A Turning Point Toward Pregnancy
“Azoospermia” means that there is no sperm in a man’s semen.
“Obstructive azoospermia” means that the testes themselves are able to produce sperm, but the transport pathway, such as the vas deferens or epididymis, is blocked, preventing sperm from being released from the body.
Patients with this condition usually need surgical sperm retrieval, followed by assisted reproduction to achieve pregnancy.
Recently at Yun-I, we had a couple in which the husband’s semen analysis showed no sperm.
He had also been examined by two urology clinics and had even undergone a testicular biopsy, confirming the diagnosis of obstructive azoospermia.
The wife entered IVF treatment, and I also arranged for the husband to undergo surgical sperm retrieval on the same day as egg retrieval.
In very rare cases, if the obstruction is incomplete, for example if part of the epididymis remains open or part of the vas deferens is narrowed, a small number of sperm may sometimes be found in the semen during certain ejaculations.
However, the probability of this happening is relatively low.
Dr. Hui-Po Li recommended that after the wife began ovarian stimulation injections, the husband come to Yun-I every three days to collect semen on his own, to see whether there might be a chance to collect sperm.
If successful, the husband could avoid one surgical procedure, and he was willing to cooperate.
Before egg retrieval, during the husband’s third semen collection, 260,000 sperm per cc were found in the semen.
However, the other two collections and the fourth collection on the day of egg retrieval still showed no sperm.
We therefore used the frozen sperm obtained from the husband’s third collection to perform intracytoplasmic sperm injection, ICSI.
Today, seven blastocyst-stage embryos were successfully frozen.
This couple has truly worked hard.
The husband collected semen four times in one cycle, and finally one collection reached the target, allowing him to avoid surgical sperm retrieval.
This was truly rare good luck 👍
We also wish them “good pregnancy luck” 💞
Yun-I wishes you good pregnancy luck!
