Dropping Sperm Count

Question:

My wife and I are trying to conceive, and we are on our second IUI attempt. My question is with regards to my sperm count. Before we started the first IUI, I had a Semen analysis done and my sperm count was fine (somehere in the order of 70 million the first day). This was with an abstinance period of about 3 days. Then when we did the IUI, they said my sperm count was about 80 million the first day, 70 million the second day. Once again, with an inital abstinance period of about 3 days. So far, so good, but no pregnancy that month, so we went for a second IUI a month later. This time, they told my my sperm count was only 8 million day 1, and 6 million day 2(with an initial abstinance period of about 5 days). My question is what could possibly have changed in a month that would cause the sperm count to drop by that much. The nurses at the fertility clinic didn’t have an answer, so I made an appointment with a urologist which I will see in a couple of weeks. Any insight would be very helpful as I am completely stressed now.

Response:

I am gonna tell you the same thing my RE told us when we first went to see him and my DH had a really low count. Sperm count is relative. From batch to batch your count is going to vary. The question you really need to ask youself is what did you do 3 months ago…were you working in an extremely heated environment? (road construction or the like) Did you and your wife go through an emotionally stressful time? (a close relative passed away) Did you put in incredibly long hours at work? Were you eating alot of junk food and not getting a decent balanced diet? My DH’s count was at 20m/pml with only a 6% morphology (right shape) when we first had an s/a run on him last January. They reccommended we do IVF/ISCI right off the bat and not *waste time* on clomid with a count like that. I chose to wait out the summer and in June we had him rescanned and his count went up to 130m/pml with a 35% morphology. My RE thinks he just had a *bad batch* the first time around and that’s entirely possible. Sperm count is relative. Take good care of yourself for a few months all the way through, take prenatal vitamines (your clinic should have a mens version). Eat a balanced diet, don’t work long hours, and stay away from hot tubs and saunas or hot working environments. I’m not gonna tell you that dong these things is a garuntee that your count will go up, I am going to tell you it will increase your chances and in turn increase chances of a pg if the sperm count is the issue. I know it is stressful, and I wish you the best of luck Jen

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – My wife and I are trying to conceive, and we are on our second IUI attempt. My question is with regards to my sperm count. Before we started the first IUI, I had a Semen analysis done and my sperm count was fine (somehere in the order of 70 million the first day). This was with an abstinance period of about 3 days. Then when we did the IUI, they said my sperm count was about 80 million the first day, 70 million the second day. Once again, with an inital abstinance period of about 3 days. So far, so good, but no pregnancy that month, so we went for a second IUI a month later. This time, they told my my sperm count was only 8 million day 1, and 6 million day 2(with an initial abstinance period of about 5 days). My question is what could possibly have changed in a month that would cause the sperm count to drop by that much. The nurses at the fertility clinic didn’t have an answer, so I made an appointment with a urologist which I will see in a couple of weeks. Any insight would be very helpful as I am completely stressed now.

Response:

The fertility clinic here in Nova Scotia requires three seperate SA’s over a period of three months before they will recomend any type of treatment. They said that one SA is not conclusive since something unusual may have happened three months ago while the sperm were forming. Luckily we already had two so we only had to get one more. Our clinic also makes you do 6 unmedicated cycles before they will proceed with any type of treatment… and that’s on top of all the time you spend trying *before* you even got into the clinic. Best of luck you you both!! – Leigh 7 unsuccessful cycles of Clomid still waiting for initial appointment with RE low sperm count and poor motility for DH … possible PCOS for me

Response:

Are you certain you are comparing the right numbers? My thought is that maybe one figure is your regular sperm count, while the other is the sperm count after washing? Probably not, but maybe. I’m also wondering whether the same lab did the count each time. Results vary from lab to lab depending on protocol. Another remote possibility is that 5 days abstinence was too much and you do better on 3 days abstinence. And a final possibility is that the original numbers referred to TOTAL sperm in the sample, while the later numbers referred to sperm per ml. This is unlikely, though, unless you produced something like 8 ml of semen, which is rather on the high end but still quite possible. Good luck!

Response:

Filed under: PCOS Treatment

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