Chances with with MFI?

[u/CrazyBusCrazyBus]

My husband just got a SA and the count was way lower than we expected. A little over 3 million with 30% motility not sure about the other numbers but he said they were within normal ranges. We did some at home tests earlier this year that were in the 10 million and 15 million range. Prior to this when we conceived our first child 5 years ago his count was something like 40 million.

He has implemented good lifestyle changes (all the recommended things for raising sperm quality) for over a year now. He takes multivitamin, coq10, and mucinex. He doesn't drink, smoke, or vape. He does have varicosile and an undescended teste which we know can cause issues but these were also factors before our last conception which happened quickly and resulted in a successful birth.

He is devastated by this news and I'm trying to help him (and honestly me) not spiral before he can talk to a doctor tomorrow. What are your success stories with MFI, particularly those that improved with treatment? Any specific things he should ask the doctor about?

[u/Temporary_North9758]

My husband was diagnosed with MFI in August with low count (3 million) and low motility (18%). We saw a reproductive urologist who diagnosed him with a large varicocele and recommended surgery, which he believed would improve his parameters in 6 months. In the meantime I had met with an REI through our fertility clinic and was diagnosed with low AMH- which shortened our TTC timeline. REI recommended jumping right to IVF because of my low AMH and because they could use ICSI to bypass the male factor issues. We ended up getting pregnant on our own without any intervention which feels like a miracle. Not sure if any of this is helpful, but know that there is hope!!

[u/Visual-Ad-2676 → u/Temporary_North9758]

That gives me hope! How many cycles it took you to get pregnant?😍 did you end up doing the surgery?

[u/Temporary_North9758 → u/Visual-Ad-2676]

It took 4 cycles after our appt with the REI. He didn’t end up doing the surgery but the urologist did say he should have it as some point as it can impact the health of his hormones, particularly testosterone

[u/Visual-Ad-2676 → u/Temporary_North9758]

How many months in total if you don’t mind me asking

[u/Temporary_North9758 → u/Visual-Ad-2676]

We were not trying/not preventing for 6 months. Got pregnant the 6th month which ended in a loss and led us to testing. So 10 months, but only 4 of them were pinpointing ovulation and actively trying during the fertile window

[u/Visual-Ad-2676 → u/Temporary_North9758]

Awesome, congrats on your miracle ❤️

[u/Visual-Ad-2676]

Hey OMG our stories so similar. My husband had 44mil per ml and we conceived our baby number one quite easily. Now his last known count is 1.3 mil per ml with 66% progressive motility.

So my husband did two vericocele surgeries and while first one improved his counts during second something went wrong. Doppler results are ok, we are 1 year + post op.

My husband 3 weeks ago started HcG injections which I think already increased the volume (but we didn’t confirm it with SA). Also he takes all the expensive supplements with ASHAKAWA root.

Our plan is to try naturally for a year and then move to IUI. Surprisingly, in IUI groups a lot of successful MFI cases even with people who have 2-5mil of motile sperm in the ejaculate. Takes 3-6 attempts tho!

[u/Mysterious_Week8357]

We ended up going through ICSI to conceive after a MFI diagnosis, albeit it significantly more severe than in your case (sperm count circa 1.5 million, 10% motility).

We were told that we could/ should try to make lifestyle changes to improve things (mainly around stress and sleep in our case) but that it might not work, or it might take so long to work that my age would then be the limiting factor so if we really wanted another child ICSI was the only sensible route for us.