Hopeful Story
New Member
Hello everyone. These forums were very helpful to me on my fertility journey over the past 6 months, so I thought I would share more story. The more info people have, the better I think. If anyone wants more detail I'm happy to share. I don't know if I put this in the right forum so feel free to move it. I did not use clomid.
I'm 42 and been on testosterone gel for almost 15 years. Partner and I decided we want kids so we went straight to a fertility clinic. Our doctor is a reproductive endocrinologist. Did the semen analysis and 0 sperm, which I expected. At this point the doctor told me a few things turned out to not be accurate.
1) Insurance won't cover fertility meds for men. Out of pocket per month was gonna be around $1500 for hcg and fsh. Did a ton of research and Aetna will cover this as long as it's framed as the meds are needed for fertility due to hypogonadism. Not just for fertility. In essence, the diagnosis must be hypogonadism not infertility. Copays cost me $120/month.
2) You must go off testosterone or your sperm count won't go up. Even if I go off, the count will still be so low we'll almost certainly need IVF. I told her I want to try the meds while staying on testosterone. If after 6 months my count is still low, I will go off. She reluctantly agreed.
3) Take 10,000 units of hcg 1x week. I instead took 1000 EOD for 2 weeks. 750 EOD for 2 weeks. Then 500 EOD thereafter. I don't know if the higher doses at first were necessary or not, but my theory was my system needed a strong jumpstart after being shut down for 15 years. I also took between 75 and 125 units of fsh EOD the whole time. I played with the dose because it made me nauseous.
Did my second semen analysis 5 months in and the count went from 0 to a concentration of 24 million/ML. This test did concentration, not total. I'm guessing that would be somewhere around 75-100 million total in an average load. Never reduced the testosterone. My significant other got pregnant a couple weeks after that. Just hoping for a healthy pregnancy now! All I can say is what worked for me. Good luck to others that are trying!
I'm 42 and been on testosterone gel for almost 15 years. Partner and I decided we want kids so we went straight to a fertility clinic. Our doctor is a reproductive endocrinologist. Did the semen analysis and 0 sperm, which I expected. At this point the doctor told me a few things turned out to not be accurate.
1) Insurance won't cover fertility meds for men. Out of pocket per month was gonna be around $1500 for hcg and fsh. Did a ton of research and Aetna will cover this as long as it's framed as the meds are needed for fertility due to hypogonadism. Not just for fertility. In essence, the diagnosis must be hypogonadism not infertility. Copays cost me $120/month.
2) You must go off testosterone or your sperm count won't go up. Even if I go off, the count will still be so low we'll almost certainly need IVF. I told her I want to try the meds while staying on testosterone. If after 6 months my count is still low, I will go off. She reluctantly agreed.
3) Take 10,000 units of hcg 1x week. I instead took 1000 EOD for 2 weeks. 750 EOD for 2 weeks. Then 500 EOD thereafter. I don't know if the higher doses at first were necessary or not, but my theory was my system needed a strong jumpstart after being shut down for 15 years. I also took between 75 and 125 units of fsh EOD the whole time. I played with the dose because it made me nauseous.
Did my second semen analysis 5 months in and the count went from 0 to a concentration of 24 million/ML. This test did concentration, not total. I'm guessing that would be somewhere around 75-100 million total in an average load. Never reduced the testosterone. My significant other got pregnant a couple weeks after that. Just hoping for a healthy pregnancy now! All I can say is what worked for me. Good luck to others that are trying!
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Lastly, are Mom and baby healthy? Praying her pregnancy went smoothly with no issues. Looking forward to a response! 
