My phone rang just as I turned on the TV to watch some 90 Day Fiancé while stuffing a salad down my throat at lunch. It was Ryan calling, not the doctor’s office, only Ryan told me he’d just gotten off the phone with Dr. Mean herself.
The prognosis: Ryan’s most recent sample looked a little better. But upon very close examination they noticed the heads of Ryan’s sperm to be bent sideways, which causes them to swim in circles. The clinical term is actually “Bent Neck” or “Crooked Neck” sperm. The doctor said Ryan most likely produces such swimmers because of a genetic mutation / congenital birth defect caused strictly by chance.
Ryan is truly one in a million, but of course I knew this already.
Dr. Mean has never seen this before. She said she combed through medical research and studies and found nothing on Bent Neck Sperm. If one of these guys were injected into one of my eggs via ICSI she has no idea if a healthy embryo will grow or if it will die immediately. She’s seen studies where headless (!?!) sperm have been successful with ICSI, but nothing on bent neck. The Dr. would not advise us one way or another if we should proceed, it is entirely up to us, totally experimental, and a $15,000 shot in the dark.
After hearing the rundown my first reaction was “Great! Do they want to pay for our procedure and conduct a clinical trial?” Ryan laughed and told me he’d already asked the Dr. that exact question, but the answer was no.
We both agreed that we had no immediate, initial leaning about what to do one way or another. We will need some time to think and research.
According to my calendar we are supposed to be taking doxycycline for the next 5 days. Payment and signed forms are due a week from today, which is also when I am supposed to start Lupron. I have the price list of drugs from the pharmacy order, although I haven’t bought them yet. Nothing like being up against a deadline! Time to sleep on it.
Go On Until You Come to the End 
Wow! Such a hard decision! My husband also has MFI. Ours is basically unexplained except for the varicocele that he had repaired almost a full year ago now. He continues to have SAs that are up and down but always with poor morphology. I don’t want you to to make your decision on what I would do, but I would go for it. You don’t know what is going to happen, but I know that j wouldn’t be able to not think, “what if”. I want to take every opportunity to have a biological child.
This is just me and my husband. $15k is a lot. I get it. We had a failed fresh transfer in August that ended in a chemical pregnancy. We are about 2 weeks away from doing our first FET.
Good luck with making the choice. It is easy no matter what the circumstances.
Blessings– Lisa
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Hi Lisa, I’ve been following you and know your FET is coming up, on my birthday actually! My doctor has said that typically FETs have better results than fresh transfers due to a better lining, so I am confident your cycle will go well! Thanks for the advice, we definitely have our research cut out for us. Seems like it should be worth a shot, but I’d hate to see things fail miserably and have the doctor say “I thought this might happen.” If only insurance covered it, you know? oh what to do…
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Thank you so much! Oh and Happiest of early Birthdays to you. It is so hard to make these decisions. It sucks.
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wow, it sounds amazing that headless sperm have been successful with ICSI! Thinking logically (but not being a doctor!) it should be possible that bent neck sperm should be able to produce a healthy embryo… in ICSI they essentially inject the sperm into the egg so any swimming problems aren’t factored in at all. difficult decision for you guys, I’m sure you’ll come to a decision that is right for you both, good luck x
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It does seem possible and logical, right?? If only there weren’t such a price tag attached! We’ll continue our research and exploring our comfort levels, and who knows, maybe we’ll be Bent Neck Pioneers. Thanks for reaching out, hope you are feeling better these days!
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