So I have been doing fancy schmancy google searches all night long and am now even more confused.
Dr. Silber in St. Louis is a world renown RE...you may remember him from an infertility special a few years ago about couples going through IVF...it airs sometimes still on TLC. His website (http://www.infertile.com/) states...
There is no more confused medical care in our field than what is delivered by many urologists to the couple that suffers from "male infertility." In fact, many couples are told to delay the IVF treatment they should have had sooner (because of the wife's advancing age) in order just to wait for some dubious treatment of the male partner to increase his sperm count. Numerous control studies have demonstrated that administering clomid or nutritional supplements to the male does nothing to improve his sperm count, and the often suggested testosterone supplements just lowers rather than raises his sperm count, and may even render him totally sterile.
So what is appropriate treatment for male infertility in an infertile couple? For most men with low sperm counts, there is no treatment which will raise the sperm count, since sperm counts are genetically determined. It is best in cases of low sperm count to go directly to IVF and ICSI (which is injecting sperm into the egg) before the wife becomes so old that her older eggs become a compounding problem. Many physicians will try IUI first, intra-uterine insemination, but this is a waste of time and money. Washing the sperm and inserting it into the uterus will do nothing to get the sperm closer to the egg than sexual intercourse, although it may help the patients to feel like they are "doing something." The correct treatment for low sperm count is to go directly to IVF and ICSI.
Hmm. So maybe 6 months of clomid is a waste of time.
Also, does anyone know anything about mini-ivf? It is supposedly cheaper, produces less but higher quality eggs, and reduces the risk of multiples.
Dr Silber explains it in easy terms...
Think of this simple parable: If you are sitting under an apple tree, and wish to eat the most ripe and ready apples, you have a choice. You can chop down the tree, and look at every apple on the fallen tree to see which ones were ready. Or you can simply try to shake the lower branches and eat the one or two that have fallen. That is the idea of mini-IVF. For many patients, it will remove much of the aggravation and complexity associated with IVF, and also dramatically reduce the cost. But it requires a great deal of sophisticated ability to do well.
All of this information comes after research into antioxidants therapy and improving sperm counts (some studies show improvement, others don't) and state by state infertility insurance.
Here is a question. If we move to a new state in the next couple of years and suddenly have health insurance that includes some sort of infertility treatment, would our male factor be considered a pre-existing condition and not be covered?
Always questions, always. Thanks for helping!
I don't really know what to tell you about whether MFI is a pre-existing condition. As far as supplements to help MFI, I've heard good and bad things. But if you think it might help, it's always worth a try. Only problem is you'd have to be willing to give it time to possibly work. Are you still looking at trying IUI? Honestly it was just a waste of time and money for us. Rob had such severe issues too, there just wasn't any way that it was going to work. We had to use ICSI when we did IVF both times, so they could pick the best of the best to fertilize. I know it's rough being in limbo, but I'm sure you'll figure out what will be best in the long run.
ReplyDeleteMy wife (Peapod) and I are going through MFI and finally had to resort to IVF with ICSI. However, we did IUI for a few months, partially to get the funds in place, but partially also for me to be comfortable.
ReplyDeleteI realized that IUI was highly unlikely to work, but I wasn't willing to consider any other option until we tried it a couple of times. We had additional difficulties that made it take a lot longer than planned.. but I had to do IUI first.
If this round of IVF hadn't worked out, we probably would have gone to donor semen as well. But I had to try, I had to get my shot in.
Your husband is in the exact same spot I was in. Nothing medical, just bad roll of the genetic dice that put sperm counts in the abysmal category.
You probably don't really realize how difficult it is for a guy to be told that he doesn't have good swimmers. It's a deep down psychological hit that goes to everything we know about being a guy. What makes it worse is that cheapest solution, donor semen, is another massive blow to the ego. Not only can't I get my wife who I love pregnant, she has to go look for another man to satisfy her craving for a family.
It takes a while to work through this, and being a guy we won't share our feelings in depth. Realize that he's hurting in a way you can't help and that's why he's acting so erratically.
I'm not saying I know you and your husband's situation perfectly, but I do know how I felt and how other guys whose blogs I've read felt as well.
I think the worst part, is that we have just enough sperm for some level of false hope. If it had been 0 I think I would have felt differently.
Just a side note, you are totally justified in your feelings as well. Not saying he has any good reasons for being an "accidental jerk" as you are completely entitled to be angry, upset, and annoyed.
I'm not sure if MFI is a pre-existing condition for medical insurance ... but I think if the insurance comes through an employer it usually bypasses the pre-existing condition thing (not 100% sure).
ReplyDeleteWhat I can tell you is that any type of fertility treatment (even if everything has checked out A-Ok with you, does affect your ability to get disability insurance that covers pregnancy related complications.
I recently applied for disability after doing a few rounds of Clomid IUI (and pre-IVF), and while I'm covered for disability, no pregnancy related issues are covered (which kind of defeated our purposes of wanting to get it). So... if you're thinking about disability insurance to help in case you get put on bed rest, etc... apply for it before you have any infertility treatment. :)
I'm the wife of Vitamin C (comment above).
Hey girl,
ReplyDeleteI hate insurance crap. hate hate hate it! It like you need a phd to understand how it works and how to use it. I am trying to figure out if I can take some disability this month, and its like, impossible to figure it out.
on a good note, I put a little something in the mail to you. :) I hope it brightens your day :)
xoxo