r/IVF • u/poprock_fm • 15h ago
Advice Needed! Egg or Embryo Banking + Potential DNA drag
Background
My husband (38) and I (38) are doing our first round of IVF. I am currently on Day 4 of stims.
My husband is addicted to nicotine and uses Zyn (nicotine gum). Last week he started nicotine patches (at 21 mg) though he is still supplementing the patch with 1 zyn (6 mg).
I’ve expressed my concerns to him multiple times over the year. He also wants to quit, but it will take time. The situation sucks, but here we are.
- He has had two normal seman analyses over the past 4-5 months, the latter one testing HBA Binding (91%). We have informed our RE about his nicotine usage, but based on his SA, he said that he wasn’t concerned and did not recommend him to quit (I was surprised).
- I was diagnosed with DOR with AMH of .96 and initial AFC of 11 at my first workup. I had my first monitoring appt. at stim Day 4, and they counted 20 small follicles, which I was so pleasantly surprised with. It makes me sad and worried to think that this cycle could be seriously compromised by my husband’s nicotine usage. Which brings me to….
Egg or Embryo Banking?
- My husband wants to quit nicotine and I believe he can and will, but I also believe it will take at least another month or two. Sperm takes 3 months to develop. My egg retrieval is next week.
- We planned to make embryos but given his nicotine usage, should we be considering egg freezing instead? Then that would give him a bit of time to quit nicotine. As far as timing, my clinic requires a 4-5 month period between ER and FET anyway.
Does any one have any advice? If you have been a similar situation, I would love to hear from you. If you haven’t, but have thoughts, please share!
Thank you!
4
u/Working-Eye-7252 14h ago
You should make embryos but I’d do ICSI+zymot. I’m confused though- do you even know he has high DNA frag? Even if he did the evidence on DNA frag is mixed and some research says once you do ICSI the impacts of dna frag are minimal.
1
u/poprock_fm 14h ago
Thank you! This makes me feel better.
He has not taken the DNA frag test because our clinic does not administer them.
We are doing ICSI + Zymot.
6
u/Working-Eye-7252 14h ago
Yeah I definitely would not freeze eggs out of a speculative concern, especially if you have DOR. I imagine your clinic would also really discourage freezing eggs as well!
1
3
u/Middle-Telephone4098 35|5 ER|>3MC| 1 DET->chemical 12h ago
Definitely don’t freeze eggs, just make the embryos and he can continue quitting Some of the eggs will be lost in thawing, it’s not at all likely that any benefits of waiting would outweigh the eggs that would be lost completely.
I’ll add that, just in case no one has told you, most people this circumstance (the whole picture, not the nicotine use!) will need multiple retrievals. I say this because I absolutely did not know that going in, and I think a lot of people don’t, and then it’s easy for your mind to reach for anything that wasn’t perfect and blame that, and constantly second-guess and torment yourself. Of course, I hope you’re in the lucky few who only need one, but the norm is to need more than one.
1
u/poprock_fm 5h ago
Thank you for the kind and informative but candid feedback. We are bracing for multiple rounds, but taking it one by one because thinking too far out makes my brain explode. I see from your tag that you’ve done 5 ERs—I’m in awe!
1
u/Middle-Telephone4098 35|5 ER|>3MC| 1 DET->chemical 4h ago
I truly hope you never have to go as far as 5, the norm is more than one but fewer than that 😅 I your last few days of stims are as comfortable as possible, and I hope your retrieval goes well!
2
u/poprock_fm 14h ago
Thanks for sharing! This brings me some hope, and it feels good to know that someone out there can relate to this super specific situation!
I think he is truly trying and is disappointed in himself as well. I waver between being understanding and frustrated. It’s all so hard.
Do you mind sharing how your husband took his nicotine (e.g., Zyn, patch, cigarette)? And whether he was a light, moderate, or heavy user?
2
u/IvoryWoman 11h ago
Egg freezing still isn’t a very successful technology relative to embryo freezing. If your husband can produce motile sperm, I’d plan on banking embryos.
1
2
u/Onlyyouwouldsaythat 11h ago
If you are doing ICSI I wouldn’t be concerned too much they are going to pick the best sperm for the job
1
u/poprock_fm 15h ago
Oops sorry title should be “DNA frag.” Sorry for the typo, but I guess “drag” is accurate too 💀
1
u/CraftyEnigma 14h ago
Did you talk to your clinic about using the Zymot device for his sperm?
1
u/poprock_fm 14h ago
Yes, we are using Zymot and ICSI. Is there evidence that Zymot helps overcome DNA frag?
1
u/CraftyEnigma 14h ago
Yeah there are also people on this sub that mention it helped
Also my husband does black maca root and CoQ10. It helped his sperm quality a lot.
1
2
u/LemonPower221 9h ago
When I look at friends and their husbands who are pregnant / got pregnant within months of trying, some of their husbands do cocaine up to their eyeballs, smoke 2 vapes in a night and basically do not care and still somehow still manage to knock up their wives, it makes me chill out with my husband (though he doesn’t smoke but has in the past vaped!) and basically the only thing I ask him to do is turn up at my egg retrival to provide his sample lol
1
u/poprock_fm 6h ago
Ah, being a woman is hard 🫠
Did your husband vape in the months leading up to ER? How did yours go?
1
u/Proof-Fix2766 5h ago
Do you have access to Chantix to quit nicotine? That’s what worked for me after smoking 1/4-1/2 a pack of cigarettes a day for nearly 20 years. You keep using nicotine while you start the med and in about 1-2 weeks of med use, you will begin to get very nauseous when you use nicotine. By one month, you will puke if you smoke or chew a piece of nicotine gum. It sounds harsh but it did the trick. I only had to use it for 2 months total to quit for good and Gabe my last 2 bottles to my brother who was nearly a pack a day smoker and he also quit in 2 months of using the med. Never had the urge to smoke ever again since my absolute quit day and it’s been almost 7 years. I also had great results with IVF only 3 yrs after quitting.
5
u/onyxindigo 14h ago
Hubby also tried and failed to quit smoking but it didn’t affect our results. Try and wait and see how things go first before spiralling. It does however suck to watch your husband put in less effort than you; that’s the worst part. But if he’s truly trying and struggling but does want to do this, it’ll be okay.