My DH is taking Lipitor. SA showed a high # of abnormal ones (low morphology) which improved after supplements and varicocele surgery. I got pregnant 3 x in 1 year, but all m/c at about 8.5 weeks.

Recently, I read that Lipitor may cause sperm abnormalities at the molecular level (not visible with SA) due to interference with Conenzyme Q10. Does anyone know about this and have you asked your doc?

Anyone else have a lot of m/c with their DH taking Lipitor?

Thanks for responding!

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Hi,

I am sorry for you losses, that is so heartbreaking. Unfortunately, I do not know anything about Lipitor. Hopefully someone else will chime in with some info!

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I'm sorry you're having to go through this. My dh has poor morphology too, but we haven't determined a cause -- maybe it's all the caffiene he drinks, or maybe it's genetic... who knows. I haven't heard anything about effects Lipitor, but it's my understanding that the poorly shaped sperm can't even penetrate the egg -- so I wonder if it's more likely the m/c are being caused by something else.

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~Jennifer~
Pg w/#1 after 4 years...
Endometriosis & male factor

It's my understanding that the sperm abnormalities causes by Lipitor occur at the MOLECULAR level due to interference with coenzyme q10. Since the defects are molecular, this is something that wouldn't even be visible in a semen analysis. The sperm would APPEAR normal, but wouldn't be.

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Spoke with DH's urologist today. He said that the research on Lipitor was unclear and that it wouldn't hurt to take him off Lipitor for six months (since clogged arteries develop over long long period of time) and see what happens. He recommended taking him off Lipitor and monitoring cholesterol levels for 6 months.

I also mentioned that he had developed a certain degree of erectile dysfunction since starting Lipitor (could also be affected by TTC) and the urologist confirmed that Lipitor can cause this.

I've read that certain supplements can help with cholesterol. For example, inositol hexaniacinimate (sp?) a non-flushing form of niacin, panetethine (a stabilized form of B5), polycosanol, garlic, fish oil etc.

Has anyone whose husband has gone off cholesterol drugs had any success with any of these or any other cholesterol-lowering drugs? I know my cholesterol plunged when I went on metformin and stopped eating sugar and DH has quite a sweet tooth. He has started exercising 3x week and quit coffee, which should help. Any other hints/supplements?

Thanks for responding!

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Hello! I worked in pharm. drug litigation. Yes, this is a problem w/ Lipitor, though it is hush hush! My dh had terrible sperm motility and took a fertility blend (he found all the supps that are in the all in one) and bought each one seperate and after taking it a month and 1/2 we got We were told we had no chance naturally! Fish oil has got to be one of the best! My dh took that and lowered his quite a bit! Which I think helped!!!!!!!!!!! Good Luck!

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Oh yeah! You want to flush those other out as much as you can, so the healthy can implant and live! You are on the $ about the m/c because abnormal will not survive! I think if those can get out and he takes the fish oil and fertility blend EVERYDAY you have an awesome chance to based on your history!

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I've now taken DH off of Lipitor (based on Urologist's recommendation) and put him on fish oil, plant sterols, pantethine (form of B5 to lower cholesterol) and polycosanol (sugar cane extract to lower cholesterol). Hopefully, these will keep cholesterol in check (although doc said 6 mos off it wouldn't hurt anyway). DH's cholesterol was over 300 before Lipitor and we want to keep those arteries clear.

Question--how long do you think we need to wait for DH's little guys to recover? I read Lipitor is out of your system pretty quickly and sperm take 3 months to form. I hope we don't have to wait the full 3 mos. since I'm 42 and insurance will only cover my treatments for another 6 mos.

Any advice?

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I suppose it depends on how far along the assembly line the Lipitor affects the sperm. My dr. also told me it takes 3 months for sperm to form -- that's why he wanted DH to take clomid for 3 mos. before retesting, because it would take that long to see the full effect.

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~Jennifer~
Pg w/#1 after 4 years...
Endometriosis & male factor

We were also told it takes three months for the sperm to form.
I hope that the Lipator gets out of his system fast!!!

