Male Factor Infertility

Every so often I get an email from a company wanting me to review a product or write about a product, and I usually steer clear because that's not really what this blog is about. And I'm not tech savvy at all and don't know how to do giveaways and all that jazz. Of course if there's ever anything I find that is a must have at the IF Island give shop, then I'll definitely share the info, but I know how overwhelming more stuff can be.

A few weeks ago I got an email from a gal working at WaveWall Worldwide, an international startup based in the UK, that created an anti radiation phone case, that supposedly "protects testicles from up to 87% of radiation emitted from cell phones." 

It got me thinking more about male factor infertility and how increasingly common (yet really not talked about) it is. We know that about 1 in 8 couples suffer with infertility. What many people don't know is that male factor infertility is just as common as female infertility, and there is a lot of unexplained infertility.  And what people, especially men need to remember is that diagnosed problems with the part of the body that is used to procreate is a medical condition.  Sperm issues have nothing to do with virility or ones manhood. It has to do with something in the body not functioning the way it should.  It's no ones fault and it's nothing to be ashamed of.  

Infertility seems to be on the rise in general and I often wonder why and also think there's got to be an environmental component involved. When we were going through IVF I went nuts on Noah. And we didn't have a male factor issue. I made him eat brazil nuts and a steak before "ejac" night, I begged him not to ride his bike and forbid him from going into a hot tub and yelled at him when he had his phone or laptop near his privates. Had I known these cases existed, I might have just got him one. They're nice, the phone slips right into this little leather sleeve and the inside part comes in Seahawks colors  (blue or neon green). Also, they protect anyone from seeing text exchanges that happen to pop up on your phone. 

Now I'm less concerned with Noah's sperm and more concerned with Momo's head. I am...umm...holding her for every nap...literally...every...single...nap (and telling myself that I am creating a secure attachment for her). What that also means is that my phone is always near her/us because that's my lifeline to the world right now. When I'm texting my sister to complain about how my arm is completely numb, I worry and obsess about Momo's exposure to radiation. But when I'm not texting or googling things like,"best diaper cream," then I put the phone in this case and tell myself I'm protecting her from brain cancer because I've recently became aware that kids absorb something like 10 times the amount of mobile radiation than adults do. Ugh. I'll just put that on my list of things to worry about. 

Anyway. This is not to freak anyone out or to blindly plug a product. It's just sharing info and reminding any men out there dealing with male factor issues that they are really not alone.

Comments

[Kacy]

This is very useful information.

[Meg]

The only thing more isolating than infertility in general is male factor infertility. We are dealing with complete azoospermia here. Combine all the jokes about the "family jewels," the need to "sow seed," "shooting blanks," etc. with the general tendency of guys to discuss things less, and the diagnosis can be completely emasculating. It is really, really hard especially for the guy but also for the woman trying to help the guy still feel like one. There don't seem to be great resources for men or blogs or forums like there are for women. And men with male factor infertility feel so excluded from everything because a woman might be able to carry a pregnancy from an egg donor, but a man with MFI just sits on the sidelines while his partner potentially goes through treatments with someone else's sperm. It is so easy to get donor sperm, but it is a much harder struggle for men and there aren't many resources for them to process the whole ordeal and come to terms with using donor sperm. So, thanks for writing about this.

[Elisabeth]

There are absolutely environmental factors involved in infertility! This is actually GOOD news because that while some factors are hereditary and can't be controlled, research about the environmental factors allows us to consciously make choices that increase fertility or at least avoid infertility. Isn't that awesome? Genetics are part of our story, but we have a lot of choices to determine how our genes affect our lives.

This article helped me understand food-related components: the fact that our low-fat fad continues to deplete fertility, and the correlation between celiac disease and infertility. I think it's worth reading:

http://nourishedkitchen.com/unexplained-infertility/

[C]

Male factor is probably not hereditary. If you have difficulty conceiving, or if you never conceive, because of male factor, you don't pass it on. So it must be environmental. If you had asked me I would have said my husband had a very healthy childhood, growing up in an agricultural community, eating tons of fruits and veg (he's French). But that's probably what caused his problem, all the fruits and veg, especially the apples he ate all the time down to and maybe past the core. The orchard was a family one, and his father used pesticides. Probably overused pesticides. Not out of laziness but out of a desire to do something, is my guess - he's not the type to sit back and let nature grow the apples. So now we have male factor for my husband and his brothers and cousins, who also come from a family of "agriculteurs". Four children born from IVF among them, and, we are hoping and praying - please pray! we need it! - one more child for us from embryo adoption. His cousin who is in the family ago business would rather believe it is radiation from cell phones, but they didn't grow up with cell phones. It's something environmental in the end. I struggle to forgive and understand my father in law for his pesticide use. I remind myself that having my cell phone always nearby is probably just as bad. We just don't question until later. We need to be conservative with new things, whether pesticides or cell phones.
People always assume we have female IF or if I told them it's male, they forget and think it's my problem. Doesn't matter anymore. I just would rather my girlfriends remember they don't have to tell me their husbands are getting vasectomies!
The female reproduction system is much more complicated than the male. Wouldn't it make sense to address MFI by improving sperm production so the couple can conceive naturally? IVF is a poor solution. In our case, while I probably have normal fertility under natural circumstances, my ovaries rebelled at IVF and we never had success. Thankfully God gave us a miracle several years ago, without our even asking for it. We conceived our child on the "first try" even though we later learned my husband's sperm counts were less than a million. How blessed we are! Praying we get another blessing

[marisa]

Yeah, no one ever talks about MFI and I mean, is it even studied? While I'm grateful for the opportunity to pursue treatments, I'm still get frustrated with the fact that I'm the human pincushion even with the MFI diagnosis.

[yasmara]

We had combo infertility - PCOS for me and bad sperm for him. No cause was ever identified but we had to do ICSI with our IVF because his sperm all died really quickly (mortality) and also had terrible mutations & motility. Luckily, we ended up w/2 healthy kids (IVF for 1, FET for 1).