Using Donor eggs with poor quality sperm

[Keep_alive_kicking]

I recently had a failed cycle with donor eggs.
The donor had 14 eggs out of which 9 fertilised and 3 were transferred to me on the 3rd day. The cycle was unsuccessful but to my suprise the remaining 6 embryos were not good enough to freeze so I was left with no remaining embryos.
The RE said that my hubby's sperm was really bad quality and that has contributed a lot to the failure (even though they did ICSI and the 3 embrios transferred were said to be really good.
I was wondering whether anyone has been successful with donor eggs and bad quality sperm. I used to think that sperm problems could be solved but I am now really worried. Hubby's sperm was really good 2 years ago but his tests showed that his sperm deteriorating is only normal and due to age (he is 46.5).
Thank you for reading this.

[Keep_alive_kicking]

I never thought that my DH's sperm could cause a problem either. I thought that all issues could be overcome with ICSI. He is taking some medication now (basically vitamines, folic acid, etc) and we are going to try again in July. We did not even have any spare embryos from the first DE cycle so we will be doing everything from the beginning.
How did your cycle go?

Take care

[mollyist]

I just found this post! I just had a donor cycle that resulted in no high quality blasts. Devastating.  The embryologist mentioned the sperm contribution to the embryo - but I do not ever remember any RE even pausing when I questioned if my DH's sperm could have an impact when doing IUI/IVF.  No one inserted a warning before the DE cycle about poor quality anything.  In fact my ob/gyn went on and on about quality is all about the eggs and not the sperm.  It was all my fault before - it's always the eggs, but now it must be the sperm!!  I guess it can never be their fault, but there is always such condemnation of bad and old eggs - even from my woman RE.  I still think they might find a way to blame me somehow :).  Most RE's don't even offer sperm dna integrity assay.  

[hoping4_1]

Hi

Yes my DH has been taking fertile life for almost a year now. We think it has helped but have not confirmed with a test as we are broke.  When we did do IVF we didn't need ICSI and his sperm did fertilize all my eggs, but all ended up as aneuploidy. I was curious if it was more than just my bad eggs because the genetic testing showed we mostly had boys and some had extra sex chromosomes and the solo female only had one X. Not sure if that is consistent with AMA or if it's male factor or both.

[Keep_alive_kicking]

hoping4_1, globetrot, mhv

We did not do any PGD or genetic testing on the embies. Only ICSI.
The doctor recommended we do another sperm analysis at the same lab. He is doing it next week. Also, sometimes taking multivitamines helps. We will see.
This is really hard on him, he never expected it and he feels really sorry for me.
He remembered of all the times he had the laptop on his lap which he was not suppose to do. Also, wearing tight jeans can be harmful, smoking and alchochol. In hubby's case, I think it is his age because his sperm was really good 3 years ago and he already had a child, This makes it really worst because we cannot fight age. It's like women with 'older' ovaries.
I am thinking of donor embryos if the chances of using his sperm are very limited.
Will keep you posted.

[globetrot]

So are they having him do anything to try to improve his sperm quality?  If they don't suggest anything- you might want to do some research!  There is a book called 'Get Ready to Get Pregnant' and it has an excellent chapter for men.  Some of it is scary- because it talks about the environmental factors- but it is worth reading
Hope this helps!

[hoping4_1]

My husband had the sperm dna integrity assay (SCSA) and his sperm is terrible. My RE didn't do ICSI on us we did CGH testing on the embies. All of them were severely abnormal. When I called the lab they told me that it had to do with my egg quality not the sperm but now I wonder if that's the case.

Did you do PGD or and genetic testing on the embies?

Thanks for keeping us posted.

[mhv]

Wow!  Learned something new today!!!  I thought ICSI got rid of all of that!  Geez....

It sounds like he will have to give another sample, and they will test it from there. I can't imagine it would be anymore then that.

Man, that things you learn in this proccess!  

[Keep_alive_kicking]

I asked the very nice lady-embryologist (LvnEmbryos) about my DH's sperm problem.
This is her reply: ''Unfortunately, sperm can have a huge impact on embryo quality, since it is contributing half of the DNA to the embryo. Since most male factor expresses itself in embryo quality between Day 3 and the Blastocyst stage, it would stand to reason that this was a factor because there were no embryos to freeze. Have they suggested a diagnostic workup for your husband? Perhaps a sperm dna integrity assay? That will look at the quality of the DNA within the sperm''.

I really dont know what are next steps are going to be or how much more testing he can take. I guess I will have to ask him.

I would appreciate any comments...

Thank you ladies.
xxxx

[Keep_alive_kicking]

Thank you ladies for your posts.
I also thought that sperm issues could be overcome with ICSI.
I will investigate the topic further and let you know.
I have his sperm results and they are not so good I must say. He had blood hormonal tests and they seem normal. He is having an appointment on Wednesday so I will tell you what the doctor says.
MHV - I will look for that person LvnEmbryos and post a question to her also.
I imagine that sometimes (when the sperm is really bad) it can have a big impact on the embryos. That is why I guess you can get a sperm donor.
Oh so many mountains we have to climb.
Good luck to everyone!

[globetrot]

I am surprised they used 'bad' sperm.  They put my dh on folic acid to improve the quality of sperm.  There are other changes men can make to improve sperm quality- no alcohol, hot tubs, etc.  but it take a few months for the new sperm to be produced and ready to use.

Good luck to you! Keep us posted!

[mhv]

Interesting... I have never heard that about sperm making an egg bad.  I had always heard that ICSI took care of every problem that could arise!  Interesting! Very interesting!  I would love to hear more on this!  I too used donor eggs, and they weren't very good either.  Now I am wondering if the sperm had something to do with that along with the RE retreving them to late.  Wow, I sure hope others chime in.  
Hey, thought!  On the fertility forum,  on the right hand side of this page there is a link for a person on here   LvnEmbryos, you can leave you a note.  She is an embryologist in Chicago.  Maybe you could drop her a note, and see what she says.  I would love to know!!!

[hoping4_1]

Hi-

I don't have an answer for you but I am curious about this topic as I need to use DE myself and my DH has horrible sperm. I have had 8 natural pregnancies and 8 losses so I'm super worried that if we did ever do DE that we'd have the exact same problem you are.

My DH has been taking a supplement that will hopefully improve things.. has your DH taken any supplements? Did you guys do the SCSA?

Hope you get your answer soon.

xoxox