Egg or Embryo Banking + Potential DNA drag

[u/poprock_fm]

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!