vericocele surgery

[sweeetppea]

hello. i am 30 and my husband is 33 and we are trying for our first baby. my husband just had vericocele surgery on may 8th. the doctor said it could be 3 months before the surgery actually works. we have been trying to conceive since february. can you offer any information or advice? i know it is not my husbands fault but i am just so frustrated with this process. i want to know if the surgery worked! my gyn said i am fine, and ovulating and have no issues of my own. i do the clearblue easy ovulation test every month and it says i have the lh surge so that is when we have sex. ours doctors say that if by september/october we are not pregnant then we should look into artificial insemination. there are i think 3 methods doctors can use to get me pregnant, right? if you can help, i would appreciate it. thank you!

[Elaine Brown, MD]

Hi!
It takes three months for a man to make sperm, so that is why you have to wait to know about the results.  But remember, it only takes one sperm to make a baby, so there is no reason not to continue to try now.  I hope you have sex on many more days than just the ovulation days.  Ovulation predictors are good, but Mother Nature doesn't always follow the rules!  I think that Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) would be a good next step.  It is relatively inexpensive, and can boost your success rate.  If IUI doesn;'t do the trick ( I would not try it for more than 3-6 months ) you may want to proceed to ICSI.  That is intracytoplasmic sperm injection.  This is In Vitro, and comes with all the hassels and expense, but it would be a good "last resort". I suppose that the third option would be donor sperm.  This would certainly be easier on your pocket book, and may be an excellent option depending upon your feelings on the subject.  Once you hold the baby, you will very likely forget all about who donated the DNA!

Hope this is helpful!
Good luck!
Dr B

[sweeetppea]

dr. brown,
thank you so much for writing back to me. ok so now that i know that it takes 3 months to make sperm i understand why we have to wait 3 months to get my husband re-tested, so see if the surgery worked. i guess maybe they will do another sonogram on him too to make sure things look good. this is embarassing, especially since we have only been married a year and a half but we have sex 3 or 4 times around when the ovulation test says to have sex and only maybe 2 or 3 times a month in addition to that. my husband is a cop and has to be at work very early in the morning so he goes to bed early at night, and is asleep many nights before i even get into bed. he also plays hockey, which is at night and can get in the way of our alone time. i was wondering if he plays a hockey game on the nights that we are trying to conceive, and his body is hot and sweaty and then he comes home and takes a warm shower...can all that heat and sweatiness kill off some sperm? i know heat is not good for them. i wonder if he should not play on those night that we are trying. if i am not pregnant by october when i go to see my gyn again then i think iui will be the next option. what is the process and preparation for iui? i heard there are many options...putting sperm right into my cervix, another is putting sperm right into my uterus, another is sperm washing and another is putting the sperm right into the egg. his count and motility were low, but the doctor said that if we never came to him then we couldve gotten pregnant on our own and never knew there was a problem. so i dont even want to think about the egg donor thing because i dont think that will have to be an option for us. i think i would rather adopt a child than to be impregnated with another mans sperm and carry another mans child inside of me. that would destroy my husband. he sees me cry and says he feels like it is his fault. i feel so bad for how he feels. i just feel like it will never happen. i have been getting period cramps and sore breasts since i was ovulating and i keep thinking i am getting my period. it is due this sunday. so sorry for the long question. i am just so upset. christine.