Robertsonian Translocation

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the blog.

My partner and I have been TTC now for 8 months. I was having a few problems with my period so we decided to see the fertility associates to see if everything was ok. While we were there I asked the doctor if we should test my partners sperm count and he wasn't really bothered but said if we would like to we could.

Well im so glad we did as it has come back that he has Robertsonian Translocation 14 21 which is something that we had both never heard of. We have had out meeting with the genetic counsellor so she could explain this to us and basically 2 of my partners chromosomes have switched? This could also be the reason behind having a VERY low sperm count and he is only 22.

Does anyone on here have robertsonians or their partner? I would really like to hear more about this.

Hi Ashleigh. Sorry to hear that your journey hasn't been as easy as you would have hoped. But hang in there - you are in a good situation and WILL have success :) Because it's your husband that has the translocation, your odds are heaps better and you're still so young!!! The translocation affect men and women so differently when it comes to conceiving. Men have a low sperm count, but there are still heaps of normal swimmers in there (luckily, the abnormal ones don't swim so well and don't always develop properly). Women, however, only get one egg a month, so the odds are way less in your favor. And if it comes to IVF for you guys, you're more likely to have success as you can get more usable eggs and they can choose the best swimmers (and thus, least likely to carry genetic problems associated with the translocation). My understanding is that couples in your situation will take longer to conceive but once you do, things are usually fine. You just have to be patient :-)

I have a translocation between 13 and 14. have been TTC for 2 years now and unfortunately have lost all 4 of my pregnancies. We're going to be starting IVF in July so they can test the embryos before transferring them. Unfortunately, when the woman has it, miscarriages are very common. Getting pregnant is easy (for us anyway), but the chances of a unbalanced embryo are very high. We've only had 1 of the 4 losses confirmed as a result of my BT, so there could be other reasons for my losses (though we haven't found any yet).

what path has your geneticist and specialist suggested you follow? i assume with your age and the fact that it's him, not you, they would have suggested to keep trying for another year or so then get put on the list for IVF? Luckily, here in NZ we can get public funding for IVF!!! Good luck and feel free to pm if you'd like :-)

Hi A.Girl,

Thank you for your reply this information has been very helpful.

We are heading back to see the specialist on the 25th March to discuss our options, but he has mentioned briefly IVF and he feels this is the best option for us.

Until then I will stay as positive as I can do and he is willing to try and do anything to increase his sperm count.

Good Luck for your IVF in July :)

Hi Toto,

I'm with fertility associates in Wellington. Our appointment went well better than what we had expected.

After my partners sperm count came back so low our specialist advised him to take another test and do it at the clinic. We got the results at our appointment and it turns out his count is actually quite high and he had quite a few strong little swimmers ☺. So I don't really know what went wrong in the first test but that made us feel just that little bit more hopefull.

so we talked about our options and he advised that he really didn't know why we were not pregnant yet but said that in august if I'm still not pregnant then we are to go back and have a test (immediately terrible with remembering the names) but basically it's a dye that's inserted into me to see if I have a blockage and then we have the choice to try pgd.

Now we are just doing the waiting game and hoping to get pregnant before August.😣😐