DNA Fragmentation test?

Has anyone had this done on their DH's sperm? I've now lost 4 babies (identical triplets with my first pregnancy that resulted in only my DS, and now this one) , and after some research I'm suspecting it's from DH's poor sperm morphology. His is <.5%.

I see my RE on Friday and I'm going to ask him about it, it's never been offered to us. Has anyone heard about it, or can offer some info?

ETA: As far as I know we're dealing strictly with MF. I was tested in the beginning, and my egg quality is excellent and age is on our side (or it used to be, I'm 32 now but 30 when they ran tests). Hopefully that's it as far as our issues go, I'm not sure what else I can deal with right now

Message edited 10/25/2011 9:31:56 PM.

Re: DNA Fragmentation test?

We're also dealing with MFI. We did the DNA fragmentation and results were within normal range. The way it was explained to us was that men with MFI can have have DNA fragmentation, but men with perfect anaylsis' can have horrible fragamentation as well. So basically, semen analysis results really don't say anything about the DNA fragmentation. We did it through Reprosource. I know insurance covered a portion, but we also paid so OOP, but I can't remember how much. They have a safeguard program where you pay a fixed amount before and they call it even after insurance. If you don't safeguard it, you're responsible for the difference after insurance which is usually much higher than the safeguard.

Re: DNA Fragmentation test?

I know it won't give us a definitive answer for my losses, but I think if his sperm shows DNA fragmentation then that could be linked to the miscarriages, right? That's what I've gotten so far from what I'm reading.

Re: DNA Fragmentation test?

Also, if the sperm DNA comes back with fragmentation, do you think I would need the genetic testing done on the embryos?

Re: DNA Fragmentation test?

I believe fragmentation can lead to miscarriage, but I'm not 100%. I did not research it a lot. I figured I'd look into it if we had to, but his results were normal.

As for genetic testing.....I know nothing about that. Sorry I can't help you.

Re: DNA Fragmentation test?

we did a DNA defragmentation because DHs morphology was slightly low. it came back that the defragmentation was all oxidization which was treatable with simple multi-flavone antioxidants. we did IVF to get pregnant because I have PCOS and did a bunch of other medicated cycles prior (we didnt do IVF because of the defragmentation). anyway we had 100% fert rate of 18 eggs and most of our embies went to 5 day blast. we ended up transferring two - one ended up as my DD, the other implanted and stayed an empty sac. we have 8 frosties as well.

while defragmentation can result in miscarriage - i dont think this alone would warrant testing of the embryos prior to transfer. in many cases testing of embryos can result in the loss of good embryos so for many REs i dont know if defrag alone would warrant this.