diagnosis guide
If you’ve just received a medical diagnosis, or you’re concerned that something in your present or past health history might be jeopardizing your fertility, check here for quick info on common medical conditions and how they can affect conception and pregnancy.
Directory Content
Sperm: Low Sperm Count
What It Is
Less than 20 million sperm per milliliter of semen is considered low. Healthy, fertile men may have upward of 100 million.
Who Gets It
Infections, surgery, and various hormonal and genetic disorders can diminish sperm production. So can a common condition known as varicocele, a swollen vein inside the scrotum. Men who take certain drugs for high blood pressure, inflammatory bowel disease, stomach ulcers, or heart disease are also at risk. Lifestyle factors that can lower sperm count include smoking, use of illegal drugs such as cocaine or marijuana, consuming more than two alcoholic drinks a day, being overweight, and exposure to sustained heat, such as in hot tubs, saunas, and steam rooms. Tight underwear and sitting for long periods -- even using a computer on your lap – may increase scrotal temperature and hamper sperm production.
Symptoms
For most men, the only sign of a low sperm count is the inability to father a child.
How It's Diagnosed/Detected
Low sperm counts usually are diagnosed by a semen analysis test in which a sample of semen is examined under the microscope to see how many sperm appear within squares on a grid pattern. If the doctor suspects a low sperm count is the result of an underlying medical condition, he may conduct further tests, such as blood tests, ultrasound of the scrotum to look for blockage or a varicocele, or a needle biopsy of the testicle.
How It Affects Fertility (And Pregnancy)
The lower a man’s sperm count, the less likely he will be able to father a child. Fewer than half the men with sperm counts between 12.5 and 25 million sperm per milliliter, and fewer than a quarter of men with counts less that 12.5 million, are able to get their partner pregnant.
Treatment
Remedies are available for a number of conditions that cause a low sperm count. A varicocele, for example, can be repaired surgically. If blood tests suggest an infection of the reproductive tract, antibiotics may cure it. Hormone replacement can correct an imbalance and restore fertility. Whether or not a medical cause is found, maintaining a healthy lifestyle certainly can help.
Pregnancy Prognosis
To improve chances of pregnancy, it’s important for the woman also to be evaluated. Treatments to boost female fertility can sometimes help compensate for a low sperm count. Assisted reproductive techniques, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) in which eggs are fertilized with sperm in the laboratory, or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in which a single sperm is injected into an egg, are effective options because they require only a small number of sperm.
Reader Faves
A few months after my first child was born, I wanted to be pregnant again—as soon as possible. I wanted my children to be close in age, the closer...
You might have spent most of your life (and an excruciatingly embarrassing high school health class) learning how to avoid getting pregnant, but...
There’s no need to feel deprived when you’re trying to get pregnant. Quite the opposite. Check out these foods that taste great and can help keep...
By now you’ve probably heard of Clomid, the most commonly-used fertility drug in the United States. But do you really know how it works and what the possible side effects can be? If fertility drugs are your next step in the attempt to get pregnant, then here is a quick rundown of the seven medications your doctor is most likely to prescribe.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 15 stories
You’ve only been trying for a few months, but you’re already starting to get annoyed rather than excited when you see a pregnant woman. Or you’ve been trying a lot longer. . . and you can’t even bear to look. Here’s how to get over it until it’s your turn.
Eileen Garvin of Susanville, California, became a client of a fertility clinic the way most women do—she was referred there by her ob/gyn.
Everyone knows about maternity leave, but sometimes women need to take time off before a baby arrives. If you’re having fertility treatments or trying to adopt, here’s what you should know to get the time off you need. Whether—and when—to tell your boss that you’re undergoing fertility treatments or arranging an adoption depends a lot on your relationship with your supervisor. While most workplace experts caution against revealing too much personal information, how do you explain being late for work because of blood tests and ultrasounds, and then needing to get home for hormone injections? Or what if you must travel abroad to bring home a baby, and then want three months to bond with your adopted child?
In an effort to attract patients and compete against the more-than 400 fertility centers providing IVF nationwide, fertility clinics today routinely...
As kids, we all learned about the birds and the bees. But we probably didn’t learn enough about fertility to know how babies can be conceived when nature doesn’t work perfectly.
When a couple is having trouble conceiving or carrying a pregnancy, sometimes a “third party” is enlisted to help. These women—egg donors and surrogates—are giving one of the greatest gifts of all. Find out why they do it.-
By now you’ve probably heard of Clomid, the most commonly-used fertility drug in the United States. But do you really know how it works and what the possible side effects can be? If fertility drugs are your next step in the attempt to get pregnant, then here is a quick rundown of the seven medications your doctor is most likely to prescribe.
No one wants to hear a doctor utter the dreaded word “infertility.” But couples can use the diagnosis as an opportunity to learn the skills they...
