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My husband's count is under a million

My husband's count is under a million. Is there any chance we could try the less expensive IUI option or is it not worth the time, trouble, money? - Sure, well, for whomever asked that question, it sounds like you have already a good relationship with your physician, and I would obviously encourage you to make sure that you ask your physician that same question. My perspective is one that, and for those that don't know what ICSI means, it stands for intracytoplasmic sperm injection. It's a particular form of IVF that's actually very, very useful when a man has a low sperm count. What they do in ICSI procedures is they take individual sperm and they inject them directly into individual eggs, so that a couple could still go through IVF together, even if the man's sperm count is very low. And so it's a technique that's been around for the past several years, and it's really opened up the door for a lot of men and partners to go through IVF that otherwise wo...

My next question for you; I'm a year old woman

My next question for you; I'm a year old woman married to a year old male. I've heard that men who are older have higher rates of birth defects in their children, is this true? - It's a really important question, but also a little bit of a complicated one. As I mentioned earlier, men may have a decline in their sperm quality just associated with gettin' older, with being older. When researchers have done studies to look at large groups or large populations of men where the father is of different ages, they do see some slight increases in the risks of some genetic issues or genetic birth defects in the children that are born if the man is in his older years. Now, those birth defect rates are still overall low, so it's not a guarantee that a man who's  is gonna have birth defects in the child or any problems with the offspring. But compared to younger men, the risk might be slightly higher. These aren't the exact numbers, but I think a useful way to think abou...

Men don't have a strict biological clock

Men don't have a strict biological clock in the same sense, but we do think that as men get into their s and s, that their sperm quality and their sperm count does start to go down and decline. But there's really no age range where a man can be sure that he doesn't have infertility or where he would think that he absolutely would have infertility. It really can happen to all men of all ages. - Thank you for that. Our next question, and I think you almost answered this one a little bit, does a man's age effect the quality and quantity of his sperm? - When men are first born, when boys and children are first born, they're not making any sperm at all. And so when a man goes through puberty, or a boy goes through puberty, he starts to make sperm. And once he's finished with puberty, which in different men or young men is somewhere in the teenage years, he will be making hopefully a normal amount of sperm. And then that amount of sperm should stay about the same prob...

Semen sample for us to evaluate

Semen sample for us to evaluate. Some guys might find that a little bit odd, but the way I always explain it is that if someone has a blood problem, we do a blood test, if someone has a urine problem, we do a urine test, if someone might have a fertility problem, we do a semen test. It's just another part of the body that we evaluate. - Great, and that brings me onto my second question. How common is male infertility? - Sure, it's more common, I think, than most people think, so I'm glad that someone asked that question as well. Among all of the reproductive aged men in the United States, we think somewhere around probable nine or % of men are experiencing infertility, meaning that they and their partners have been trying for usually about a year or more of having regular, unprotected intercourse without having a child, without having a pregnancy. When you look at all of the couples that come into an office to be evaluated for fertility issues, about half the time, the male...

What medical issues they may have

What medical issues they may have, surgeries that they've had in the past. So it's really just a discussion and what brought them there and learning more about them and their medical history. We do ask questions as well about their reproductive history, so how long the man and his partner have been trying for a pregnancy, have they had any pregnancies in the past. We do a physical exam, a physical exam just like any other doctor they might come to visit for other reasons. So things that we examine during a male fertility evaluation are the parts of the male anatomy that are relevant. So it's an examination of the penis, the testicles, very a rarely a prostate exam as well, all done in the privacy of the office with the doctor. In addition to the history and the examination, we generally do a blood test that can all be done from one poke of veins to draw the hormones that we need to evaluate. And then an important as well is the semen analysis. So for a semen analysis, a man...