HELP! DH has to take meds...

[soontobesix]

I am SO mad (I'm not very sympathetic!)... second time in a row that DH has gotten sick and had to take meds when it was time for us to TTC!!! First time we had to wait three months for the meds to get out of his system (b/c they were proven to affect sperm count/motility/normalcy). Well we are just at the end of the three months and now he has a viral throat infection so bad that they put him on Tylenol with codeine. He has only taken one and I basically put the brakes on it. I feel bad since he's in so much pain, but do you think this could affect our blue sway? Just one little pill. AHHH! I'm more concerned about it causing abnormalities to the sperm though. Thoughts? I am so paranoid anymore. Maybe just him being sick is bad for the whole thing... heaven knows he's had more ibuprofen and tylenol in the last week than is probably good for a sway. I need help! Thanks girls!

[zanacal]

Awww, {hugs}, I don't know the answer I'm afraid but I'm sorry. How close are you to Oing?

[SpicyTunaSushi]

My DH was sick too- twice. I think you need to be concerned about a fever. If he has a fever- especially for more than a day, then count will be affected. Try to have him ice his balls if he does have a fever. There is a great study out there that measures the affects- and although the sperm cycle is 3 months- the matured sperm- so if you were going to dtd soon, aren't affected by heat, but the ones in spematogenesis, unfortunately are. Fevers affect both motility and count. I wouldn't be concerned about the actual pain killer- the only affect might be lowering his pH a bit, but really count is the issue. Where are you in your cycle, I can try to help you figure out what would be best for his count (if he has a fever).

[SpicyTunaSushi]

Here is the study.

http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/con.../10/2089.short

[soontobesix]

My DH was sick too- twice. I think you need to be concerned about a fever. If he has a fever- especially for more than a day, then count will be affected. Try to have him ice his balls if he does have a fever. There is a great study out there that measures the affects- and although the sperm cycle is 3 months- the matured sperm- so if you were going to dtd soon, aren't affected by heat, but the ones in spematogenesis, unfortunately are. Fevers affect both motility and count. I wouldn't be concerned about the actual pain killer- the only affect might be lowering his pH a bit, but really count is the issue. Where are you in your cycle, I can try to help you figure out what would be best for his count (if he has a fever).

Thank you so much for your response and for posting that study. It's very interesting, although I don't really understand the life cycle of a sperm so a lot of the jargon didn't make much sense to me. DH has a fever for probably a day and a half to 2 days with his throat infection

I am currently on CD 25... I am already spotting so I expect to get AF any day now. The past few months I have been ovulating on CD 12 or 13... so I expect to be DTD about 2 weeks from now. DH had his fever on CD 16 & 17 of this current cycle so that would make 3 weeks between his fever and DTD. Since sperm have a 72 day life cycle does that mean I'm safe... or no luck I'm seriously thinking that nothing is ever going to line up just perfect for this to work.

Thanks for your help SpicyTunaSushi... love your name

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes, Tylenol, ibuprofin, and codeine all sway pink as does sickness.

I suspect though, that since his sperm has been forming for several weeks that it's safe to TTC, I'm just worried that it will sway pink.

[atomic sagebrush]

Thank you so much for your response and for posting that study. It's very interesting, although I don't really understand the life cycle of a sperm so a lot of the jargon didn't make much sense to me. DH has a fever for probably a day and a half to 2 days with his throat infection

I am currently on CD 25... I am already spotting so I expect to get AF any day now. The past few months I have been ovulating on CD 12 or 13... so I expect to be DTD about 2 weeks from now. DH had his fever on CD 16 & 17 of this current cycle so that would make 3 weeks between his fever and DTD. Since sperm have a 72 day life cycle does that mean I'm safe... or no luck I'm seriously thinking that nothing is ever going to line up just perfect for this to work.

Thanks for your help SpicyTunaSushi... love your name

The thing is, it never WILL line up perfectly. It's always something with swaying. If it was me, if I still had a good 3 weeks to go, I would still go ahead and TTC this month (I was thinking you were Oing right away.)

It's not perfect, it's not optimal, but it may be the best shot you get (you never know what the future will hold...he could be sick again the next time you want to TTC...something always goes awry!!)

[atomic sagebrush]

My DH was sick too- twice. I think you need to be concerned about a fever. If he has a fever- especially for more than a day, then count will be affected. Try to have him ice his balls if he does have a fever. There is a great study out there that measures the affects- and although the sperm cycle is 3 months- the matured sperm- so if you were going to dtd soon, aren't affected by heat, but the ones in spematogenesis, unfortunately are. Fevers affect both motility and count. I wouldn't be concerned about the actual pain killer- the only affect might be lowering his pH a bit, but really count is the issue. Where are you in your cycle, I can try to help you figure out what would be best for his count (if he has a fever).

I totally agree, thanks so much Spicy!!!

pH can recover in 3 weeks, and that is the concern with Tylenol/ibuprofin.

[SpicyTunaSushi]

Sorry- i have been sick with a stomach virus while pregnant!

Anyway, I think the best way to look at it is this:

The number of days the men experienced fever significantly affected their semen parameters. Thus fever during meiosis and spermiogenesis reduced sperm concentration with respectively 7.1% (–12.9; –0.9) and 8.5% (–13.6; –3.0) per day of fever. The percentage of morphologically normal sperm decreased 1.6% (–2.5; –0.6) and the percentage of immotile sperm increased 4.5% (1.7; 7.3) per day of fever during spermiogenesis.

So if DH was sick 2.5 days then:

Sperm Count will be down by: 17% (and this is if they are motile at all)
Motility: 11.25% more immotile sperm (meaning- they are not moving)

So really- in a way, you need to look at both of those numbers- because even though there are fewer sperm, there are even less of those sperm counted that are motile.

I would take a month off. That is what I did. Dh had a fever for 1 day. It was pretty warm though. I looked at DH's swimmers the month we took off and I will admit- the sample looked very good. But, you will have decreased numbers, and motility- and maybe even a chance they can't penetrate the egg.

Just my thoughts! Hope this helps.

[soontobesix]

Thanks for all the feedback ladies. Spicy Tuna... sorry to hear you were sick That is never fun, especially while pregnant. So this is the conclusion I have come to... DH had a mild fever (never went much higher than 100) for 1.5 days but he kept it down with meds the entire time (he still had to go to work and function so he was pretty medicated). Already tested his PH and he is already back up to a 7.8 after all those meds. I'm satisfied with that. So I know most likely his sperm numbers are going to be down a little bit which might sway girl, but like Atomic said, I just don't think things will ever line up perfectly. He had to take some meds a few months ago, which are proven to affect sperm and a no-no to use when TTC, so we had to hold off for 72 days after that med was done So now we were just getting over that and then this comes up. It will always be something. I'm sure I will get sick the next time around... heck, with three little ones in the house it seems like someone is always sick. But a lot of other sway factors are in our favor right now (our diets have been good, high ph, stress ful life, i've been lifting lots of weights and gaining weight, good time of year, it's going to be a full moon, etc).


I feel like if I take one month off, then the reasoning I'm using (ie. the fever affected his sperm numbers/motility) then I really need to wait the entire 72 days to be rid of any affects from the fever. Unfortunately I just don't have time for this...
I'm concerned about my kids being too spread out in age if I keep waiting for all my sway factors to line up just right. Plus I've been on the diet already now for 4 months! That means that I only have 2 months TTC before I'll have to give the diet a break. My window of opportunity is closing in on me!

So this is my conclusion after lots of pondering and discussing the issue with my DH. So looks like we're going for it next week! Ah! Can't believe it's here! Thanks again for all of your feedback. It really does help.