Hey guys,
Here I am again. Hijacking my wife's blog for the second time. First of all, thank you all for your lovely comments since Clare went online with our story. I must say it really hasn't sunk in yet. I'm the 'glass-is-half-empty' type of guy, so I'm always preparing for the worst and I'm quite nervous during this first trimester.
Half full or half empty?
I remember about two years ago when I spoke to a doctor in Holland telling me I didn't have a chance at having a baby naturally and that I should really start thinking about IVF or ICSI. Things did look bad with 95% of sperm not moving and 5% moving slow, 87% abnormal looking sperm, etc.
Then there was the London Clinic doc who didn't even think an improvement from 0% fast moving sperm to 40% was impressive and kept on promoting ICSI. You could see the dollar signs in his eyes. Or Sterling rather.
Anyway, it wasn't until a bright urologist in Morocco noticed I had a varicocele that things actually started to make sense, and change. And luckily, thanks to God we have made it. Well, at least, this far (I know what you're thinking - CHEER UP MR.T, STOP WITH THE NEGATIVE VIBES!......... meh).
Anyway, since there are a few among you who suffer from the same problem, I thought I'd write about what I did to make it better. Now believe me, if you're the type who thinks it won't help anyway, I am the worst when it comes to stuff like that, I never believed it would happen. Still don't, I don't believe stuff until it actually HAS happened.
I read all the internet sites that had info about bad sperm and how to improve it, and I tried it all despite not believing it. But enough of that, here's what I did and apparently it worked.
First of all, before you waste any more time, go get checked for a varicocele. I had a grade III and the heat was killing off the sperm. This thing can be solved quite easily and quickly, but you need at least 6 months to allow improvement. While waiting, I slept with an ice pack on the family jewels, each night. It's a regular pack used for sport injuries and it usually stays frozen cold for 1.5 hours. It's not the most comfortable thing to do, but it doubled my sperm from 16 million to 36 million per ml! Make sure you place it perfectly too, positioning is everything. A cold ass won't do much for your soldiers.
I took up sports, 3x a week for an hour. Mine was lots of cardio and weight lifting. I'm not sure the weight lifting was a good thing to do, but that's what I did.
I never smoked and I don't drink, so that was an easy part.
But I think the best thing I did was the supplements I took. My MIL was a great support. She took her time out to study the problem from a nutritional point of view and supplied me with Zinc, Arginine, Carnitine, Pomegranate Seeds, Ginseng, Selenium, Fish Oil and Multi-Vitamins.
And that's basically what made it better I guess. Three IUI's later, one little sperm made it through and here we are, patiently waiting.
If you are diagnosed with the same kind of problem, don't think these doctors know it all. Every body is different and there are no set guidelines for these problems. There are crackheads who get pregnant and have good sperm. Hell, I know an overly obese guy who smokes and eats the worst diet and has 3 healthy kids, produced in three years straight. So I would say, try absolutely everything you can before looking at different options, and never ever be discouraged. No matter how difficult or impossible it might seem. I was there, not too long ago. And now we actually got to phase one. Amazing!
Hopefully coming soon. A mini Mr. T. Or Miss.
