mid-week update

finally talked to the doc today. life has been way too crazy lately... i completely forgot to call him when he was back in the office on monday and then i did not have a single free second yesterday. but, in the end, the conversation wasn't all that earth-shattering anyway. my hysterosalpingogram results were totally normal, everything seems to be working exactly as it should be as far as my body is concerned.

fancy that.

the hubby had the sperm dna fragmentation test yesterday, and we'll get the results next week. in the meantime, we received a copy of the semen analysis, mailed from my doc's office, and have been trying to decipher it. based on the percentages, his motility is "low" (40%, when it should be 50% or more) and his morphology is "poor" (16% when it should be 30% or more). the lab that did his analysis uses the traditional World Health Organization numbers, but my internet research shows me that there is little agreement these days on the morphology breakdown. it seems that all kinds of newer research in the past couple of decades indicates that a much lower percentage of "normal" sperm is still totally average and viable. in fact, some sites i've found say that normal morphology is 15%, and that most men rate much lower (around 5%!). but i'm not sure if what they're looking at or counting as "normal" is different under those conditions, so... it's a little confusing. we're not sure how to react to this information, exactly. could it be that he actually is "normal?" or is this new perception of "normal" just plain silly, as this doctor: http://infertilityblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/sperm-morphology-mythology.html thinks? i really don't know. his results do say that 72% of his sperm have "head defects," which doesn't sound promising, and from my completely non-medical opinion, morphology seems harder to overcome with fertility "assistance" measures than motility. if all we had to worry about was his little guys getting up to the egg, we could do some kind of insemination, i'd imagine... but if, once they get there, they still can't get the job done because their heads are messed up, well... that's not so hopeful.

so we're still at a standstill for the time being, but i am really enjoying the break from the obsession/insanity. next week we'll have more results, another new cycle of mine should start by the end of the week, and it'll be a brand new day! ... one way or another.