Ann’s experience: Reversal story

I’m new to this website but I thought I would share our story so others could benefit from our experiences.

My partner had his original vasectomy when he was 30, he had no children prior but was actively avoiding that at that time in his previous relationship. He had his reversal in Nov 1998, about 4-5 years later. Post operation he had massive swelling for about 6 weeks (ouch!) but he felt like things felt more normal than they had with the vasectomy.

They checked the tubes for sperm at the time of the operation and there were live guys there. For the first 8-10 months post reversal, he had a lot of discomforts and spoke to the UR about it. He didn’t have his post-op semen analysis (S/A) until Jan 2000, just over a year later. This showed that his count was low, and his morphology was pretty poor. The doctor thought he might have to reoperate. That being a very painful option and the fact that we weren’t yet ready to start a family we waited until a year later to talk to the UR again. My partner had another S/A in Jan 2001 and this showed using Kruger strict standards that his morphology was just 2%, they recommend at least 7% for IVF. But his count had increased over the previous year to about 29 million. His last S/A was in the fall and his count had increased to 49 million with still about 2% morphology.

I’m dealing with a uterine fibroid that may or may not be a problem, but with his counts, it is hard to know. We’ve been trying to conceive for 2 years now and will progress onto fertility treatments in June. One interesting thing was that his UR wrote to one RE. I saw in the Fall that amongst his vasectomy reversal patients he had noticed a pattern of decreased morphology. I’ve looked into this but haven’t found much research, just some references to the possibility that the vas might increase free radicals which could impair sperm production.

He’s been taking supplements, grape seed extract (an antioxidant), Vitamin C, carnitine, arginine (sp?), a daily multivitamin with selenium, and a B-complex and his health has been quite good; he’s been able to cope with work stress much better. It will be interesting to see if this has helped at all.

I will keep you posted on our progress as we move forward with our treatments.

Update June 14, 2004

We just found out this week that we are 3 weeks pregnant, on our own without any medical intervention. We’d like to count ourselves among the vasectomy reversal success stories. Thought I would let you all know in case anyone else is trying to conceive.

Submitted by Ann