Him: Produced my sample…

I woke up early today, earlier than I normally would on a weekend. I was due to go and produce my sperm sample which would later be combined with the donor’s eggs which were also due to be collected today.

We had some misapprehension, because just 4 days earlier, they had almost cancelled the treatment due to a “sub-optimal response” to the drug treatment, but apparently things had improved, although we didn’t have any details of to what level they had improved.

I went to the hospital and was greeted by a nurse, and then fairly quickly taken to the sperm collection room. She asked me to hang around afterwards in case there were any problems with the sample and then left me to it.

I took my time producing the sample (as I have done the previous few times), as I believe that a stronger orgasm produces a better quality sperm sample. I think I had read that theory on a website – after I went searching when my first ever sperm test had a bad result.

They had a couple of adult magazines, and some adult DVDs to help provide stimulation. One of the DVDs was a unlabelled computer writable computer DVD which had some internet porn burned onto it, as opposed to other fairly soft-porn commercial DVDs. I guess one of the other patients had brought it in and left it – it was a lot better than the other DVDs.

After I’d sent the sample of for processing, I waited for the results… and waited… and waited… for about 1.5 hours.

I had seen several couples come and go, and just as I was beginning to think that they had forgotten about me, the original nurse that I saw walked by and asked if anyone had spoken to me yet? (So perhaps they had forgotten about me?) I said no, and she said she’d get someone…

Shortly after, I found out that my sperm sample had been within normal parameters… concentration of 48 million per millilitre, and 64% motility – so after washing and preparation, about 31 million per millilitre. I was relieved, and I think that had also been the highest concentration sperm sample that I remember.

This meant that they would do IVF (i.e. allowing the sperm to mix with the eggs for fertilisation) rather ICSI (injecting the sperm into the eggs).

Also they mentioned that 9 eggs had been collected from the donor. I wasn’t expecting to find this out, so was relieved to hear that too. Perhaps this is why they took longer in getting back to me with the results – as they were waiting for that too?

I didn’t find out the quality of the eggs, as I forgot to ask about that – but in a way I’m happy not to know – ignorance is bliss, as they say.

Tomorrow we should get a call, letting us know how the egg fertilisation went, and when the likely embryo transfer will be… fingers crossed!

Tags: egg collection, ivf, sperm sample