Excitement of being a mother was replaced frustration, which grew stronger and harder to manage each month. 

Two years later my husband and I approached our doctor for fertility tests.

A few weeks after, we were on vacation in Accra when a call came in that changed everything “We’ll need to run some more tests,” the doctor told my husband, “but those we’ve done so far show only a few thousand sperm in your sample.” For clarification, having less than 15 million sperm is considered a ‘low sperm count’ and means you’re likely to have trouble as a man impregnating your woman. But the doctor certify me ok…

My husband’s head dropped into his hands and he cried.

“But we only need to overcome this together babe” I said, as I hugged him.

We waited a month for a follow up appointment with our doctor, hoping our condition will not be as bad as most couples have it. But when the doctor interpreted the test result, he said my husbands had very few sperm, and that none of them were healthy, and none of them moving.

“Does that mean we won’t be able to have our own baby” I asked expectantly. “Yes,” the doctor replied smiling.

Since I will not take a no for an answer I asked again “Have you seen couples in our situation have a baby?” I asked him. Hoping I will get a positive news. “You have to keep hoping Mrs. Blessing.”  That sounded more like a no. 

Again we were told our chances of conceiving naturally were highly unlikely and we should consider IVF. This for us was not an option; it wasn’t something we wanted to do. 

However the question we wanted answered was ‘why?’ Why was the sperm count low? And why had it decreased even more over the years?  For us, we can’t just accept such report as our reality.  My husband Paul was fit and healthy, eats well, barely drinks alcohol, let alone smoking – surely there must be a reason!