October 2012 Weddings
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DH was finally diagnosed with a real reason for his infertility. The endocrinologist last week told him he probably has "hypertrophic hypogonadism" from being overweight. He called us last night to tell us that between the MRI that DH had and the bloodwork they drew, he is pretty confident that he has what is called "partial empty sella sydrome". From what I understand, it sounds like he had some sort of weakness or hole in the area of the skull that houses the pituitary gland, which let cerebrospinal fluid into that area, subsequently putting pressure on the pituitary gland and damaging it. The damage seems to be isolated to his testosterone production, which makes producing sperm difficult. We are devastated and happy at the same time. Part of me is thrilled. DH didn't cause this by being overweight, which is a good thing. On the flip side, losing weight isn't going to make it better. It isn't genetic, which means our baby boy will not likely suffer from it. The low t makes it so hard for DH to lose weight. He is having surgery on his varicoceles in December still (which may help his sperm or may not, but cannot hurt not). Depending on how is doing after the surgery, he is considering a short term course of testosterone pellets to see if he can lose some weight and get healthier. We hate the idea of testosterone because we don't want to kill his sperm production. When we decide to get pregnant again, we will probably try iui with DH on meds (probably clomid and hcg because they kick the pituitary into gear).
The very good news is that it is not life threatening. We need his testosterone levels higher because he needs his bone density higher, but we certainly have time to consider our options. He had never had a fracture or anything (and doesn't participate in contact sports that put him at risk, so that is good). We are also considering banking sperm for if DH needs long term testosterone replacement. It's been a lot to take in.
Re: Finally a diagnosis...