Friday, November 09, 2007

A few updates to report


Since the surgery there have been a few updates, but nothing to exciting. I did see a neurologist about me leg and I have Femoral Nerve Neuropathy. Basically that means that the nerve was damaged during the surgery. He was confident that it would continue to improve, and said that things should be back to normal in about 6 months or so. That is about what I had expected.

Rich and I went last week to have our ASA test done. Here is the technical information:
Anti-Sperm antibodies (ASA) is a test to assess the presence and level of antibodies against sperm components both in the male (direct IBT) and female (indirect IBT). These are two separate tests using two different specimens: semen from the male and blood or serum from the female. Both tests provide a reliable test to evaluate the cause and the reasons for infertility.
Clinical Significance and Test Methodology
For the male, the test is a direct immuno-bead assay that checks the presence of auto-antibodies directed to the sperm, including two Lg. classes: immunoglobulin G and immunoglobulin A. If excessive amounts of anti-bodies are bound to the surface of the sperm cell, they may mask receptors or other functionally important proteins, interfere with mobility and the sperm-egg interaction and thereby reduce the potential for successful fertilization. A positive test result may indicate of past exposure of the male reproductive system to his own immune system in the course of injury, inflammation or past vasectomy.
For the female, the test is an indirect immuno-bead assay and will measure antibodies to the sperm cells in the woman’s serum, including as above, Immunolglobulin A (or IgA) and Immunoglobulin G (or IgG). Such antibodies would interfere with the ability of the normal sperm to move up the female reproductive tract and fertilize the egg.
Our test came back negative, which is good. They did run a sperm analysis at that time and that was not so good news. Rich’s count was over 45 million in January, and last week it was 8 million. That is considered infertile. He has to go back in two weeks for a re-test. The RE still want to go ahead with the IUI in December. If do that it will be done in about 3 weeks. EEEEK!! I did ovulate on my own this month, so that was good to see. We will have to make a decision if we want to use Clomid next month to stimulate multiple follicles and produce multiple eggs. We’re not sure on that yet. Stay tuned, I will update more as information becomes available!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, that is a lot of techinical information, but very informative and thankfully you are gaining answers and with that possible solutions. Praying for those twins!!!

Beckie

nervoustoo2 said...

Thanks for sharing. I just found out today that I have a 10mm Cyst in my uterus. They want to do a DNC and a hystoscopy. I am very nervous. My husband also has what your husband has with the sperm anitobodies. Your blog was informative and comforted me as to what I should expect on Dec 12th

Blessings, Melissa King