Male Infertility Treatments
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Your fertility is a measure of your overall health. Fertility problems can be a sign of other health problems. A fertility evaluation can help to improve your reproductive issues. But it can also be the first step towards improving your general health.
Fertility Evaluation
Our in-depth evaluation looks at genetic, congenital (born with), medical, surgical and environmental factors that can affect your fertility. For the most effective evaluation, we suggest bringing your spouse or partner to the appointment.
We use the following tests:
- Semen analysis
- Generally, this is the first test used to check your fertility
- Often a second test is needed to validate the results
- These results can help pinpoint the causes of your struggle to get pregnant
- Physical examination
- In some cases, an ultrasound is also needed
- Hormone testing
- Tests pituitary and testicular function
- Requires a blood test at the time of your visit
Other tests may be needed.
Understanding Male Infertility Treatment
Infertility is being unable to conceive after a year of trying. Watch Ryan Smith, MD, discuss fertility treatments.
[MUSIC PLAYING] RYAN SMITH: We do just a history and physical exam. And then men, in general, have one semen analysis done. Sometimes we'll check hormones to ensure that everything's in check. And that's generally the kind of basis of our initial evaluation. And there may be more specialized testing involved just depending on what we may find.
Thankfully there are a lot of options out there, a lot of treatable conditions. So it may involve surgery in some cases. Sometimes there's medical therapy that we give, but there are a variety of treatments out there. One of the important things for men to realize is that if they are being treated for fertility, that's closely tied to their overall health. So there can be hormonal disorders involved, there can be reproductive tract obstructions, and some rare cases even cancers. So it's really important for them to have that evaluation and to see a fertility specialist.
We have a fellowship program in male fertility. And we also have a PhD who we work with doing research on male fertility, whether that's developing new treatments, diagnostic tools, medications. So we're one of the few centers nationally that really has that available.
Fertility Treatments
Treatments may include lifestyle changes, medication, surgery, or assisted reproductive technologies.
- Lifestyle changes
- Avoid certain lubricants
- Decrease your stress
- Avoid excess heat (hot tubs, saunas)
- Maintain a healthy weight
- Get plenty of sleep and exercise
- Avoid tobacco, marijuana and drinking alcohol too often
Medication
- Restores hormone balance
- Helps sperm production
- Surgery: Most surgeries are outpatient (no overnight hospital stays) and minimally invasive (no deep cuts made to your body). They also have short recovery times. Common procedures are:
- Microsurgical varicocele correction: A varicocele is an enlarged collection of veins inside the scrotum. Varicoceles can lead to low sperm production. Surgery involves using an operative microscope to permanently tie off these veins.
- Sperm retrieval performed with an operative microscope and assisted reproductive technologies. These include:
- Microsurgical epididymal sperm aspiration (MESA)
- Microdissection testicular sperm extraction (microTESE)
- Vasectomy reversal performed with an operative microscope
- Of 500,000 vasectomies done every year in the United States, 10% of these men qualify for vasectomy reversal
- These procedures have generally high success rates