Effectiveness of IVF -- In regards to a Male CFer and female non-CF

[cfgf0417]

Hello,
My boyfriend, Dylan, has CF. We have already been told by a urologist that about 75% of his vas deferens are missing, but have yet to have any more tests done to see if I am a carrier yet. We are not prepared to have children yet, I was just curious how effectively IVF has worked for other people in our situation.

 

[brad.johns]

It worked very well for us. We have 3 children all from IVF (13, 8, and 8). We had the same situation. I have CF and my wife does not. For us it was all about how well my wife's eggs progressed. It took us 2 cycles each of the two times she became pregnant.

 

[hammerpocket]

IVF worked for me (CF) and my wife (non-CF) on the first try! Our daughter is now 7 years old.

 

[julie]

I also had success the first go round with IVF back in 2006. I have 8 year old triplets now ;-).

I also had a website on the topic. The site is currently not hosted due to funding issues, but one of tech guys from this website helped me track down this archive. All the links still work and everything still seems to be in place https://web.archive.org/web/20140113125355/http://cysticfibrosismaleinfertility.com/

 

[Hail2Pitt]

My wife and I were successful on our first round as well. We have beautiful baby (well, toddler now) twins!

I was told the number is higher than 75%, but regardless, the majority of male CFers have this issue. Men need to have a minor procedure to extract the sperm, but as scary as it might sound (most guys don't want a needle anywhere near that area ), it's not really a big deal. Otherwise, the IVF process looks the same for CF and non-CF couples.

The fertility clinic my wife and I used has what they call a "shared risk" program, where you basically pay a flat amount. If you give birth to a child after one or two rounds of IVF, you end up paying more than you would have if you just paid round by round (but how can you be upset - you have a baby!). If it takes more rounds, then you end up paying less than you would have paid. And, if you unfortunately are not successful, you get your money back. As you can imagine, they only let couples into this program who they feel are very likely to have success. The point of me bringing this up is that me having CF was a non-factor in them deciding to let us be part of this program.

 

[suros8]

My hubby has CF, I do not. We are two cycles in, going for a third. I've become pregnant twice out of 9 transfers and two cycles, but they have failed. Has anyone done PGD testing? Not a carrier for the more common, but he had a common and an uncommon, as yet unidentified mutation. I always wonder if I'm an unknown carrier. The process is expensive and gut wrenchingly, emotionally exhausting. But that's IVF by itself, nothing to do with CF. It can be done!
Sue

 

[Hail2Pitt]

Sue - I'd like to keep you and your husband in my prayers. My wife and I didn't realize how lucky we were to go one round, and even that was difficult. We are very open about the fact that we did IVF, and I have been so surprised at the number of friends and acquaintances we have opened up as well and told us they are going through (or went through) this process too. For most of the folks we know, it has taken multiple cycles, and I see how hard it is/was on them. I will be praying that you and your husband receive all the strength you need and are successful soon!

 

[suros8]

Thank you, I'll take te prayers! It's such a difficult process by itself. I hate that people CONSTANTLY tell me that if we stop doing IVF we might get pregnant by accident. No, the ONLY method that will work is IVF, as hubby is missing part of his vas deference, like most males with cf. It's hard enough to talk about IVF, but to talk about the CF complication is harder. There are so many unknowns. As of now I have no diagnosis of any fertility issues. Everything looks great! But never works. ?

 

[ethan508]

IVF is a bit of a bear, we've done 6 different cycle (some fresh some frozen) and end up with 2 pregnancies. I've got a CF brother with 3 pregnancies and 3 failures using IVF and another CF brother with 2 failures, and a miscarriage using IVF. My impression is the male factor infertility is far easier for the Drs to treact than Female factor. So if anything you've got that going for you.

 

[Wafflesmommy]

This is a year old post but is my exact situation. I want to know what to expect from couples in our situation. My husband has CF and I don't. I'm not a carrier from the blood testing done. All my preliminary fertility tests came back normal, so we are going to be starting the IVF process soon. I feel really lucky with these results so far. We are going to his CF clinic appointment next month and will also ask for advice from there as well. But I'm nervous about the process for health concerns and payment options. I'm nervous for my husbands part and what he has to do. Also how many times does he have to do it? I'm also worried about what the process will be like for my health. The fertility place has different programs for payment and we can do a shared risk program or pay per round. The doctor said I might want to pay per round because it is cheaper if we only do one round and since I shown no signs of infertility it might be worth the risk. They also break it out between the extraction and then implantation (I don't think that's what they really call it). So the surgery part for the extraction is much more expensive. If I produce a lot of eggs we can use frozen for subsequent transfers and try multiple times without paying for another round. But I would not want to stop trying and hearing everyone's experience being different I think it might be worth paying into the shared risk program. Did anyone else experience these options. It almost seems crazy people can pay so many different prices.

 

[CFcarebear]

I am 7 months pregnant with our first baby due to a frozen embryo transfer. Immediately after our egg retrieval and sperm retrieval we decided to freeze all of our embryos (5 total) because my husband ended up being very sick because of CF issues. We decided that wasn't a good time to start having children. 6 years later and one year post double lung transplant, we transferred 2 frozen embryos and I am pregnant with one healthy baby! We are so blessed by these miracles! We are excited about our new lives and future ahead!

 

[CFcarebear]

Wafflesmommy- we were not given the options that you are speaking of. We just did one cycle and ended up with 5 embryos. We do pay an annual fee to store the remaining embryos and sperm.

 

[Wafflesmommy]

Thank you CFcarebear for sharing your experience. I appreciate it so much. I love hearing about people's experiences, since everyone has a unique journey. Also a big congrats to you and your husband!! That is so exciting.