Follow-Up
You produce new sperm cells continuously in the testicles. It takes 72 days from the first division of a stem cell in until the new mature spermatozoa are ready to fertilize an egg.
A Follow-Up SDI®-test after 3 to 4 months can show you precisely how much your DFI is improved. Approximately 10 % of the couples will not need this test – pregnancy have occurred spontaneously!
How big an improvement can you anticipate
In collaboration with Galway Fertility and ReproMed in Ireland, SPZ Lab performed a Follow-Up study on 96 men. The study was published at the annual meeting in the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology in 2017. You can see the poster here.
The 96 men in average reduced the DFI with 8.4 percentage units (from 34.1 to 25.7). At the start all men had a DFI above 15. At the Follow-Up test, 16 men had achieved a DFI below 15 and 42 men had a DFI between 15 and 25. The remaining 38 men all had minor improvements in their DFI which still was above 25. 2 in 3 of the men reduced DFI with more than 5 percentage units.
No improvement in DFI
Improved lifestyle and other factors may not receive in reduction in DFI. It is difficult to change the lifestyle – to start exercising, stop smoking and change diet. Knowing that your aim is to achieve a better fertility is giving you a motivation which makes it easier.
Despite your effort, the Follow-Up SDI®-test may still be disappointing and show that DFI is unchanged. IC who attended Galway Fertility tried several different things to improve his DFI but it still stayed at the same level (See IC’s results).
TESA sperm
It is disappointing when your DFI is not improved. However, the Follow-Up SDI®-test can still direct you to the most effective fertility treatment. If DFI is below 25, ICSI treatment should be a good option. If DFI is still above 25, use of testicular sperm in combination with ICSI will give you a good chance of a successful pregnancy. Testicular sperm can be achieved by a technique called TESA.