Good Luck

my husband has also been taking lipitor for 15 years .He has poor sperm mobility and abnormal sperm.He has seen a local urologist and has been refered to a guy now in london at the main fertitity clinic in england to look into this futher .He is 37years old ..we have been trying for nearly 3 years. our appointment is next week .we did not think there was any cause to link the two until i read an advertisment in a us magazine for lipitor and it stated that on tests lipitor caused male rats to have decreased sperm mobility and increased abnormal sperm...maybe this is the cause ...we dont know but we will be discussing this next week.....ill keep you all informed

Have you tried supplementing with 100-200 mg of Coenzyme Q10 per day? On the FDA's website I found a "citizen petition" from a doctor petitioning the FDA to require Lipitor to be labeled "should be taken with 100-200 mg of Coenzyme Q10/day." It depletes Coenzyme Q10 and that's was causes sperm abnormalities.

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My husband and I [I'm 29, DH 32] have been trying to conceive for 15 months. He is on lipitor [atorvastatin] for high cholesterol.

He stopped lipitor in Dec 03. We conceived in Feb 2004. Scan at 8.5 weeks showed no fetal heart beat. Missed abortion around 6-7 weeks.

DH restarted the lipitor that february and stopped in June 2004 to try again in July. We did not conceive and in October had baseline tests. This showed DH had poor sperm morphology [13% normal]. Since he had been off lipitor for 3 months, we thought the problem was of intrinsic low male fertility and therefore restarted lipitor [there was nothing in the literature then about lipitor and male infertility/miscarriage].

We continued trying to conceive until January, and then had another semen analysis which showed that back on the lipitor his morphology had worsenned to only 7% normal and the motility was also worse. We stopped the lipitor and he took 200mg Q10 plus pychogenol and carnitine.

We were already booked in for IUI in February 2005 so we proceeded, even though he had only been off the lipitor for 2weeks. IUI was successful and at 6 weeks a scan showed a good fetal heart beat. however today at 7.5 weeks the scan shows the fetal heart has stopped.

I have been wanting to reply to this thread for some time, but have been hoping that this pregnancy would work and our fears about lipitor were unfounded. However this has not been the case. It has taken a year for us to work out that the lipitor has been causing male infertility, by a process of elimination. However I am now certain that it has also caused these two miscarriages.

The problem is beginning to be noted [recent article in Andrology ''Does Atorvastatin cause male infertility?'']. However it is frustrating to have gone through all this heartbreak for an avoidable cause. The medication should come with a warning for men to stop the drug at least 3 months before trying to conceive. We will wait at least 3 months from stopping lipitor before trying again.

Please let me know how you all get on.

SPLodge --

First, I'm so sorry for your losses. Reading your message sent a chill up and down my spine because it's so similar to my own story. I had 3 losses, all at 8.5 weeks. It hasn't been proven, but we suspect lipitor since it interferes with Coenzyme Q10 and causes abnormalities at the mitochondrial level, which I believe could cause chromosomal damage, the primary cause of early miscarriage. I made a complaint to Pfizer as well as the FDA's medwatch site. Everyone who has been affected should complain. They were not surprised by my complaint and admitted there was a problem. Then why don't they label it as causing reproductive harm in women AND MEN? This drug (and other statins) have caused so much unnecessary heartbreak for countless couples who are TTC.

After 3 m/c in a year and my near heart attack following the last one, we have stopped TTC. Another miscarriage would be the death of me. We'll never know whether it was the Lipitor for sure, but I think it was.

Take care and let us know how you are doing.

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Dear Broken Wing,

Sorry for my slow reply. This second miscarriage has harder to get over and I can imagine how devastating your three miscarriages have been.

I have been looking through your story, and as as well as the lipitor, both our husbands have poor morphology. Whilst I am sure the lipitor hasnt helped and may indeed be the cause, the poor morphology itself can also cause increased miscarriages as it is a sign of poor sperm DNA quality.

I am getting all the tests done to make sure I dont have a cause for miscarriage and I imagine you have had these done too. Then we are going to get a sperm chromatin structure assay [www.scsadiagnostics.com] done. You can order this from the website. We are getting this done this week, even though my husband has only been off the lipitor for 68 days [rather than the 74 required to make new sperm] because we are leaving the US to return home.

