She approached the microphone slowly from the back of the room, appearing to float, wrapped in her colorful hijab. A doctor from Pakistan, she had some questions and a comment after hearing my talk. A Kind Interrogation “Your Sperm Mapping technique for azoospermic men” she stated softly, “is it done under just local anesthesia?” “Yes,” I responded....Continue reading
Category: Masculinity
Could Masculinity Be Killing You?
From the time we’re little, we’re taught that big boys don’t cry and told that when times get tough, we just need to “man up.” The message is so strong that even a baby could figure it out (and plenty do): boys shouldn’t cry. Put a different way, boys–and later, men–need to be tough. “Real”...Continue reading
A Toast to the Jewels on World Vasectomy Day
You might think that publicly celebrating vasectomies is like celebrating root canals! But think about it. You have a root canal to relief pain and to be able to eat again, but you have vasectomy not only for you, but also for others, like family, and for the world at large. It’s taking one for...Continue reading
Getting Men Over the Infertility Hump
You’ve heard of gene therapy right? What ever happened to it? Born back in the 1990’s, the same decade that Viagra was introduced to the world, gene therapy has not fared nearly as well as the little blue pill. Why not? First of all, gene therapy, in which DNA is put into cells to treat disease,...Continue reading
MicroTESE vs. FNA Mapping: Medieval or Modern?
Put two experts in a room and give each of them the same problem to solve. What you’ll find is that they typically use similar “knowledge structures” and “heuristic strategies” (i.e. organized and principled thinking) and then proceed to break the problem into smaller, more digestible ones to solve it. But, despite similar cognitive approaches, the solutions...Continue reading
Care = Knowledge + Gut = Babies
There is a lot of “information” out there nowadays. It all started way back when we humans started talking. Then came the written word, and then television, and now it’s the world-wide-web, that great wellspring of all things knowable. Thomas Jefferson considered information the “currency of democracy,” and Ronald Reagan termed it the “oxygen of the...Continue reading
Tips For Men To Improve Sexual Function
Do you feel like your sexual function could use a boost? Fortunately, there are a number of ways men can enhance their sexual performance. This could be to either improve existing problems or find new ways to keep their partner happy. The good news is this can be done without the use of prescription medications...Continue reading
Fact, Theory and Truth in Science
I am giving a talk to a large gathering of Kaiser docs from Southern California this week on whether a relationship exists between male infertility and the later development of cancer. We have published some of the most convincing data to date to suggest that they are linked. But is it really, absolutely true? What is...Continue reading
Beards: Kiss of Death or Secret of Success?
Some biologists speculate that by sporting a beard, a man is advertising that his immune system is so healthy that he can carry around colonies of germs with no ill effects. A heavily bristled face gives women their scratchy, sexy fix but may offer some reassurance that the hair they’re nuzzling is still relatively sanitary–or...Continue reading
Are Urologists Losing It?
Let me get this straight. Twenty-five years ago, Urologists popularized a blood test for the early detection of a silent but very common and deadly cancer. With this tool in hand, called the PSA test, hundreds of millions of men have been screened worldwide since, changing the face of this cancer on the planet as...Continue reading