What I now know about male infertility

My partner and I didn’t think there was a fertility issue on either side. So, when we got serious about starting for a baby in our mid to late 30’s, we knew of no reason why we shouldn’t have been able to conceive.

We tried for several years but month after month no joy. We went to see our GP to discuss how to improve our fertility chances. We were simply told to ‘keep trying’, ‘don’t worry about it’ and to ensure to take folic acid, regular exercise, and eat a balanced diet.

As you can imagine as further time passed and still no joy, it started to increase our anxiety about whether we were likely to become parents at all. After six years the impact on our relationship was so great we agreed to divorce.

What has this experience done to me?

It’s made me a stronger man, a person who wants this area of medicine to be taken seriously, with good information, access to the best diagnostics available and affordable. I also want to see good quality and clinically tested treatments made available to those that need it.

Fertility treatment with new partner

I’m now in a new relationship and certainly know a lot more than I ever did about this area –  in fact, I’ve probably become an expert patient.

I needed specialist urology male factor fertility advice, and I’ve gone through surgical sperm retrieval directly from my remaining testicle (TESE) after getting ‘baby fit’, with regular exercise, no hot baths, cycling, phones in pockets, laptops off lap etc for six months, but also good recommended anti-oxidant nutrition.

I’ve got five vials of good DNA quality sperm stored in deep freeze, but had two rounds of failed IVF/ICSI, despite having four clinically viable blastocysts.

However, this experience is not going to waste as I am using it to benefit others.

What I now know about male infertility

I now run a pharmaceutical company, LogixX Pharma Solutions, which specialises in therapies for fertility, amongst other medical therapies. This includes Proxeed, a nutritional supplement for boosting male fertility.

I have surrounded myself with world leading experts in the fertility field to try and understand not only my own fertility factors but also using what I now know about male infertility to help others achieve their dreams and desires to become parents.

I’ve learnt that:

• Time is always against us and so is our paternal age for fertility. Testing men early is not only less invasive but also less costly than female testing so it makes sense to do this first.
• We are what we eat and we must eat and excrete proportionately. Our bodies are like machines that need good input, stimulation, fuel etc to get great outputs (performance) like a Formula 1 racing car.
• A child combines genetic information from both the mother and the father and it is important to ensure that the integrity/quality of this information from either partner is the absolute best it can be when trying for a baby.
• We need to look carefully at ourselves in terms on lifestyles, our stress factors, our nutrition, our exercise and ensure that we can optimise ourselves as much as possible before we take professional healthcare advice if still experiencing issues.
• The very first step for couples trying to conceive who are experiencing issues is to diagnose/test male factor infertility early with a referral to a specialist urologist who looks after male fertility. Ask the specialist how to test your sperm DNA and quality parameters and how to enhance this based on known risk factors.