Basically if the DNA fragmentation is OK, then the chance of him becoming a father are fair and we will soldier on. However if it is poor despite stopping lipitor and using antioxidants [you can also try a course of antibiotics] , we will know that the chances of recurring miscarriage are high and we will consider using donor sperm at an earlier point. [Incidentally we could also prove whether the lipitor causes DNA damage by doing this test before and after lipitor, but i imagine, like me, you wont be letting your husband back on it for a long time!]

It seems to me that your fertility is very good - to get pregnant 3 times in a year aged 42 without IVF is excellent. And although miscarriages are devastating, it would be sad to give up on the chance of a child if the only problem is with your husbands sperm. It is a personal decision as to whether you would use a donor but it seems worth consideration before giving up forever.

Good luck with everything and I will keep you posted

Splodge

I had my IUI this a.m. after DH was off lipitor for 3 months. His SA #'s improved astoundingly. Motility improved nearly 50% from 60% to 89%, even though he was taking 200 mg coenzyme q10 with the Liptor. What a difference! Keep your fingers crossed for me.

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Hello-I've never came to this board but did a search on male factor infertility and lipitor and it brought me here. Can you please give me the link where you found this info? My DH has poor sperm morphology-was diagnosed prior to being on lipitor when we were ttcing my son. However, he is now on lipitor and we just recently got pregnant again after our third IUI and ttcing for ten months but we had another heartbreaking m/c (lost our first baby at 10.5 weeks) so now I'm wondering about the connection? Thanks,

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Angie(Wife to Mike 12/13/1997), Mommy to Miracles: Alex Michael William (7/12/03) and Alyson Eileen (7/04/06), two angel babies (8/01/02 and 5/06/05)Co-Host of Born In July 06-HOT TOTS

Dear Broken Wing,

We appear to be running in tandem! I had my first IUI [+ femara/HCG] after the 2nd miscarriage on Monday 23rd May. My husband has been off lipitor for 4 months now. His SA wasnt much different but his SCSA off lipitor was good [12.6%]. All my tests for recurrent miscarriage were also normal.

So fingers crossed for the both of us. I really hope it works for you. Splodge.


ps mommytoalex - lipitor and male infertility - there is an editorial on it in the medical journal andrology link http://www.andrologyjournal.org/cgi/...t/full/26/1/12 but you have to pay to read the article. It is an editorial of a urologist who has noticed lots of men coming to his clinic for infertility with poor sperm motility and all being on lipitor and he comments on the possible link via lipitor causing deficiency of Q10 which is required for sperm motility. There is no acknowledged link yet between men taking lipitor and their wives having miscarriages, but that doesnt mean it is not the case, and if lipitor causes faulty sperm it may well increase m/c rates.

Hello everyone,

I stumbled onto this site after a google search and I was wondering if anyone could lead me to some additional information. My wife and I have been trying for nearly two years without success. It was determined that I have low motility. I was on lipitor and had a varicocele repaired but my drs said that neither were causes but they could not provide any answers. We have had 3 unsuccessful IUIs and just had the 4th today. I feel terrible that my wife has had to go through this as it has been especially difficult on her and I would do anything to fix the problem. If anyone can provide some insight it would be greatly appreciated. Pls feel free to email any links.

Good luck to all.

BT13

Dear BT13,

A varicocoele is a common cause of male factor infertility and only 50% men have improved sperm function after an operation to correct it. Lipitor also causes impaired sperm motility. I don't know why your doctors said otherwise - not knowing what is the problem is terribly frustrating.

The best things you can do, if you can afford it, is to push the doctors for IVF. It is an involved process for your wife, but as well as being a treatment, it gives you a lot more information on the problem, and the bottom line of whether the sperm are actually fertilising the eggs. And of course it has a much higher success rate than IUI.

A friend of mine went through 5 years of investigation and treatment for 'unexplained infertility'. Her husband had a varicocoele but his counts etc were OK. Eventually they got to IVF and found that the sperm could not fertilise any of the eggs. It is from the long term damage done to the sperm-forming cells in the testicles by the raised temperature of the veins of the varicocoele.

Thats not to say that IVF wont work perfectly for you. And the good news is that if it doesnt, you can have ICSI with IVF - injection of the sperm heads directly into the egg. The above friend had ICSI and now has a healthy 6 month old boy.

I hope that cheers you up at little.

Good luck.