Tuesday, January 19, 2010

One for my Homie

I'm back after a nice hiatus of trying to wrap our mind around another family loss. Thank you all for your kind comments and condolences. (Except for that last comment which apparently links you to As.ian Por.n, classy. And it is not Tickintime's comment, thank you sweetie!) Because of the last tasteless comment I'll be putting on comment moderation. I don't know of any other way to reduce the spam. If anyone knows how to delete a comment I'd love to get that one off of my last post. For some reason I'm just uncomfortable having that on the post announcing my FIL's passing, imagine that. {I figured it out!}

On another note, I thought I'd share a photo with you all. Now normally when people start IVF cycles they posts photos of all their meds. For us the process will start about 4-5 months in advance and this time it has nothing to do with me, yea! Hammer will be downing around 5-6 antioxidant pills each day in the hopes that it will reduce the DNA fragmentation in his sperm allowing us to have a chance at a successful IVF cycle, which will also be our last IVF cycle some time in late spring. When I know the date I'll set up a ticker but until then we're still a bit up in the air with everything that has happened lately. So that was a long introduction just to say here is the picture of all of Hammers pills, minus one that I forgot to order:

What he will be taking is the following:
-Vitamin C 200 mg
-Vitamin E 400 IU
-L Acetyl-Carnitine 1 gram
-L Carnitine 1 gram (morning and evening)
-Pycogenol 100 mg
-Co Q-10 75 mg

I looked into Proxeed which is a powdered form of all of these plus some others but Hammer wasn't into drinking his vitamins. Plus there have been studies on high levels of zinc and selenium having a negative effect on sperm DNA and these levels are found in Proxeed. So instead I read up on a few studies that were having positive effects and used those antioxidants and levels.

That and I read an interesting study recently which said that rather than abstaining from se.x for 3 days to increase sperm count, men with high sperm DFI should actually have se.x for 7 days leading up to ovulation. The study showed an average of a 10% reduction in DFI levels. Aside from probably having a tired Mrs. Hammer were going to give this a try as well. I know TMI but if it can help someone out there reading then it's worth it.

5 comments:

Andrea said...

Sending you love as you embark on this next segment of your lives. Hammer will breeze through all those supplements and all will be well, as I have FAITH in a brighter tomorrow :)

I'm so sorry you had to encounter some nutt who posted such ill thoughts in such a private space. Google how to remove the comment, as I think you can do so.

Much luck to you and your hubby and I'll be following you :)

Andrea
persuitofourfairytale.blogspot.com
ps so sorry again about your Father in Law, as loss hurts deeply.

Mandy said...

Welcome back. I hope you guys are finding some peace and healing in your lives. And as you wait to begin your next IVF, I pray that God shows you more of Himself and that He prepares you for what He has in store for you. Have fun trying in the meanwhile. In the midst of infertility, we kinda miss out on the fun of it all. :-)

Hillary said...

Whew, that is quite the slew of supplements. I hope they do bring improvement. Thinking of you!


makingmemom.blogspot.com

Brittney said...

Hi there. It's good to see a post from you - welcome back! I'm sorry your hubby has to take all those supplements. But I hope they are just what is needed to make your next cycle a success! Thinking of you and praying for you.

Miss Megan said...

Sorry to hear about your FIL.
I do have a question about how you ended up having the testing for the sperm DNA fragmentation. Is that the Sperm Chromatin Assay? I'm curious, because my husband and I had gotten a 2nd opinion from another RE out of state, and he suggested maybe running having that completed on my DH as we had many embies die between day 3 and day 5 (like 75%) and he thought the DNA fragmentation could be the cause. Would you be comfortable sharing more information with me about why they thought the testing was necessary and how they treat it? Thanks so much!