My blood work results came back on the low end of normal. My hormone levels were not low enough to explain our infertility.

The next step was to do a sperm count on my husband. Considering my husband thought that screening for infertility was premature, you can imagine his reaction when I asked him to provide a semen sample. His initial reaction was so negative that I feared our infertility screening was dead in the water. It took quite a bit of cajoling over a period of several months to get him to agree to do it at all.

The doctor's office was located close enough to our house for us to obtain the sample at home. I do not believe I would have been able to talk my husband into doing the test otherwise. The look on my husband's face was priceless when he saw the specimen cup. Needless to say, he found no humor in the situation.

I, on the other hand, found the whole semen sample process hilarious. I was the one who transported the specimen to the doctor's office while keeping it warm enough to prevent any sperm from dying. I was careful not to speed or violate any traffic laws along the way because I did not want to have to explain what I was transporting or why the police officer needed to expedite the ticketing process.

I placed the specimen cup inside a grocery bag so that nobody would see my husband's semen as I carried it into the office. It felt weird to carry such a thing into a doctor's office, past all of the women waiting to see the doctor. I felt uncomfortable telling the office staff why I was here and what was in the package.

Once again, the results were on the low end of normal. They were not low enough to explain our infertility.

My husband took the news hard. He said that he had struggled with many fears in his life, but not being able to get his wife pregnant was not one of those fears. I pointed out that my hormone levels were low, too, but that did not comfort him. He started to blame himself for our infertility, even though the doctor assured us that his count was still high enough to achieve a pregnancy.

Related Topics:

• Diagnostic Workup: Semen Analysis
• Obtaining a Semen Sample for Analysis
• Semen Analysis (SA)