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@Tam: Of course! It's great that you're going to the urologist to get some answers as to why he's azoospermic! It really helped me to think of all of the information we gathered at appointments (even "bad news") as more power to help us in decision making and one step closer to our eventual family.

We actually saw two urologists. The first one did a physical exam, didn't feel a vas deferens, and basically told us we needed to do IVF. Once we finally had a consultation with our RE, he referred us to a reproductive urologist who also did a physical exam and agreed that DH had probably been born without a vas deferens. He took some blood from DH to confirm the diagnosis, looking for the CF gene mutation that causes CBAVD. He also ran a hormone panel on DH, which came back normal, indicating that he was probably producing some sperm, but it just couldn't mix with his semen. I know there are other causes of azoospermia, too, but I'm not sure what other tests or treatments you might encounter. I did peruse many of these blogs: http://www.stirrup-queens.com/a-whole-lot-of-blogging-brought-to-you-sorted-and-filed/diagnostics-room/ and I especially liked this one: https://soonafamily.wordpress.com/

Anyways, once the urologist ran those tests, we scheduled his sperm extraction. It was an outpatient procedure in the urologist's office. We had to first drive to my RE's office to pick up a vial of liquid in which to transport the sperm (and we had to drive it back to my RE after the procedure). It was a quick procedure, maybe 20 minutes. DH had a shot of local anesthetic... he said that was the worst part of the actual procedure. Then the urologist made a small incision in one of his testes and removed a tiny piece of tissue. DH had a couple of dissolvable stitches. He was very uncomfortable for about 24 hours (lots of ice, laying on the couch, and I can't remember which pain meds he was given). He could walk more easily the next day, but was still sensitive for a good week or so.

After I dropped the specimen off at my RE's, they checked to make sure there were live sperm (we got a couple hundred), and they froze it in two batches until we were ready to do ICSI after my egg retrieval the next month.

All in all, not super fun, but totally worth it looking back with baby at home a year later!

I hope you get some answers soon and move on to the next step towards making your baby! Let me know if you have any other questions or just need to chat!