Though infertility affects both men and women, many a time it is misconceived as a medical condition associated with women. Often, male infertility go undiagnosed and untreated when focus of diagnosis and treatment is on the female partner as men are reluctant to seek help and accept the reasons.
In one of the cases attended by a city-based fertility specialist, a woman opted for divorce five years after marriage as her husband refused to undergo treatment.
The man had also put pressure on wife not to disclose his condition to his parents.
Male factors are said to be reasons for 40-45 % of all infertility cases in Coimbatore, says R. Meenakshi Priya, Fertility Consultant at Nova IVI Fertility, Coimbatore. According to Dr. Priya, majority of the patients with male infertility complications are in the age group of 29 to 35 years old.
“Male infertility could be genetic or caused by an infection, testicular or pelvic injury or a severe medical condition. Lifestyle factors such as age, nutrition, lack of regular exercise, work stress, and exposure to environment pollutants also play a role in the development of infertility in men.
Habits such as cigarette smoking, illicit drug and alcohol abuse, and also obesity and poorly controlled diabetes can negatively influence fertility in men,” says Dr. Priya adding that 32% of infertile men diagnosed at the hospital are overweight or obese while 35% are tobacco users.
Azoospermia, absence of live sperm in semen, is reason for around 5% male infertility cases while oligospermia, low concentration of sperm in semen, is reason for 40 % of cases.
“A decline in sperm count has been observed globally. In 1990s, the standard sperm count used to be 60 million per millilitre of semen. Now, 20 million sperm with 30 % of rapidly motile sperm in one millilitre of semen is considered as a standard count,” says Asha R. Rao, director of Rao Hospital and head of fertility clinic.
According to her, advanced procedures such as Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), injection of a single sperm directly into a mature egg, can make results if a few motile sperm are found in the semen.
Dr. Rao says that educated men are now coming forward for treatment accepting the conditions.
However, pre-marriage counselling to check fertility issues are yet gain momentum in Coimbatore. “In the last one year, only two men had come for pre-marriage check up,” adds Dr. Rao.
Reporting by Wilson Thomas thcbereporting@gmail.com
