[Fin]

Claudine,

Here are copies of some of the positive feedback I have received from other websites:

The following were taken from: www3.fertilethoughts.com

Yes - my dh was diagnosed with non-obstructive azoospermia.
It took us 3 IVF cycles with 3 testicular surgeries but we're pregnant and thrilled to pieces.

It's a tough road ahead but there can be success!

Good luck. Feel free to PM me if I can give you any addtl info.

__________________
Melissa
ttc#1 2 1/2 yrs
dx: severe male factor
IVF #1 9/03 - BFN
IVF #2 3/04 - m/c at 5w5d
The 3rd time's the charm! IVF #3 09/04
EDD 6/8/05
It's a girl!

Always a ya-ya.

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."
Dale Carnegie

and

Hi,

I just wanted to let you know that my husband is azospermic-which was discovered after 3 semen analysises came back 0 count.

We immediately went to a reproductive urologist (which is VERY different than a general urologist). The RU did a bunch of hormone testing, then finally we did a testicular biospy. It was during the biospy that it was discovered that my DH produces sperm, but he has severe scar tissue on both sides that prevent the sperm from ejaculating.

Anyway, long story long , we have gone through IVF several times and I have concieved twice through ICSI/IVF.

The one thing I can't emphasize enough, though, is that you bypass the general urologist and find someone who is board certified in reproductive urology.

Best of luck!

__________________
April

Triplet Mom to
Hannah 10/24/03-10/25/03
Ryan b/d 10/27/03
Abby b/d 10/28/03
==
A butterfly lights beside us like a sunbeam.
And for a brief moment,
Its glory and beauty belong to our world…
But then it flies on again,
And though we wish it could have stayed,
We feel so lucky to have seen it.

Will post others as other topics.

Lol

Fin

 

[Fin]

The following are from Kari on

www.rubber-ducky.org/carolynsboards

Re: Who's here and lurking?
Author: kari
Date: 02-19-05 21:42

Hi all!

We (my dh too) post occasionally. Like most of you, we have been on some crazy infertility roller coasters. In 03, we learned that my handsome hunk of love has testicular failure. We proceeded w/1st IVF cycle and TESE and zero sperm were found. We were devasted to say the least. The ever oh so heartless Urologist told me (after my retrieval) that donor or adoption were our only options. After much research and so much of your love and help on this board, we learned of other options. We found an amazing Male IF Urologist (Dr. Aaron Spitz in Mission Viejo) and did tests on Dh that should have been done long ago. We were then blessed with news that we had a chance with microdissection TESE.

In May 04, we flew to NY for a consultation with Dr. Schlegel at Cornell. He is AMAZING! After our meeting, we knew we had to give it a shot! We cycled in June and Dr. Schlegel found sperm! One of the greatest days of our lives! Unfortunately, we had a BFN, but we are heading back next week to try again. We believe in God and have a great feeling that this next cycle is in his plan ...a BFP plan!

Thank you to all for your support and XOXOXO in the past. It has made a HUGE difference to us!

Kari
TTC - 3 years
Me - (31) No known problems, but crazy in love with DH
DH - (36) Sertoli Cell - Non Obstructive Azoospermia
Sept 03 - So. Cal. cycle cnxld before retrieval
Oct 03 - So. Cal. cycle - 13 eggs retrvd, but zero sperm in TESE, no transfer
June 04 - Cornell NY cycle & TESE…sperm were found, but BFN
Mar 05 - Cornell NY cycle …start stims on 28th…so excited!

Kari also then sent me this reply:

FIN
Author: kari
Date: 02-22-05 13:57

Hi Fin,

Don't give up hope. After a "normal" TESE out here in Ca. in 03 that resulted in zero sperm, we were told by both the RE and Urologist that we were wasting time looking into microdissection TESE. Boy, were they wrong! We were (ARE) very fortunate and in June 04, Schlegel found sperm with the microdissection TESE!! Schlegel is truly amazing and you will find him to be extremely kind and passionate with your situation! Good luck in May and stay positive!

Thank you for the warm wishes! We will keep you posted!
Kari

Here is also one of her first posts:

Re: testicular biopsy
Author: BoBerry Chick
Date: 09-01-04 22:01

Hi,

We did a TESE which a urologist who did not specialize in MI and did not use microdissection tese technique. Zero sperm were found and we were told to adopt or use donor. We then proceeded with genectic and chromosone testing and were blessed w/no abnormalities. Dh took lots of vities, did acupuncture and 8 months later did microdissection tese w/schlegel in nyc. He is an amazing doctor to say the least. He found a couple hundred sperm that were motile and good overall quality. One vial was frozen for back up. We did ISCI and unfortunately, we are not pregnant. Our biggest fear is that other couples do not research the microdissection technique or Schlegel before proceeding w/a urologist who is not a male infertility specialist.

