Yesterday I was setting up our mail order prescriptions. Danny has quite a few because he's Type 1 diabetic. I got to wondering if any of the prescriptions he takes could have an affect on his sperm quality since I've heard that some can affect motility and morph and both were a little low on his SA. One medicine he's been taking for over 2 years now is Lyrica. He uses it to help with his nerve pain (it has to do with his diabetes). So I'm reading the drug facts about it when I notice this:
Men who are planning for fatherhood should also talk with their doctor before taking Lyrica. Studies showed that the drug made male animals less fertile. Also, birth defects occurred in the offspring of male animals who were treated with pregabalin.
I was with Danny when the doctor prescribed this so he knows that DH is married and would then possibly want to father another child. He never mentioned this to us at all. I know that really we should have read about it before he started taking it but if a drug has serious side effects aren't doctors supposed to at least mention them? I am so angry and frustrated that this could be what's keeping us from conceiving and even if we do conceive that baby could have birth defects. We have an RE appt. tomorrow so I plan to ask him about this. This is my first Clomid cycle and now I'm terrified to even TTC :(
ETA:
I found more information on Lyrica. A study was done with male rats:
In fertility studies in which male rats were orally administered pregabalin (50 to 2500 mg/kg) prior to and during mating with untreated females, a number of adverse reproductive and developmental effects were observed. These included decreased sperm counts and sperm motility, increased sperm abnormalities, reduced fertility, increased preimplantation embryo loss, decreased litter size, decreased fetal body weights, and an increased incidence of fetal abnormalities. Effects on sperm and fertility parameters were reversible in studies of this duration (3-4 months).
I'm really hoping that the RE has some information on this. I'm really interested in the "increased preimplantation embryo loss". I could have actually been pregnant several times in the last year and a half and the embryo just didn't implant. I'm guessing we'll probably have to avoid getting pregnant for awhile. It takes about 90 days for new sperm to form so we may have to wait until April to start trying again.
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I am so sorry. This is terrible news. The good though, is that men's sperm is reproduced every 90 days and although it's 3 months, it's only 3 months (I know that doesn't help).
ReplyDeleteThe doctor probably didn't think to tell you anything because I truly don't think they know everything about the drugs they prescribe. Often times they prefer a drug because they like the pharmacy rep.
I hope the RE has good news. Good luck!