According to the NHS, around 1 in 7 couples may have difficulty conceiving but “84% of couples will conceive naturally within a year if they have regular unprotected sex (every two to three days).”
What is male infertility?
Male infertility happens largely because a man is not producing enough healthy sperm. On average, around 50-500 million sperm are ejaculated during orgasm, but only a few hundred make it as far as the egg and have any chance of conceiving a child. So, if the number of sperm is reduced, or if the sperm are defective, you’re reducing your chances of conceiving.
How do you increase sperm count and sperm health?
Low quality sperm, or sperm that is low in number can often be caused by lifestyle choices. For example, smokers and men who consume large amounts of alcohol will both be at risk of reduced quality sperm. The same is also true for people who use drugs such as marijuana and who take anabolic steroids.
To give yourself the best chance of having high quality sperm, choose a healthy lifestyle: ditch the cigarettes, drink moderately, and make sure you are exercising regularly and eating a healthy, balanced diet. All of these lifestyle choices will increase your chances of conceiving.
For more insight on reducing your risk of infertility problems, take a look at this article on our website.
When should you see a doctor?
If you and your partner are leading healthy lifestyles and are generally healthy but are still having difficulties, it would be a good idea to see your GP. For men, a GP would be able to carry out semen tests, blood tests and a genetic test to attempt to decipher the problem.
However, there are some men who should see a doctor even before they start to try to conceive. If you have had an STD, such as chlamydia or gonorrhoea, if you have had testicular cancer, have taken drugs to treat cancer, have diabetes or erectile dysfunction, if you have had a vasectomy reversed, or have had other illnesses or surgery related to the testicles, then you should see your GP for advice.
For more information about male infertility, this page on our website provides a lot of detail that may be useful.
As always, if you have any concerns about your fertility, go and see your GP.
The Urology Foundation
The Urology Foundation is committed to transforming the lives of people with a urology condition through ground-breaking research, training and education. The money we raise is invested directly into research to find better treatments and cures, and in educational training for urology professionals to care for and help people affected by urology conditions. Working with researchers, urology and health care professionals we are improving the nation’s urology care. We are dedicated to beating all urology diseases through cutting-edge research and leading education and training to ensure that fewer lives will be devastated.
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Interesting and useful article
Kind regards
on February 5, 2019 at 1:32 pm talkhealthtalkhealth
Infertility is the lack of ability to possess a normal pregnancy. Relating to one particular in seven couples in the United States is not able to conceive a child after trying repeatedly for one year. Some partners will have success in the second or third year of trying, but couples that cannot conceive after three years are very unlikely to ever succeed unless they seek medical assistance.
Infertility in a couple may be attributable to the male partner, the woman partner or both. Studies advise the male partner alone is unproductive in about 20% of cases and that both companions have fertility issues about 30% of the time. Therefore, the male partner plays a role in about half of all couples that have difficulty conceiving a child. In about 15% of cases, infertility tests are totally normal in both partners, despite the fact that the couple cannot conceive a child.
on January 8, 2020 at 10:10 am Nav