Male Infertility

by Leigh Ann Woodruff, April 2, 2012

As women are becoming more aware of their fertility preservation options prior to cancer treatment, men are in need of information about their options, too. In fact, a survey published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found 77 percent of men who did not have children wished to preserve their fertility through cancer treatment.

by Leigh Ann Woodruff, March 9, 2012

Men, get ready. Like March Madness basketball, male fertility is now in the limelight, and you can take charge. In just a few weeks, you'll be able to walk into the drugstore to purchase at-home test that will indicate whether their sperm counts are normal.

And really, isn't it about time? Women have always been the ones who take on the burden of getting pregnant, using ovulation predictor kits and worrying about their fertility. A new survey conducted for SpermCheck Fertility®, found that 42 percent of women say they became obsessed with getting pregnant once they started trying, yet only 10 percent say their male partners shared the obsession.

And when things don't happen right away, the women also take on that responsibility — even though fertility doctors estimate that up to 50 percent of cases of infertility are attributable to the male partner. Low sperm count is often one of the reasons. "People don't believe it's a 50-50 proposition," says Pamela Madsen, a nationally recognized fertility educator, advocate and founder of the American Fertility Association. "[They believe] it's still the women's fault! And women still believe it, and women are still the ones taking control — they are the ones that believe it's their fault, that conception rests squarely on their shoulders, and they're the ones leading the way most times."

By Leigh Ann Woodruff, February 21, 2012

SpermCheck Fertility — the first FDA-approved at-home screening test to check sperm count — is now available online through national drugstore chains and will be hitting the store shelves in April. SpermChek is an over-the-counter test to determine whether men have a normal sperm count.

So, if you're having trouble conceiving, should you rush right out and buy the $39.95 test for you or your partner? Not so fast, caution fertility doctors. You need to understand what SpermChek actually tests. Using the at-home test is not the same as having a true semen analysis performed in a laboratory.

"The test is purely a quantitative one that looks at the concentration of sperm and neglects the two other major aspects of a good semen analysis, which are the motility, the movement characteristics, and then the morphology, which is the microscopic appearance of the sperm," says Ed Marut, M.D., a fertility doctor and medical director of Fertility Centers of Illinois.