Infertility: What Men Need To Know

A man is considered infertile when he is not able to impregnate a woman who is fertile, after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse.

While science is yet to find an answer to some of the causes of infertility, fertility expert and president of the Association for Fertility and Reproductive Health (AFTH), Dr. Ibrahim Wada, has advised men to avoid wearing tight and nylon underwear to enable their testes lose heat.

Wada, who also the founder, Nisa Medical Group, urged men who work in a very hot environment like long vehicle drivers, blacksmiths and goldsmiths who are always in a hot environment to turn off the heat in the testes.

He said: “There are social reason that associate with low sperm count, one is smoking, alcohol the other one is where you work; whereby it is very hot, it warm up the testes and the testes cannot function properly, like drivers of long vehicles, blacksmiths and goldsmiths who are always on hot environment, those are the people we advised that they turn off the heat in the testes, avoid hot environment and wear boxers and loss underwear so that the testes can have enough opportunity to loss heath”.

Wada explained that 30per cent of infertility issues are from the men, 30per cent from the women and approximately 15per cent are mixed, meaning that both the men and the women have one issue or the other while 20 per cent can not be explained.
He said “The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Federation of Fertility Societies (IFFS) clearly recognised infertility as a disease. They say people should view the cause as half for the man and half for the woman.
“Most times, all the attention is on the woman, so we have explained that men can have a problem with their semen; either with few sperm, no sperm or they are not moving and things like that. We also said for the women, there could be something wrong with her producing the eggs, maybe something is wrong with her transport system. We said in certain cases, modern science cannot pin point what is wrong so we call that unexplained Infertility.”
On treatment, he said “We know that a lot can be done without fertility treatment, but a segment of them can only benefit from advanced treatment like In vitro fertilisation (IVF).
He, however, identified counselling as a critical aspect of reproductive health services, adding that the membership of AFRH consist of counsellors, gynecologists, general practitioners, nurses, embryologists, and sonographers with interest in infertility and assisted reproductive technology.
He said the focus of the Association is on safe fertility practice within the ethical realm, to ensure clinics are up to standards set in our guidelines for self-regulation, to educate all practitioners in the field of art, to work with the executives and legislative arms of and our parents to ensure best practices in the field of Assisted Reproductive Therapy.