On today’s episode of The Male Fertility Podcast, Shaun and Ciaran are joined by Josh Coulson to talk about his ongoing fertility story.
Josh opens up about his story which started back in 2020 after trying to conceive for a year with his wife and nothing happening. Josh, like a lot of people, assumed that this was a female problem, but when they were both referred to a clinic, he soon found out that there was a whole other world he was not aware of.
He shares what he has been through up to this point, from semen samples to operations, Josh tells the lads about his experience with these, as well as the lack of empathy and organisation from their clinic. Josh talks about the misinformation he was told and the mistakes that the clinics were making, like for example not even putting them on the waiting list for an operation.
After this, Josh and his partner decided it was time to go private, in hopes of getting better results faster, there he did more semen tests and a genetic test too. His consultation with a doctor in Manchester went so much better than from his clinic in Leeds, he had more tests done and was eventually put on Clomiphene in hopes of boosting his sperm.
Josh tells Shaun and Ciaran about his operation to see if the doctors could find any semen, he explains that little over 3 days after, he was told that there was nothing there, which was devastating news. He then goes on to talk about getting more results from his genetic tests, which were given to him in a letter, which detailed that he had no deletion with his Y chromosome and that his chromosome pattern was in a mosaic pattern. For Josh, this made no sense, and was not fully explained to him, which left him more confused.
This news along with all the other tests that Josh had been through meant that Josh had started to lose himself, he explains how he and his wife went through counselling, which was given to them via their donor clinic. Josh shares how he felt, and how his wife started with IUI, which unfortunately failed 3 times before the doctors asked if they would like to start IUI with drugs.
Now Josh and his wife are still waiting to start with the IUI again, Josh talks about the terrible experience that he has had with the clinics that he has been to, and the countless mistakes that they have made with his fertility.
Together, they talk about exercise, getting out and keeping distracted. Josh talks about communicating with his partner, and picking up on the signs of when they might not be themselves or are ready to move onto the next step.
Josh also talks about how he felt like he was the only one in world going through this, and how the podcast has helped him feel less alone and feel like he has that support, that there is someone else going through a similar experience to him.
His advice is to communicate and talk, it helps so much and take off so much pressure, especially when you are going through something like this.
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