Urologist Appointment - Finally Some News!

Finally!  Something to report!

I feel like this past month has been agony, waiting for this appointment with the reproductive urologist, and finally it came today!

So here's what DH heard (I wasn't able to make the appointment, but I made DH swear up and down that he would get all the nitty gritty details for me):

• DH has varicoceles.  For real???  This was surprising to us.  Doc said they weren't blatantly obviously because they're in the mild to moderate category as far as severity.  The reason we found this surprising is because DH's father had examined him over Thanksgiving and told him he didn't think he had varicoceles.  (DH's father is a general surgeon.  So he's a doctor, but not one specializing in this area.)  Doc said that if DH gets surgery to correct this that there is a 70% chance that it will improve his sperm.  By how much, we don't know.
• Other than the varicoceles, he said that DH seemed normal and healthy otherwise, however...
• DH has to get bloodwork done tomorrow.  This will include genetic testing, and probably testing of hormone levels.  This is what I'm really worried about.  I'm praying my brains out that everything will be ok here, but deep down, I'm afraid that something will be wrong.  While the varicoceles helped explained some of the situation, DH said that he got the sense that Doc thought something else was at play.
• DH gave a urine sample today.  Don't know what that was for.  I think to see if there is any sperm in it?
• Doc did not seem concerned with the low morphology.  What the heck?  Really?  It's at 1-3%!!  Going to ask for more details on this the next time we meet with him.
• I asked DH to ask about taking zinc, natural supplements, acupuncture, and TCM to see if he thought any of that would help.  He said there really aren't any solid findings around any of that stuff, and that it probably wouldn't help enough.  He said the main thing he needed was Vitamins D and E and that was already in DH's multi-vitamins.
• I asked DH to ask if the doc thought we could get into the IUI range.  He said there was a chance.  I don't know how to take this since I didn't hear this first hand, but I suspect he tried to be judicious when answering.  Maybe we could do IUI.  But we'll probably end up doing IVF (my hunch).
• Doc said DH needed to be eating red meat to help his swimmers.  He said he should be eating red meat every two to three days.  That's a LOT!  Right now, we probably eat red meat on average once every week or two.

We have a follow-up appointment scheduled for end of the month.  Doc wants both of us to be at this appointment because we will have all of the results of the tests, and will be discussing treatment options and next steps.

Wow, wow, wow.  I can't believe something is actually happening!

I'm more optimistic than I should be.  I know that whatever treatment route we take, we'll need to wait at least 3 months for the sperm to develop before we'll know if anything worked or not.

It's going to be a long, slow road.  But at least we're moving, and that's a start.