Campaign Story

My husband, Jarred, openly shares his cancer journey to anyone who asks. He is 3b Testicular Cancer Survivor. Now that we are in this stage, we’ve realized male infertility isn’t talked about enough, especially after cancer. This man has been through hell and came out on the other side with love and humor… how could we get this diagnosis? It’s just not fair.

We started this journey in December 2023 after a year and a half of TTC. It began by exploring my fertility with Dr. Ochalski at Shady Grove Fertility. After countless procedures, tests and exams proved my fertility to be in good standing besides unexplainable delayed ovulation, with plenty of healthy eggs for my age, we were told the sooner the better to start this process.

In April 2024, we had our first urologist appointment with Dr. Hayden at SGF where we were told that we couldn’t have children of our own without IVF.

After his extensive chemo treatments, his body is miraculously still producing sperm. Something that we learned stops for most men after treatments as intense as his. His RPLND from another bout with cancer threw a curveball into the mix with retrograde ejaculation. In his urine samples his sperm counts were in the single digits and non-motile but something as Dr. Hayden said, is a miracle.

Even deeper into our diagnosis we were told that Jarred will need to have surgery to TRY to remove the sperm directly from his testicle, a 5-figure surgery, not including any IVF cycles, not covered by insurance with a 50% success rate in our situation. As you can imagine very daunting, exhausting and gutting.

Right now, Jarred is actively taking a doctor recommended cocktail of supplements and on lifestyle restrictions to strengthen the miracle sperm he is still producing! Shortly, we will test to see if his counts increased and if the health of the sperm has improved.

It’s realistic to say that we go through bouts of positivity, and negativity. Days of tears and days it doesn’t cross our mind as much. But we are waiting and praying for another miracle.

A special thank you to those who love us HARD, pray for us and talk with us during this time.