Male Fertility

Male Infertility

There is no more confused medical care in our field than what is delivered by many urologists to the couple that suffers from "male infertility." In fact, many couples are told to delay the IVF treatment they should have had sooner (because of the wife's advancing age) in order just to wait for some dubious treatment of the male partner to increase his sperm count. Numerous control studies have demonstrated that administering clomid or nutritional supplements to the male, or performing varicocoele surgery, does nothing to improve his sperm count, and the often suggested testosterone supplements just lowers rather than raises his sperm count, and may eve n render him totally sterile.

Anatomy of the normal testicle.

Route of sperm transport from the testis to epididymis to the vas deferens.

Many husbands in infertile marriages are sent to urologists who then almost always in some communities recommend "varicocoelectomy." This is a procedure to tie off a varicose vein of the testicle. More than 15% of all men on the planet have a varicose vein of their left testicle, and most of these men are quite fertile. It is a completely benign and normal variant of testicular anatomy. Yet often the husband is subjected to this completely meddlesome surgery, often on both sides, despite the absence even of a varicocoele, and despite its ineffectiveness in anyway improving his sperm count. It is however ironically quite effective in delaying the treatment the couple really needs, all while the wife's eggs keep getting older. Furthermore, if done clumsily, bilateral varicocoelectomy can reduce the husband's merely low sperm count down to a zero sperm count.