Frustrated with Semen Analysis

[Atia_Julii]

I am so frustrated, and would love your expertise.  My husband and I have been trying to conceive for 8 months with no luck.  I had a complete fertility work up, even did an HSG, and found out everything is great and working with me.  My husband had a semen analysis a year ago, and everything was normal.  But, our doctor ordered another one, and this time, everything was great, but his sperm morphology said 0% normal.  So the doctor reordered one, and had my husband do it 2 weeks after the first bad one, and once again, it said 0% normal sperm morphology.  I guess I'm confused because I thought it could take up to 6 weeks for sperm to regenerate.

Is it possible this was just a bad "batch?"

And if for some reason my husband's sperm has decreased so badly that he now has 0% normal sperm morphology (which seems odd to me) what are our options for conceiving?

Thank you.

[Johnswifey]

Had the same thing with my husband. 1st test normal, 2nd test a year later, different lab and his Normal morphology was 3%. Get another test at a different lab. My hubby ended up having something called varicocele, which you can google. Wasn't found in first lab tests, found a year later. Makes fertilization difficult...get hubby checked and you should get a second opinion on yourself as well. I had ALL normal test results. I tried to get PG for 2 years, did 4 IUI's and 1 IVF and nothing. Changed doctors, discovered endometriosis and a 3 1/2 inch cyst on my ovary. Just recovering from surgery, waiting to start IUI's again. Good luck to you I know how frustrating this all is....

[John Kim, M.D.]

Yes, you are correct. It takes at least 70 days to have a completely new batch of sperm to evaluate so the one done 2 weeks later just confirms the previous one and does not necessarily make the diagnosis. In additon, the type of semen analysis is important to make a diagnosis of 0% normal. This is called a strict criteria or Kruger. It requires a specially trained person to do it.  I wonder if you had a strict criteria done.
I wonder if you are seeing a specialist in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. If not, recommend it.

[Atia_Julii]

Bump for an MD response

[Atia_Julii]

And to be more specific, I'm confused why the doctor ordered another semen analysis so close to the one with bad results?  Isn't 2 weeks too soon?