No Surprises, but No Great News Either

Count: 5 million (normal 20 million)
Motility: 22% forward movement
Morphology 0%
2 Varicoceles (small to medium)

So, no surprises. The varicoceles were new info, but not a huge surprise to me. I really liked the doctor. Very matter of fact, while still not unnecessarily scaring us. And, he gave us a ton of information to read and think about...which I LOVE!

Basically, we were told that right now our only/best chance was IVF w/ ICSI. However, he's not ready to send us down that path just yet. First, we had bloodwork done today and will do a second SA to confirm the first on Thursday. Dr. B has a hunch that hormonal imbalances may be at play and the blood work will show that. If that's the case, he suggests Tamoxifen to increase count (and possibly morphology). His hope is that he could get us into the range that made IUI possible (20 million count/4% normal morph). He made no mention of getting pregnant naturally as an option for us.

There is also the option of varicocele repair. However, based on what research I've done so far, and Dr. B's description of it's efficacy, I'm not exactly jumping on that train just yet. If the bloodwork comes back normal, I'd almost rather put the money that would go toward the varicocele repair towards the IVF clinical trial going on locally. I don't know...

So many what ifs still. Tamoxifen or not. Varicocele repair or not. IUI or not. Clinical trial or not. I'm not sure what's too early to at least start investigating or get the ball rolling on the clinical trial. I don't want to wait so long that the trial is closed to new patients. But, I also realize that any improve we can make betters are chances of successful IVF if it comes to that. I'm torn on this one. I think I'm off to do some research on Tamoxifen's success rates with morphology improvement...

In the meantime humble readers...did you or someone you know deal with MFI due to varicoceles or hormonal imbalance? If so, what treatment did they choose and did it work?