Tag: sperm

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Cell phones may damage sperm, health advocacy group says

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Men who carry their cell phone or Blackberry on their belt loop or in their pocket may be posing a risk to the health of their sperm and their fertility.

A major health advocacy group released a new report on the potentially harmful effects of cell phones on sperm. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) reviewed the scientific literature and reported that 10 studies have found significant changes in sperm exposed to cell phone radiation.

The study reported: “In the most striking findings, men who carried their phones in a pocket or on the belt were more likely to have lower sperm counts and/or more inactive or less mobile sperm.”

“People are so preoccupied with brain tumors that the fertility issue gets very little play,” said Louis Slesin, editor of Microwave News, a newsletter on electromagnetic radiation.

Exposure to cell phone radiation has also been associated with markers for sperm damage, such as higher levels of reactive oxygen species (chemically reactive molecules containing oxygen), oxidative stress, DNA damage and changes in sperm morphology.

“We have enough evidence to issue precautionary health warnings,” said Dr. Joel Moskowitz, director of the Center for Family and Community Health in the School of Public Health at the University of California at Berkeley. “The evidence for sperm damage is quite consistent across many studies,” he added.
“The issue is far from settled, yet the proposals put forward by EWG are low-cost precautionary actions,” Slesin said.

Read full article.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

A birth control gel for men lowers sperm count sharply

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A birth control gel for men sharply lowered sperm counts with few side effects, researchers reported Tuesday. The gel, containing testosterone and a synthetic progestin called Nestorone, will require substantially more testing, but it has the potential to become the first effective chemical birth control agent for males.

The male hormone testosterone can turn off the production of reproductive hormones controlling the production of sperm. Progestin, a synthetic hormone similar to the naturally occurring hormone progesterone, can amplify the effects of testosterone. The two have been used together in the past in pills, implants or shots, but progestin has androgenic effects that can produce side effects such as acne and changes in cholesterol levels. Nestorone is a new synthetic progestin, developed by the Population Council, that apparently does not have those side effects.

A team headed by Dr. Christine Wang of the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center enrolled 99 men in a preliminary study of the drug combination. A third of them received a gel containing testosterone and a placebo, which they applied daily for six months. The rest received a gel containing testosterone and one of two concentrations of Nestorone. Fifty-six men completed at least 20 weeks of the study and adhered to the protocol.

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Fertility Clock Blog, My Future Baby Blog

Infertility and Men

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Infertility is a problem for 15 percent of couples trying to have a baby. Problems with the man in the family can account for a large percent of the problem.

Mike, Danielle and 9 month old Ava are a lovely family. It’ll be Mike’s first Father’s Day, and a special one. It took five years for the Mateos to conceive a child.

“It’s going to be overwhelming especially after hearing that it might not have happened for us. It makes it all the more special,” Mike said.

The Mateos spent four years and a lot of money. They went through many procedures without success. Enough to frustrate any couple.

“We just didn’t want to hear that we couldn’t have a child,” Mike said.

So they went for a second opinion with Dr. Hyacinth brown. She found that Danielle had an immune system problem that was hampering pregnancy, and that Mike had a low sperm count.

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Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Stop Our Sperm, Please

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Meet the men who want better male birth control – and want it badly

Lenny Smalls, whose Facebook page says he lives in Chicago and works as a transportation analyst, is very interested in long-acting, reversible male contraception. According to his posts on a fan page for one form being tested — known as RISUG or Vasalgel — Smalls is sufficiently frustrated by the pace of such drugs coming to the U.S. market to have begun personally testing an Indonesian herbal product called gandarusa.

“I plan to become the guinea pig and test this products effect on myself and my sperm,” he wrote recently. “I will take 1 pill daily and record how I feel everyday. After 30 days, I will see my doctor and have my sperm tested to see if it was effected by the supplement.” Earlier this week, Smalls’ plan ran into a hitch when the first doctor he saw refused to cooperate. (Smalls did not respond to interview requests, though he did agree to friend this reporter on Facebook.)

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Fertility Headlines

Even if your husband had a vasectomy years ago, it may not be too late to reverse it

Lorie A. Parch

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New research just out, led by Dr. Paul Turek, a San Francisco-based specialist in male fertility and sexual health, shows that even very old vasectomies — as old as those done 38 years ago — can be reversed with good results, he says. “For decades, conventional wisdom has been that the older the vasectomy, the less likely that ejaculated sperm returns after microsurgical vasectomy reversal. But this may not be true,” said Turek in a press release about the new research, which was presented this week at the American Urological Association in Atlanta.

Turek and his colleagues studied 343 men who’d had vasectomy reversals, comparing those with “younger” vasectomies (those from one to 15 years old) and “older” vasectomies (those 16 to 38 years old) to see if there was a difference in the amount of the sperm in the ejaculate following the reversal. Says Turek, the research found that “older vasectomies up to 38 years did not have worse outcomes after reversal surgery.” That should be reassuring, he says, adding, “don’t be shy about looking into vasectomy reversal for a vasectomy older than 15 years; it can often be reversed quite well.” Turek notes that a limitation of his research was that it did not examine pregnancy rates, but only ejaculated sperm counts in men who’d had their vasectomies reversed.

If your husband has had a vasectomy and you’re considering a round of IVF, it may be worth talking to a specialist in reversals — not least because of the very different costs of the two procedures: “In general, a vasectomy reversal is about one-third to one-half the price of one IVF cycle,” notes Turek, adding that a reversal costs about $5,000 to $9,000, on average. About 5 to 7 percent of vasectomized men get a reversal procedure.

Turek adds that while “you can get great results reversing a vasectomy of any age in the right hands, the problem is that not everyone can do it well.” To find the right specialist, read Turek’s “Insider’s Guide to Vasectomy Reversal.”

Author: 
Lorie A. Parch

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

In Sperm Banks, a Roll of the Genetic Dice

ASRM News and Research

For more than a year, the Kretchmars carefully researched sperm banks and donors. The donor they chose was a family man, a Christian like them, they were told. Most important, he had a clean bill of health. His sperm was stored at the New England Cryogenic Center in Boston, and according to the laboratory’s Web site, all donors there were tested for various genetic conditions.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

The Journey to the Center of the Uterus

ASRM News and Research

There is very little know as to why just 1% of the 300 million sperms released by a man during sex manages to reach their partner’s uterus, while just a few dozen reach the egg. It is generally termed as the race of the fittest that out of millions of sperms only one will win the race and rest would perish.