Is It Worth Paying For An IVF/ICSI Cycle For Maybe Having A Baby?

Filed under: Health — jimmy @ 1:12 pm

It’s been a little more than a week since I’ve updated you on where my wife Christine and I are in our decision about what to do regarding having a baby. With terms like infertility, IVF, and donor sperm becoming a natural part of our lexicon these days, the exceptional response that so many of you have offered us has been tremendous. THANK YOU to everyone who has offered your opinions and we appreciate the incredible feedback.

Here’s what has happened since the last update:

I went back to the reproductive endocrinologist for another semen analysis to see if there was ANY WAY POSSIBLE to have a baby using my sperm. The prospects were grim according to the two previous test results which yielded 4% and 0% quality sperm respectively. So I wasn’t holding out much hope.

But imagine my surprise when the doctor said they found 8% motility (sperm that moved) which statistically is not that much different from the 4% since we are talking about MILLIONS of sperm. They like to see 50% motility for sperm to naturally do their thing and make babies naturally. While statistically it is possible since there are a little less than a million sperm that are motile, the likelihood of that happening is about as good as getting struck by lightning.

And yet there is GOOD NEWS in this now–the numbers are at least high enough that I can have MY BABY with Christine! Well, maybe. It will depend on that process called in vitro fertilization (IVF) and another specialized procedure called intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) (where the good sperm is injected into the middle of the egg to see if an embryo can be created from a fertilized egg). Since my quality sperm is so severely low, this is the ONLY way outside of that very small chance that one of my swimmers will find a way to reach Christine’s eggs. While physically possible, it is probably unlikely. So IVF/ICSI is basically our primary pathway for having a baby produced by both of us.

But now we face one of the biggest decisions of our marriage that could determine whether we finally have OUR baby or not. And we want YOUR help about what to do. Learn more about what we are facing and we welcome you to share your wisdom and experience with us by clicking here.