Boxers or Briefs?

When infertility is an issue, couples start looking for every possibility, down to a man's choice of underwear and the temperature of their showers.

Underwear choice does not impact on sperm counts and motility for most men. Hot showers do damage sperm present in the system. We see this as reduced sperm numbers and motility. I tell all my patients to avoid heat "down there".

The reason a man's testicles are outside his body in the scrotum is to keep them several degrees cooler than his core body temperature. Trying to boil the testicles is not a good thing for fertility. This means no hot showers, hot saunas, jacuzzis or hot baths.

The damage he does today reduces his counts for 74 days-the time it takes to make fresh, healthy sperm. So even an occasional hot shower is enough to keep his numbers down. I suggest that he check at least one and possibly two to three complete semen analysis after three days of abstinence. Each should be 4 to 6 weeks apart at the least.

Related Topics: Testicular Cancer and Infertility Link, Tips to Help Improve Your Chance of Conceiving

Vasectomy Reversals

Another great message board question:

I know this is selfish, but I can't help myself. My husband and I have 2 children together, and I have another from a previous relationship. Our youngest is 18 months old. My husband had a vasectomy last April, much to my dismay. I would LOVE to have another baby, but he refuses to have the vasectomy reversed. Not that I blame him much, because of the pain. But I can't help wondering if it truly is possible to still get pregnant. Is there any way of bettering my odds without the reversal?

As a specialist that does reversals each and every day, I encourage you to do more research. I see your scenario all the time.

A correctly performed reversal does NOT have any pain post-operatively. Sure, the guys are aware that something happened down there, but it is not pain. When I go by the hotels and check on my patients, they are all surprised how pain free they are. If pain is the primary reason to not consider a reversal, then that is wrong.

I will tell you to be very very careful in selecting a reversal doctor. The chances for success are dramatically higher if you take the time to seek out a skilled and experienced true microsurgeon. And travel if you must. I just did a reversal on man from Moscow, Russia this week.

In fact, most of my patients travel from all over the US and the world, so travel is common place. A reversal has been proven time and again to be the most cost effective, most natural and most healthy way of restoring fertility.

Another way is to have sperm retrieved from his system, and then inject it into the egg (ICSI) and then do in-vitro fertilization (IVF) though this is far more expensive and has a list of potential problems as well.And at only one year out, his chances for a successful microsurgical reversal are higher than 95%.

Related Topics: Donor Options as Fertility Solutions, Assisted Reproduction

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