Male Factor Infertility

This is a difficult situation.

With counts so high and decent motility it is shocking that his morphology is so low. Have you had a sample tested at a different lab? Just a good idea to make sure your regular lab isn't being too strict.

Morphology is a heavily debated topic among male factor infertility trained urologists and andrologists. Their consensus usually errors on the side that morphology is not always 100% accurate. It is common to see a man with low to 0 normal forms have no problem creating a pregnancy. I could go on and on but will save you! Check out my post on morphology.

Has your husband seen a doctor for this issue? It would be best to have an appointment with a fertility trained urologist to make sure he doesn't have any underlying causes for the poor quality, for example a varicocele. IVF centers and RE doctors are focused and trained on female fertility and often lack the proper training to treat male factor infertility.

If you are not responding well to Clomid this raises concern about a slight female factor playing in on this issue as well. The combination of his low morphology and your poor stimulation with clomid is likely holding up the show. Don't give up yet. Keep trying naturally and trying a few IUI's is always a nice place to start since spending a few thousand could save you $10-15k in the long run.

Best of luck and please keep us posted on your journey.

Amy Perkins, MS, TS
Laboratory Supervisor
Arizona Andrology Laboratory & Cryobank
International Center for Vasectomy Reversal

Thanks a lot for your response.

Yes, my husband saw a urologist right away after getting the first semen analysis back and he said he might have a very small varicocele, but nothing to be alarmed about. He told us he thought we would be able to conceive naturally based on his other high numbers but it might take awhile. However, I've read several other stories from women whose husbands have a similar issue with a high count and poor morphology, and so many times they were told they needed to go straight to IVF. This makes it so frustrating because we don't know if it's even worth it to spend the money or if we should just save up for IVF.

A little about me...
Before we tried Clomid, I was having normal 30 day cycles and ovulating around day 15. Clomid made my cycles very long (which I understand is normal for Clomid), but I did eventually ovulate around day 20. While I was on Clomid, I had no monitoring so I'm not really sure how I responded to it. The only thing I knew was that I had absolutely no cervical mucus while I was on it and that was odd for me. After coming off Clomid, my cycles stayed long and they have gotten longer and longer. A few 33 day cycles, 36, 40, and now my current cycle is going to end up being 50 days. I have started taking FertileAid for women because it has Vitex and B6 so I'm hoping this will help regulate me. Otherwise I have thought about going back on birth control for a few months to get myself regulated again. The Clomid also seemed to really throw off my hormones because I have had lots of strange mid cycle spotting that is unusual for me. I just wish I could take back those 3 cycles that I took Clomid because now I'm all screwed up. I made an appointment with an Endocrinologist for next month... I'm hoping he might be able to get my hormones back to normal.
So anyway, I realize we both have issues here. I think we will probably end up trying naturally for at least another 6 months before making the decision to try IUI. If not, it will be a few years before we will have enough money to do IVF.

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

Heather

The lengthening cycles are of concern and can be a sign of female infertility. Keep us posted on your upcoming appointment.

Amy

Hello,
I have been surfing around on the internet trying to find information on 0% morphology and ran into your post. My husband as well had a good count and motility, but 0% morphology. That was his first anaylsis, but is scheduled to see a doctor to give him more information. I have seen mixed reviews online, but most were negative and said a very rare chance in getting pregnant. I noticed your post was about a year ago. Do you have insight on what you all ended up doing? Were you able to get pregnant? Any advise would be very helpful!!!

Thanks,
Sarah