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After 3 years of infertility we learned the results of my husband’s genetic test for azoospermia and we were devastated. We were told that our chance of conceiving was 0%. The doctor recommended we put our money towards adoption or donor sperm. The test discovered that my husband has a very rare genetic anomaly. He is a Turner’s mosaic. This means that half of his cells are XO with no Y chromosome causing him to apparently make no sperm. We were in such disbelief that we decided to get a second opinion from the other reproductive group in town.
By this point it was late 2007 and we were beginning to think that children were just not in God’s plan for us. In January 2008 after watching an episode of “Private Practice” I was searching on the internet for information on testicular sperm extraction (TESE) and if it would work for Tracy’s anomaly. That is when I came across Dr. Silber’s name. After more searching on the internet I decided to order his book, “How to Get Pregnant.” His book gave my husband and I hope again. We decided that if anyone could make our dream of having a baby come true it was Dr. Silber and his team at the Infertility Center of St. Louis.
On February 4, 2008, we boarded a plane and went to meet Dr. Silber for a consult. He was intrigued by our case and certain he could help us achieve a pregnancy and have our miracle baby. With his expertise in infertility and his routine use of ICSI he gave us a good chance of finding sperm hiding in tiny numbers in the testicle. That to us was wonderful news. A year later we boarded another plane to St. Louis and began our 2 week period of monitoring and medication leading up to retrieval and implantation.
The office staff is wonderful. They are willing to help however necessary and are very knowledgeable. They called every night to let me know how much medicine to take and answer any questions.
My husband’s testicular sperm extraction was successful and Dr. Silber was able to get enough sperm to fertilize all 13 eggs and even to freeze a few extra sperm for future use if necessary. Three days later I returned to St. Luke’s to have two embryos implanted. Two weeks after the implantation we received a phone call letting us know that we were finally pregnant. We both cried in elation! On October 26, 2009, after many years of hope and devastation our miracle was born. Without Dr. Silber and his wonderful team we might have given up on our dream of having a family.
Infertile patients cannot afford to wait for treatment while their eggs get older.
Dr. Sherman Silber, Infertility Center of St. Louis, is offering video consultations for patients who need to plan now for their treatment while stay-at-home orders are in place. He is talking to and evaluating patients in their home to comply with social distancing measures.
Dr. Silber is discovering that patients actually prefer this method of telemedicine consultation over the conventional office visit. Patients have conveyed that “it is so much more convenient and less stressful” to have a telemedicine personal consultation than to take a day off from work to travel to the doctor’s office and sit with other nervous patients in the waiting room.
The COVID-19 pandemic is thus changing much of the way we will do things in the future, and for the better. “Our patients are surprisingly much happier with this approach. Of course, at some point we need to perform hands on treatment. But with this new manner of seeing patients, we can come to the right diagnosis and treatment plan for most patients more efficiently, quickly, and painlessly, with no loss of personal one-on-one communication.” This is a very welcome new era of telemedicine that has been forced on us by the current difficult times.
