“With your current results, IVF is the only option.” I had a feeling this was coming but still devastated and wondering why this wasn’t communicated at the outset.
Never had a positive test. I have endo symptoms but a clear ultrasound and normal labs. My husband has had 2 SAs, both came back with normal motility, good volume, count at the lowest end of normal, and low morphology. At first, his reproductive urologist did not make it seem like this was the sole reason we weren’t conceiving. She said it was “enough for IUI” and didn’t make it seem like our chances for spontaneous conception were exceptionally low.
Then they did a “test wash” for the second SA and the “post wash” total motile count was less than 1 million (almost 98% motile were lost.) Zero explanation just “not enough for IUI. Hope varicocele surgery helps.”
I tried for months to find any information about what these borderline numbers actually mean and came up empty. Finally meet her in person for the surgery and I ask how aggressively we should be pursuing IVF because I don’t understand what’s going on. She finally tells me that “with your current results, IVF is the most realistic option.” She put our IUI probability at less than 2% and I’m guessing spontaneous conception even lower.
She said something like 65% of people see improvement after surgery but reading between the lines…she’s saying we’re probably not magically going to be at spontaneous conception numbers. Maybe we’ll get to do IUI if we’re lucky.
The worst part isn’t IVF. I wish we could just start now. It’s the months and months of false hope and now waiting more months to get the follow up analysis and probably just end up at the IVF clinic almost a year from now once we’re finally cleared to start and off the wait list. After probably being forced by insurance to try IUI when there’s no hope.
Why, why wasn’t it clearly communicated to us MONTHS ago that our chances were this low? I’m begging any medical professionals who read this post to PLEASE communicate clearly even when the results are bad. The heartbreak is unreal.
Even on this sub people were really dismissive when I asked what our results meant and…lo and behold all my fears are finally confirmed.