She just “pulled the goalie” and stopped her contraceptive. It’s now time to have that baby you’ve been talking about. You find yourself both excited and a bit scared about what happens next. And hopefully, it will happen. In fact, the odds are in your favor that it will happen, since this is one of...Continue reading
Category: Fertility
Preparing for Your Visit with an Infertility Specialist
You’ve been trying most of your adult life to not get someone pregnant. But now you really want rug rats…and it isn’t happening. The look on her face when her period comes every month is something you dread as much as she does. It’s time to get your fertility checked. Yes, men have infertility doctors, too....Continue reading
The Skinny on Marijuana and Fertility
In 1996, California was the first state to legalize medical marijuana, sparking a trend that now includes 30 states. Five years ago, Colorado and Washington became the first of 11 states to legalize recreational cannabis. Currently, pot is the most widely consumed semi-legal recreational drug in the western world with an estimated 250 million users, including 1 in 7 Americans who use...Continue reading
Can Tomato Puree Improve Male Fertility?
Tomatoes have had a good year in my field. This tasty little fruit-vegetable (yes, it’s both) has always been a workhorse dietary antioxidant. And when cooked into a sauce or paste, the all-star phytonutrients in tomatoes, including lycopene and Vitamins A and C, become even more concentrated. But could eating tomatoes also improve reproductive health?...Continue reading
Things You’re Not Telling Your Doctor That Can Affect Your Fertility
Are you a “white lie” guy? Do you tell your mother that her meatloaf is delicious when it really isn’t? Have you ever said, “No, officer…I have no idea how fast I was going…” or “Things would have gone so different if I had been there…”? How about, “Oh yea, I remember you…” As long...Continue reading
Not Conceiving After Vasectomy Reversal? Blame the Epididymis
OK, the vasectomy reversal worked and your gun is loaded again. But you’re still not conceiving. What’s up with that? Consider blaming the epididymis. The epi-what-a-mis? It’s a small, comma-shaped organ down there whose life was altered after the vasectomy. It used to help fertility, but the vasectomy changed all that.Continue reading
Confirmed: Prostate Cancer Occurs More Frequently in Infertile Men
Male infertility and prostate cancer are common diseases in men, both occurring in about 8-10% of the male population. Many of us have wondered whether there is any relationship between the two conditions and specifically whether fatherhood status alters prostate cancer risk. Does having lots of kids “protect” men from getting prostate cancer? Likewise, does having male...Continue reading
The Only Upside of a Broken Back
One man was in a terrifying logging accident. Another dove into a shallow pond as a teenager. A third was the victim of a drive-by shooting. And yet another was in a horrific car crash. Miraculously, after surviving these unreal incidents, they shared the same problem: a spinal cord injury. And they all came to me for...Continue reading
IVF and ICSI: Is Less Actually More?
It is the single biggest advance in fertility technology since in vitro fertilization (IVF) was developed 40 years ago. It helps men with even the most severe forms of infertility to father children. It allows human eggs to begin life when they would not have otherwise done so. And it’s used in the vast majority of cases of IVF nowadays....Continue reading
Does a Vasectomy Affect Your Sex Life?
As he was leaving after his vasectomy procedure, he suddenly turned around. With a big smile, and with the highest bird-chirp-shrill of a voice, he said: “Nice job, doc! Didn’t feel a thing!” And with that, he summed up the grass-roots understanding of what a vasectomy is: a male neutering exercise. Sorry guys, but that’s not the case!...Continue reading