We are now planning another NYC visit for cycle # 4 and hope the frozen thaw. If those lil suckers do not make the thaw process, then Dh must have another surgery (hopefully this will not happen). Anyway, I am sorry to have made this short and lacked many details, but feel free to email me with any questions.

Good luck to you both!
Kari

 

[Fin]

The following are from Shan on

www.rubber-ducky.org/carolynsboards

And another one:

Re: Who's here and lurking? (baby ment)
Author: shan
Date: 02-21-05 20:19

Hi there,

I feel like this is my home, too, in fact I don't post anywhere else. My husband was diagnosed with azoospermia in May 2003, and we were immediately directed to Cornell and Dr. Schlegel. He ran a few tests, including the karyotype and Y-Microdeletion tests, and it came back that DH has Klinefelter's Syndrome (an extra X chromosome). Although it was very new (he had only operated on 7 patients with KS) he gave us a 75% shot at finding sperm via TESE. We cycled in Dec. '04 and were lucky to find sperm and be successful with cycle #1. Our DD was born 6 weeks early in July '04. She is happy and healthy and 7 months old this week!

I post when I can even though I can't help that much. We were lucky in that we were diagnosed right away, however hard that time was for us. It is so specific a diagnosis that most of the time I can't add anything that would help others in their journey. But I am always here praying for everyone.

Shan

Shan (31) No known problems
T (29) Azoospermia (Klinefelter's)
TESE/IVF/ICSI Dec. '03
DD born 7/04

She also posted the following elsewhere on the site:

Re: High FSH (child ment)
Author: shan
Date: 01-11-05 09:34

Hi Jennifer,

My husband also has high FSH, and is azoospermic. We went to Cornell and had TESE in conjunction with IVF/ICSI and were one of the lucky ones. We have a 5 1/2 month old baby girl. Based on my husband's diagnosis, the doctor (Dr. Schlegel) gave us a 75% chance of finding sperm via TESE. We wanted to do an IVF cycle in conjunction even though it meant we might not have anything to fertilize my eggs with. Our doctor has said he has had much better luck with fresh sperm samples rather than frozen (TESE beforehand). However, I met another girl at Cornell who had to use frozen for various reasons, and she was also successful. So as Willa mentioned, it might be a much more cost effective idea to do microdissection TESE beforehand as the cost of all of this is something I never could have imagined.

It is very daunting when you are first starting out, and the emotions are overwhelming. I wish your sister the best of luck and hopefully this board can help her.

Shan

Shan (31) No known problems
T (29) Azoospermia (Klinefelter's)
TESE/IVF/ICSI Dec. '03
DD born 7/04

Then her reply to me was:

Re: High FSH (child ment)
Author: shan
Date: 01-11-05 15:43

Hi Fin,

Off the top of my head, I don't know his stats- it was about a year and a half ago. Dr. Schlegel just said high FSH, testosterone in the low to normal range, his testicles are extremely small, though. My DH was diagnosed with Klinefelter's Syndrome (extra X chromosome) by Dr. Schlegel. We had gone to another "top" urologist for another opinion (because it would be much cheaper), and he did nothing to diagnose the issue, so of course unable to give any stats. Wanted to go straight to a biopsy. I tell you this because Dr. Schlegel said no to the biopsy, ordered specific blood tests to help diagnose KS (karyotype and Y-Microdeletion), and said we should do microdissection TESE because we most likely wouldn't find anything if we just did a biopsy. So, we felt so much more confident with Dr. Schlegel, and I definitely believe we wouldn't be here with our daughter today if we had gone to the other guy.

But I hear you when you say you are finding it hard to believe that Dr. Schlegel can perform a miracle for you- you are putting all of your hopes and dreams for a biological child into the hands of one guy and his lab, it's hard not to feel skeptical. It's really hard not to. We were, but we went with our gut. But I knew we were with the leaders in the field. There were only a few children from Klinefelter's men when we went to him, now there are about 15. So you know they are completely cutting edge and if we put our fate somewhere, we wanted it to be there. Have you had a consult over the phone? He also is very good at responding to e-mail, he may be able to give you some insight before you make a trip over here.

