DNA fragmentation

My husband had high DNA fragmentation at 36%. Our doctor took a different approach and we were referred to a urologist who did a series of tests on my husband (inc. blood profile) turns out my husband had elevated estrogen which was lowering his testosterone and causing high dna fragmentation. He was put on medication for 3 months and when we retested it had gone gown to 24%. Only then did we proceed to IVF with Zymot (which is sperm selection method) just to act as another barrier. Happy to answer any questions x

We didn't do the test my partner's first results highly improved just by giving up alcohol, exercising regularly and taking supplements over the course of 3-4 months. Smoking is a massive predictor of sperm quality and DNA fragmentation, I'd be very surprised if it didn't make a big difference.

Hi Laura, our doctor said he didn’t recommend us seeing a urologist, which I found strange. We’re seeing another doctor soon to get a second opinion

We went to the clinic in Spain and they are big on DNA frag. They told my husband to quit coffee and alcohol for 3 months and take supplements. After that he did another sample and it went down significantly. DNA fragmentation is actually important as it can cause miscarriage even if the embryo implants. I would try to improve it first then go ahead and- your chances will increase significantly. Not only cigarettes but alcohol and coffee are factors

I would definitely get that second opinion. (I changed clinics twice as wasn’t happy with what they were saying, unfortunately some change nothing and you just keep going round after round ££££) For us it was what changed everything, before that my husband lost weight, went on a healthy diet, supplements and we got 5 embryos got them PGT-A tested of which none were genetically normal. Took a different approach and we got 8 embryos and 4 were genetically normal x

That’s amazing! I have also been reading so much about DNA fragmentation. My husband was using THC a lot when we had his first semen analysis and he reduced that and the count went up drastically. But now the frag is high. So he’s cut that out completely and I’m hoping it’ll improve the results. He doesn’t drink, never has. Follows a vegetarian diet. Doesn’t eat badly. He probably should do more exercise, which he doesn’t. I just didn’t want to put my body through the egg retrieval process and then the sperm quality is low and we get no embryos or poor quality ones or they don’t implant

I totally get that. I did 3 rounds of IVF and 3 transfers which resulted in nothing. It’s so much to mentally emotionally and physically go through. And once you’ve made those embryos you’re stuck with them so even if it means waiting I would definitely make sure the sperm is optimal 👌🏻 I remember the urologist also put my husband on proxceed as one of the supplements (we had a fertility nutritionist who also did a bespoke supplement plan for us egg and sperm) and for an hour every day he did testicular cooling (basically an ice pack on his balls) as well as Mediterranean diet, no alcohol or coffee!

I have him on all the vitamins and the prenatal one too! I think I am just going to go for the 2nd opinion. Wait out the next 2 months and get him retested. He also needs to go for all his blood work, so testosterone, thyroid, full blood count, diabetes etc. it’s strange that we’re dealing with male factor and I’m the one that had to give more blood work than him