Infertility, HCG and having children

[thegirlinblue]

Hi Everyone,

Relatively new here in a posting sense. but I have read a lot and thought it was time to post.

I'm 30, Australian, been on HRT for around 5 years and am very happy with the results.

When I started my transition I wasn't offered sperm banking that's not to say I didn't know anything about it but I was also pretty desperate at that point to start on hormones because of my intense dysphoria.

5 years down the track I am still with my partner of 6 years and we would like to have a family, we decided to see a fertility clinician after trying for around two years. Obviously we knew that the chances of my fertility still being in tact were low but we thought we would see where we stood. After a number of tests we found that I have pretty much completely no sperm and we started to look down the road of sperm donors and I came to terms with the fact that I wouldn't be a non-gestational mum.

However a few days back the clinic got back to my partner and I and suggested that I attempt going off hormones and taking HcG for around 6 months to see if we couldn't kick start my sperm production enough to either naturally conceive or use a TESE and IVF.

I have been weening off of cyproterone and will be starting the HCG treatment on Tuesday. I have read as much as I could find and am fully aware that it is quite likely that this won't work but I would be interested if anyone has had success with this kind of approach and if so what it was like essentially detransitioning for 6 months to a year.

I am mostly posting this because there seems to be a lot of information out there that isn't based on any real research/science or experience and I thought that I might continue to post as I go through this process myself to help others see the results that we had.

At this point we are willing to give it a try and a sort of last ditch attempt at me being a biological mother.

[Emeirely]

Hi thegirlinblue,

I am new here too, I am also from Australia, QLD. My partner and I had a baby naturally, without IVF I don't know how else to say that. About two years ago, at the time I had been on hormones estrogen and spiro for about 7 years. I went off of both of those and was given gonadotropins by my endocrinologist for around 5 months before my partner became pregnant.

I found this article to be very helpful and we now have a beautiful baby girl.
http://www.milkjunkies.net/2013/05/trans-women-and-breastfeeding-personal.html

I like you didn't bank sperm because I was young and did think I would want kids, plus the costs were too high for 18 year old me.

I am not saying that this is the case for everyone as we are all different, but I think that all the talk of being permanently sterile or infertile after x amount of time is based on very little hard research.

I am a scientist with a degree in bio-medical chemistry and I know what good research looks like and as far as I have seen, there hasn't been any case studies done with a large enough sample size to show one way or the other what is and isn't possible after taking hormones for any particular amount of time.

All I can say is that it worked for me and clearly has work for some others too, good luck. I always think that anything is worth trying.

-Em

[thegirlinblue]

Hi Em,

Nice to hear from another Australian, there seems to be quite a few of us in here.
It's great to know that others were successful in this endeavour.

It does however sound like it is a bit of a wait and see what happens kind of situation.
I have found it so difficult finding information regarding this sort of thing and even harder navigating the medical industry that really has little to no knowledge on dealing with infertility in trans folk.

As it turns out I am pretty much telling the doctors what I want them to do and they are going along with it.
I have found this to be the case right through my transition though not just with this so I am pretty used to knowing what I want and asking for it/getting it.

I find a lot of the time in Australia anyway that my doctors have been more like script dispensers than actually running my medical health. Although my current GP has been fantastic, at least there are some good ones out there.

[Emeirely]

Definitely a wait and see situation. But remember that doctors know very little and you know what you want. I won't lie it will be tough, and depending on how your emotional state is, it might be down right traumatic. Still feel free to contact me if you need any support/suggestions. Or even if you just want to chat.

[Tiny]

Just what exactly are the costs of sperm storage anyway in Australia?

[thegirlinblue]

It varies greatly from company to company.

But repromed in Adelaide, who are the world leaders in IVF and fertility research charge around $500 a year for storage and $100-200 per sperm donation.