Sperm under 'scope

 Dh and I had an interesting time looking at 'his boys' under the microscope.  I read about the way the x-bearing sperm swim vs. the y-bearing sperm but I'm still really confused.  We saw 3 patterns of movement: 1.) the straight swimmers, 2.)circle swimmers, 3.) ones that seemed to be shaking/vibrating.  My Q is: are the vibrating ones a specific gender?  The majority looked like that and were shaking so much it was hard to follow them to see what pattern they were going in.  It made it really confusing to determine if we had a good sort.  Thanks for the help!

I wondered what those were too.  All I could think was that they seemed a little spastic and I don't want spastic kids so I hope they aren't the ones that get me PG .

HI girls u seem to have a good microscope I havnt found one yet and to buy a good one which ones have you got? I am from the uk but perhaps we sell them here to x

kelchay:

 Dh and I had an interesting time looking at 'his boys' under the microscope.  I read about the way the x-bearing sperm swim vs. the y-bearing sperm but I'm still really confused.  We saw 3 patterns of movement: 1.) the straight swimmers, 2.)circle swimmers, 3.) ones that seemed to be shaking/vibrating.  My Q is: are the vibrating ones a specific gender?  The majority looked like that and were shaking so much it was hard to follow them to see what pattern they were going in.  It made it really confusing to determine if we had a good sort.  Thanks for the help!

if you pick them out and watch them a long time they will either go strait or slowly go in a giant circle (like a wagon with a broken wheel)

 Tamara~ Okay, so the x sperm don't necessarily have to be going in tiny circles?  ... thats what I was looking for.  And, the boys will continue going straight, and eventually swim out of the view of the lens, right?  Overall, it was a good night because some sperm did go down into the egg and they appeared to be mostly straight-swimmers but the sample itself seemed to be mixed (both x and y).  I plan to do as many practice runs as I can... next O (about 4 weeks) is our first real try.

NikiLyn~ My thoughts EXACTLY.  I was looking at those vibrating ones thinking... "no wonder my two kids are sooo hyper and energetic!"

cars3uk- Here's the microscope I bought.

http://store.amscope.com/m130c-led.html  

Worked well last night but it didn't come with slides so if u don't already have some, you'll need to buy them.  Good luck!

Here is mine. It is a normal scope but with a digital camera so I can see it on the laptop. Thats is great because me and my dh can see it at the same time. We can see the sperm very clearly. I will post pictures and videoclips soon .-)

I bought it here on a danish webshop, but I think they deliver to UK

http://eu.captoy.dk/products/product-126-948.aspx

You can get it cheaper if you dont need or want the camera.

kelchay:

Okay, so the x sperm don't necessarily have to be going in tiny circles?  ... thats what I was looking for.  And, the boys will continue going straight, and eventually swim out of the view of the lens, right? 

exactly

kelchay:

3.) ones that seemed to be shaking/vibrating.  My Q is: are the vibrating ones a specific gender? 

Did you add anything to help the EW float?

I saw a documentary last night about sperm it was actually quite interesting and they said that the vibrating sperm are ones that are dieing.  Only about 300,000 or so sperm actually make it into the cervix and even less into the falopian tubes and only very few make it to the egg.  In the documentary it showed only two trying to penetrate the egg.  Actually one of the scientists had her tubes tied and she asked them to take a piece to view under the microscope (she had sex the night before) and they only found about 10...

 BB~ No, I didn't add anything to the EW... it was my first attempt at SD.  But, I did accidentally let the temp get too high in the incubator for a few mins at most... maybe this was killing them?  Thats interesting that those that are shaking are the dying ones... I'd say close to 1/2 of dh's sample was vibrating.  

 On a side note, we tried again last night (I think dh's is so fascinated by seeing what he calls his "men" under the microscope that he's becoming addicted.  I have to force him away so I can grab a peek ).  This time I tried SU with mesh.  What's odd is that the egg was almost congealed by the time I took the sample out of the incubator (about 70 minutes).  I think some of it mixed even with the mesh in place because when I used the syringe to pick up some of dh's sample, it had that gloppy, gelatenous consistency of raw egg.  We did get what we thought was a good sort.  A mix but more circle swimmers in the sperm and mostly straight in the EW.  There did seem to be a large concentration of swimmers (not sure which) in the sperm that was touching the EW/mesh so I will be sure to remove that as soon as I pull out the EW layer.  I'm glad our attempt is still 4 weeks away so we can really get good at this and decide between SU and SD.

kelchay:

But, I did accidentally let the temp get too high in the incubator for a few mins at most... maybe this was killing them?

How high did it get as temps above 100 for too long will definetely kill them or the very least start the process.....

kelchay:

I'm glad our attempt is still 4 weeks away so we can really get good at this and decide between SU and SD.

I would work very hard on getting the SU working as you will get a way better sort increasing your chances of PINK!!

interesting read girls thanks for the links i will look into them. My first attempt is also in about 4 weeks and i cant get the ew to float either!

BabyBobadoo:

How high did it get as temps above 100 for too long will definetely kill them or the very least start the process.....

104 degrees   I almost had a coronary when I saw what the temp was.  I'm much more careful since then. 

BabyBobadoo:

I would work very hard on getting the SU working as you will get a way better sort increasing your chances of PINK!!

I'm gonna really try to stick with SU as much as I can... I don't know if we are just getting better at picking out the different swimmers or not but our last attempt (first SU) has seemed to be the most successful sort thus far.  Thanks so much for your help!!

cars3uk~  Good luck to u!! 

kelchay:

104 degrees  

Yeah, that could have cooked them at bit!

kelchay:

our last attempt (first SU) has seemed to be the most successful sort thus far

I agree!  There are times we strut around after a good sort .... Oh yeah, we are good!  Then other days it makes me wonder if this is the first time doing this, everything seems to go wrong!    I think that the key is to keep everything consistent.... right down to how much sleep you get.

I just wanted to clarify, we cant really see x or y sperm.  MSU scientist believe that the pH is what causes this to work.  So what we are doing is copying exactly what they do to get the results they claim.  We know we got it right when we see fast sperm in the ew and the slow circle ones in semen.

this isn't' 100% only pgd is

Kelchay, I feel like you had a struggle like me in doing SU and were maybe going to do SD.  What ended up working for you?  If I have another cycle I will have more time to experiment.