody??? happy? Irritated?  I logged the information daily, but still my period kept coming.
I really didn't think that I had a fertility issue or fertility problems because I just thought that for some people it takes a while.
But once my doctor told me that after the age of 35 if you are trying for 6 months and nothing happens to contact them.. So I did.

I made an appointment for the doctor at a fertility clinic and my husband and I went. He told us that he would have to give us
some tests and not to assume anything or jump to any conclusions.. He explained how everything worked and that he needs
to run some tests on us to see what could be happening to our bodies.. I mean, one of the worse things about infertility is having to wait for everything
wait for tests, wait for procedures, wait for insurance to pay before the next item.. wait, wait, wait.....

One that thing was really cool about what he said. "He said that with the couples that he has seen, infertility usually is not just because of one person.
Either the man or the woman. It is usually a combination of BOTH.  There is an issue with the man and woman that creates a problem that causes them
not to conceive".

WHATEVER.....I was thinking.  Boy, I really thought it was my husbands problem..I mean, I take care of myself, exercise and eat right. I don't do drugs and I am a "social" drinker.
It must be because of him....

Did I have a rude awakening..


One Tip -
Prices for procedures vary dramatically per doctor... for a doctor that  I contacted  testing sperm cost $50.00 but another doctor a similar
sperm test  costs $110.00.  Make sure that you check prices for everything and check doctor. Check the doctors success rates
as well as reputations.

Sperm Testing -
check for size, motility, etc.  
I will give a better definition later.

It is so amazing

When you are infertile, you have a lot of things that flash through your mind, I would have never thought I would be in this situation.
Why is it that some of the most worst parents are on the ones that can get pregnant so easily.. so many people can take it for granted that they can have children,
even I... until I found out that I couldn't.  I just assumed. My brother and his wife is having baby after baby. She gets pregnant so easily she doesn't even know she is pregnant.
But on top of that, she doesn't even get sick!!  I am happy for her, but why not me? People can get pregant so easily, people can have abortions, some even throw their babies away
or give them away.. and the ones that really want them... Can't..

Like me..

I'm 36 and my clock is ticking so loud, it is about to come out of my chest. I still feel as if I am young, but I guess I am old when it comes for infertility. My doctor said that he
wants to freeze my eggs asap..

Cost $900.00 to get the eggs out of me and to store them.

After that $375.00 a year to store them... just in case in the future I want children.. I would be older, but my eggs would be the eggs of a 36 year old woman.

learning about my infertility

I come from a family that didn't talk about sex at all. I went to college and got married. When I decided to get pregnant and finally threw away my birth control
pills after years, nothing happened. I was thinking that it would probably take a while for the hormones to leave my body, since I have been on bc
for over ten years.. After two years and now I was 35. I finally realized that it was a problem.  Nothing was happening??? My doctors always told me not to wait because once you
are over 35 you are considered higher risk and that is not the time to find out that you are infertile. Now that you are older and you have to deal with that
then you have to deal with the fact that you may have to face more aggressive techniques than if you was younger. When I first went to my consultation with my doctor,
the first thing I said was (once he told me about all the aggressive things that I have to do), can I wait until Feb?????  He said with a resounding "NO!!!!"
Time is against us.  I am going to tell you the real details... in this blog.

It is truly amazing that no one talks about infertility..but 1 out of every 4 couples experience this.. Once I opened my mouth and started talking...every
one had a story. My mom, my sister, even people at work was going through the same thing..  Go figure?  

My doc told me that my husband and I have about a 10 - 13% chance of ever conceiving on our own, without medical intervention.

Shucks.