The Husband's Turn...

By the late summer of 2011 I had figured out that my cycles were irregular, had lots of blood work that all came back normal, and an HSG that showed my right tubes were blocked. Next it was my husbands turn to get tested. From a woman's perspective it was really nice that for once he was the one to have tests and not me!

My Dr. put in an order for him to have a semen analysis done. He had 3 options on where he could give his sample.
1. He could drive to the Dr. office and do it there.
2. He could drive to the Dr. office and pick up the sealed cup, take it home and then get it to the lab within 1 hour.
3. He could go to Reproductive Biology Associates (RBA) and give it there.

He chose the last option. I'm sure he would have preferred to give the sample at home but was worried about getting stuck in traffic and not getting the sample there on time. I'll share what I know of his experience, maybe at some point I can get him to write a "guest blog".

He got to RBA and of course had to fill out the normal paperwork. After that he was taken to a room that was equipped with a video monitor. They gave him the cup to fill up. On the video monitor were several slide shows with images to aid in giving the sample.

I believe we got the results back about a week later. Here are what "normal" results should be:

• Ejaculate volume: 2 to 6 mL
• Viscosity: liquefies within 1 hour
• Gross and microscopic appearance: semen should be opaque or cream colored
• Sperm count: greater than 20 million per mL
• Sperm motility at 1 and 3 hours: greater than 50%
• Sperm morphology: more than 60% are normal

My husbands results showed a high ejaculate volume but a sperm count of around 15 million per mL and a low morphology. They had my husband repeat the test (this is pretty standard - some Dr's even like to get 3 samples). The 2nd test showed similar results, so now we not only have female infertility factors but male factors as well.

While I hoped my Dr. would still prescribe me Clomid she said: "You have a few too many factors influencing your infertility, 1) not ovulating regularly, 2) tubal occlusion, and 3) low sperm counts. I think that a consultation with RBA would be helpful so that you can decide which is the best treatment option for you. Doing clomid, may be all that you need, but most likely you will need more intervention than that."

So next up is a visit to RBA...