He was very honest with us, and the stats were in our favor, so we went ahead. If the chances of finding sperm were less than 50% we probably would have had DS back-up.

Good luck, and if you have any more questions, just ask.
Shan

Shan (31) No known problems
T (29) Azoospermia (Klinefelter's)
TESE/IVF/ICSI Dec. '03
DD born 7/04

 

[Fin]

The following are from b2004 on

www.rubber-ducky.org/carolynsboards

Re: Microdisection Tese Success Stories after failed Tese
Author: b2004
Date: 01-11-05 14:15

Hello, yes i had numerous zero count SA's and a multiple biopsy performed with no sperm found in 2003. After that set back we researched our situation and weighed our options and decided Schlegel was our best hope. That is when we went to Dr. Schlegel in 2004 for microdisection and he was able to find some.

We are so very pleased with Dr. Schlegel and his team and i am sure you will be too. Feel free to ask any other questions you might have. Good luck

And another:

Re: TESE Found nothing-have you ever heard...
Author: b2004
Date: 10-06-04 12:19

Jeannie, i would strongly recomend you meet with dr. schlegel at cornell. We had a biopsy and found nothing before going to schlegel. We then went through a procedurre with Schlegel and he was able to locate many!! we are very thankful we decided to meet with him, he has a technique that is able to target areas that may have a higher likelyhood of having sperm. Most biospys are like throwing darts at the dart board.....his procedure gives you alot better chance. WE are believers.

good luck and feel free to ask any other questions. take care

 

[Fin]

The following are from ZS on

www.rubber-ducky.org/carolynsboards

Re: TESE Found nothing-have you ever heard...
Author: zs
Date: 10-11-04 17:26

My biopsy showed I was diagnosed with Sertoli-cell only syndrome. I had that confirmed by 4 doctors. One was Dr. Goldstein at Cornell. He ran several additional tests and suggested that I had my varicocele fixed (both sides; medium to large). I had 2 doctors tell me don't bother it wouldn't do anything, and if they wanted to build a practice just on fixing that they could survive doing only that. In my case, I called Dr. Goldstein back and he said he thought it would help. Although I couldn't afford him doing it, he recommended another dr. (Dr Shenkyin at University of Stony Brook - he trained him) that accepted my insurance and would do it. It's been about 9 months, my last semen analysis showed I had a count of 31 million, and a concentration of 19 million. I was told I was a very rare case, they thought at the most I would probably end up with about 2 million if it worked at all which was a 50/50 chance. I also was on a low dose of chemo about 2 years ago among many other drugs. I've also read that sometimes once on chemo it could take a few years for things to turn back the way they were. Dr. Goldstein didn't think that had anything to do with it, but I'm not sure... The way my wife and I approached it (kind of as a self-defense mechanism I guess) was we'd give it a shot, although we didn't expect it to work -- I guess this way we weren't let down when it didn't. We're now both in shock that my surgery worked, and we just tried IUI today. Now we're hoping that works, but still going into it with the same attititude... I don't know if this helps, and I don't want to give out any false hope. Just something to consider I guess...

Hope I have not bombarded everyone with too much information.

Lol

Fin

 

[*Kim*]

http://www.fertilityfriends.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,22409.from1109238561/topicseen.html#msg280361

Fin has done about 3 posts of posts from other websites. My brain isnt awake yet and i could be wrong but is this right?

Love Kimx x

 

[Pilchardcat]

I don't like the look of it, if those people wanted to post on FF then they would, this could be breech of confidentiality ??

Shall we move them into the mod zone ?

 

[Pilchardcat]

Ok...I've moved them into here for now.

I will IM the poster Fin to let her know why they have been moved 

Amanda x

 

[*Kim*]

Thanks Amanda

I dont think its right really cos she has named the person and copied everything in her post.
Love Kimx  x x

 

[Pilchardcat]

I sent her an IM explaining what we had done and suggested to her that if she was posting these messages for a specific member to see then why did'nt she do it via the IM system instead

I also said the messages had NOT been deleted only moved to a safe area and that if they were approved they could be put back by Tony once he had seen them.

She seemed ok with this.

Amanda xxx

25/2 - IM from member :

Amanda,

I don't want to cause a problem but it took me ages to sort them all out and I did not get chance to make a copy for my records.

Could you please IM a copy so that I may print them off for my reference.

Thanks.

Fin

I sent her a copy of her post's back via IM