Infertility isn’t just a female issue. In infertile heterosexual couples, the fertility problem originates with the man 33% of the time and with the woman 33% of the time. The other 33% of infertility cases have unknown origins or stem from both partners.
Male infertility is a challenge, but it’s often a solvable one. At the Fertility & Gynecology Center - Monterey Bay IVF, male infertility expert Dr. Edward J. Ramirez helps our patients discover underlying causes of infertility and offers effective treatment strategies.
This month, our blog discusses the leading causes of male infertility so you can better understand what we’re looking for during your infertility evaluation.
Hormones play a pivotal role in sperm production. The male body relies on several key hormones — like gonadotropins, luteinizing hormones (LH), testosterone, and follicle-stimulating hormones (FSH) — to create healthy sperm.
If there’s an imbalance in one or more of these hormones, you might not produce sperm normally. This problem may start in the hypothalamus or pituitary gland in the brain, in the thyroid gland, or in the testicles.
At Monterey Bay IVF, we use advanced semen analysis to test for sperm density, which measures how many sperm are present in a milliliter of semen.
A normal count is 20 million or more per mL and around 80 million sperm in a single ejaculation. If the sperm density is lower, it may cause or contribute to infertility.
Sperm motility (movement) problems can also lead to infertility. Sperm need to be highly active to travel to, and fertilize, an egg. There are many different sperm motility problems.
For example, non-progressive motility means that sperm move but aren’t actually moving forward, so they can’t fertilize an egg. Another example is immotile sperm, which aren’t moving at all. All men have some immotile sperm, but if the vast majority of sperm are immotile, it can disrupt fertility.
Sperm shape, or morphology, plays a big role in fertility. Sperm morphology is only visible in a microscopic exam. Healthy sperm feature an oval head with a large “cap” called the acrosome. The acrosome should make up 40-70% of the sperm head.
Healthy sperm also have a long tail. When sperm are shaped differently, they may have trouble moving normally and thus be unable to fertilize an egg. When we examine sperm morphology, we’re looking for a minimum of 30% of sperm to have a normal shape.
Other factors can also play into male infertility, including physical blockages, lacking a vas deferens (the tube that moves sperm into the urethra prior to ejaculation), certain genetic abnormalities, and others.
We provide extensive sperm evaluation and testing to determine the root cause of your infertility. In most cases, we can find a cause and recommend the best path forward.
From standard sperm collection to highly sophisticated approaches like injecting a single sperm into an egg during in vitro fertilization and alternative options like the use of donor sperm, we can help you find a path to parenthood.
If you’re concerned about male infertility and looking for answers, contact us online or phone our office in Monterey, California, to speak to one of our supportive experts now.
