Is anyone familiar with at-home sperm quality test kits and their reliability? I’ve been talking to our potential donor and he asked if we were familiar with these kits:
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They’re pretty limited, just count and ball park motility I think. Better than nothing but I’ve heard they’re expensive enough that a “real” SA is worth the upgrade, but I don’t know how that tallies when they’re not an established patient yet etc- I only know in the context of testing a partner in a dyad that’s TTC.
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Thanks, good to know!
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Oh and I will say, I’d be comfortable personally with a more limited test if there had been previous live births by that donor- that captures a lot of random factors like morphology in a lot of cases. In that case, a current good count would be a good indicator alone.
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That makes total sense. The donor doesn’t have kids, so it makes sense to spring for something at a clinic that gives us more info.
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I think that before husboo started doing known donor, he got a full workup from a sperm clinic that he was considering donating too. Maybe a few years in between but…
Are you guys on the known donor registry? Right after I joined they pulled a lot of stuff for a website remodel, but there’s still awesome info available
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Halp, I panic!
I just got one of those “automatic test results” emails from my medical group and apparently I tested absurdly positive for Cardiolipin AB IgM at 103 MPL U/mL.
It lists these parameters:
0 - 12 MPL U/mL
Negative: <13
Indeterminate: 13 - 20
Low-Med Positive: >20 - 80
High Positive: >80
So I’m like 50% even past the “high positive” threshold. The other two things that panel tested for (Cardiolipin AB IgG and Anticardiolipin IgA) are within reference range, not even the high end.
I have been Googling the fuck out of it and can’t fully make sense of what it means. I’ve managed to find that . . .
- it’s common “in people with abnormal blood clotting, autoimmune diseases like systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), or repeated miscarriages.”
- it could mean I have antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), which is a systemic autoimmune disease
- they’re going to want to run more tests on me to see what it is that I actually have; to diagnose APS, they generally re-run the test in 12 weeks
- common treatment for APS, if I have it, includes being on low-dose aspirin forever and getting heparin or lovenox injections during pregnancy
- there’s some chance that a single elevated result is due to infection, but other than some ongoing low-grade sinus stuff for over a year, I’ve been fine recently…
So, like, I don’t really have 12 weeks to wait to know something? IDK, I am in the TWW and took an aspirin tonight in panic, worried that if I didn’t it might interfere with implantation.
Also, apparently even with treatment the rate of successful pregnancy is 70%? How does that work with my already low odds being 39? Also also, if I have APS, that affects less than 1% of people—bad luck, why me?
I also am wondering if this flushes my chances of living to 120 in good health down the toilet? Both of my grandmothers had multiple strokes (one quite young), and both were incapacitated in different ways.
Really sort of freaking out over here.
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I’m sorry. Getting results like that by email seems like such an awful way to find out. I hope your doctor can see you soon to go over them. 
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One of the infertility groups I’m in on FB ends up with quite a few autoimmune RPL folks. The aspirin and blood thinners are super common. First off- Wobetide me to give any medical advice, however I WILL merely observe that taking aspirin while TTC is extremely common as it may improve conception odds- it doesn’t interfere with implantation like ibuprofen apparently. So I definitely wouldn’t worry there, personally. They had me on daily aspirin as part of my entire first IVF round, I think second too but I don’t remember.
But also just HUGS. That’s a lot to process. Blood thinners are super common during pregnancy, and from the people I know seem super effective. 
I hope you get some answers, and quickly. In the interim I’m guessing they’ll just have you take aspirin? At this point if you can, you may want to find an RI- reproductive immunologist.
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The Bumpers FB group from Latte’s due date is keeping a running tally of new pregnancies and their due dates. Of the about 125-150 active members (199 total but some are inactive so it’s hard to ballpark), there are 26 new pregnancies.
Feeling my Infertile Myrtle-ness today. Finally got SirB to contact our insurance navigator again so we can find out what our insurance will cover, since we’re not the normal case (since we are Established Infertiles).
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Further results from the same investigation rolled in this morning, and I’m out of range high for all the dRVVT tests and on the high side of normal for the lupus anticoagulant (LA) test. These results were accompanied by a statement saying this:
“Results are consistent with the presence of a lupus anticoagulant. As only persistent lupus anticoagulant (LA) positivity meets laboratory diagnostic criteria for antiphospholipid syndrome, repeat testing in 12 or more weeks is recommended, ideally in the absence of anticoagulant therapy.”
So, I’m not sure if aspirin counts as “anticoagulant therapy” but I really hope that, if I need it to get/stay pregnant, they don’t tell me to stay off it for 12 weeks in order to test again. The idea of having to suspend TTC for basically 3 months if this cycle doesn’t take is heartbreaking. But, like, do they need a confirmed diagnosis of the 12-week interval to start recommending/allowing that I try stuff? Can they prescribe/suggest merely on suspicion due to a single test?
I really hate both the idea of waiting and the idea of not waiting but having another miscarriage if I can’t get access to the meds I need. I’m 39—I don’t have time to wait.
And why, seriously why, do they not run these tests preventatively for people who are TICTACs? I could have had an answer to this back in 2019 when I first let my old doctor know I wanted to TTC in 2020. Maybe if I were treated, the Olive and the other little one might have lived.
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It probably does 
BUT I think it would be reasonable to ask them if you could just presumptively treat without another test. There’s risks with anti coagulation therapies of course, but like you said, time is a concern.
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I’m so sorry, wooljaguar. What a heartbreaking situation.
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Sending love wooljaguar.
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I keep being retroactively triggered by parts of the show Servant crossing my mind because…
very spoilery spoilers
…there’s an infertility plot point where the main character has a million positive pregnancy tests that she’s saved from all her miscarriages, and it’s explained that her body kills babies (not necessarily those exact words but similar), and then it turns out that when she gets a living child, she leaves it to die in a hot car, and they also make that character a completely unhinged over-controlling bitch of a character, and I just feel like my body is dealing with the same thing and that her character is a horrible way to portray people who struggle with what I’m struggling with.
I watched it months ago before my second miscarriage and it already rubbed me the wrong way but it just keeps crossing my mind as I deal with this diagnosis process.
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That’s a horrible shitty plot line.
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Well fuck that show 17 ways from Sunday. 
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Thank you for this heads up, I will be steering clear of this. What an awful story line.
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I GOT REFERRED TO ENDOCRINOLOGY.
THIS IS VERY EXCITING BECAUSE IT IS VALIDATING.
YAY KAISER.
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I’m like, shocked how relieved I am.
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