To ICSI or not to ICSI

[Dave]

Hi all, just wanted to say hello and get peoples thoughts and experiences. So far we have been through 3 ICSI cycles with no positive results, the reason we are doing ICSI is my sperm dont know which way to go!

I have good volumes, 50% motile but only 4% with good morphology.

So now we are at the point of having another consultation with a different clinic, as we were not convinced by previous one. We have been thinking about using donor sperm and doing IUI but the doctor advises continuing with ICSI. All right for him to say that as he isnt forking out the money to pay for it.

We have enough money saved up (with a little help from a credit card also) to pay for 3 rounds of ICSI at around £12000 but this will totally skint us. The wife is happy for us to do this but we are both apprehensive about getting 3 more fails and then no money.

We are thinking of foing 6 goes of IUI with DS before isci, as Im thinking if we did it the other way around I would be mortified.

Then there is the whole biological father thing, am I risking this to save money (but its a lot of money)

Anyone had anything similar or want to share your thoughts?

[Dave]

well its looks like this could end up being a diary! So we have changed clinics and at the consultation the doctor advised that we should keep going with icsi and my sperm, on the pretence that we are getting good eggs and sperm - creating good embrios. The problem we have is the is getting the embrios to implant and as we have had 3 cycles fail, the wife is now in the RIF (reoccuring implant failure) class. Which of course went down well!

We then talked about immuniology and he said that he would scratch the wifes inards, which will help create more protein to help the egg attach. he will also be prescribing aspirin to thin her blood, incase she has any clotting issues.

anyway, we feel better that he has different approaches, the centre of life seemed very rigid in approach.

We have been looking at the 2 Immuniology tests 1 & 2, both together costing £2300 - which is pretty steep but we want them.After looking into it we found that some people have managed to get test 1 done at their gp, its all blood tests, so we went and he has agreed. That's a saving of £100! Test 2 is to check for killer cells but need to get done elsewhere.

getting bloods took tomorrow, both of us....will update when i get a chance. wrote this on my phone, so apologies if its mumbo jumbo.

[mensfe_admin]

Glad things have moved on a little Dave and trust you have more confidence in the care you are now recieving - quite a journey............... good luck to you both.

Although it may appear quiet we are always here..

[chrisd]

Hi Dave

Welcome to mensfe and I hope you find the answers you are looking for.

Your situation is not something I can comment on from experience but when it comes to the potential of doner sperm we had the same problem but with an egg, all I can say now is that all the money saved in the world is nothing comepared to how me and my fantastic other half feel everytime we look into our sons eyes. He is ours and we are his, doner or not.

All the best to you both in your journey and I hope at your destination it turns out to be everything you have ever wanted.

Chris