Male infertility. Causes and treatment. 8

Male infertility plays a role in significant share of infertility in couples. What are common causes of male infertility? How to treat male infertility successfully? What is intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)?

Male infertility causes and treatment include in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Dr. Heather Huddleston, MD. Treatment of infertility in males is usually very successful as long as some alive sperm exists. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Male infertility causes and treatment is reviewed in video interview by leading fertility expert. Causes of male infertility could be related to varicocele and chronic inflammation. Male infertility symptoms are minimal. Symptoms of male infertility are most often not related to symptoms of erectile dysfunction. Difficulty to start pregnancy could be only sign. Low sperm counts on spermogram could indicate male infertility. But sperm counts in ejaculate during normal sexual intercourse are usually higher. Video interview with leading expert in fertility treatment and reproductive medicine. Dr. Heather Huddleston, MD. Male infertility causes are detected on spermogram. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Male infertility treatment is IVF, ICSI and intrauterine insemination. Medical second opinion confirms that male factor infertility diagnosis is correct and complete. Medical second opinion also confirms that male infertility therapy is required. Medical second opinion helps to choose the best treatment for male infertility. Get medical second opinion on male infertility and be confident that your treatment is the best. Male infertility treatment options. Online medical second opinion on infertility. 1234 Dr. Anton Titov, MD. How common is male infertility? What are the most common causes of infertility in males? What men should know about infertility diagnosis? What are treatment options for male infertility? Online medical second opinion on infertility. 1234 (Fertility specialist, UCSF). Dr. Heather Huddleston, MD. Male infertility is fairly common. We know that male infertility factors play a role in 30% to 40% of infertility cases of a couple. In the majority of male infertility case we are not able to identify with certainty the specific cause of infertility in male. We are often not able to identify the cause of decreased sperm counts (sperm number) or decreased motility of sperm. There are few situations when we can identify the cause of male infertility. Varicocele could be one possibility. Varicocele is a dilation of veins. It causes decreased sperm counts. There are also genetic factors we can test for. For example, Klinefelter syndrome. It is a presence of extra copy of X chromosome. There are various gene deletion syndromes that can cause infertility in males. Dr. Heather Huddleston, MD. But in the majority of cases of male infertility unfortunately we are not able to identify exact cause of male infertility. In such situations we think cause of infertility is probably inherited. multiple factors and multiple genes potentially contribute to male infertility in such cases. But, fortunately, male infertility is one of the most treatable forms of fertility problems. Infertility in males is probably a little easier to deal with than problems with eggs or low egg number. There are oocyte problems or low oocyte numbers. We can treat problems with sperm more easily. We can use intrauterine insemination or in vitro fertilization (IVF). Dr. Heather Huddleston, MD. So that is the good news. Online medical second opinion on infertility. 1234 Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Can IVF (in vitro fertilization) help solve most problems of male infertility? Can a patient with male infertility be treated by IVF? If infertility is cased by decreased sperm counts or decreased motility. Sometimes a sperm has matured enough. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Then IVF would help in a situation with male cause of infertility. IVF will help in low sperm number or low motility of sperm? Online medical second opinion on infertility. 1234 Yes, that is correct. IVF can help males who have no moving sperm. It might be a little difficult to identify living sperm if spermatozoids are not moving. But it is true that IVF will help treat most cases of male infertility. There is also intracytoplasmic sperm injection procedure. It is called ICSI. We just have to identify the sperm that has genetic material in it. We can then inject it into the egg for conception. The function of sperm itself is not necessary for conception by IVF. Sometimes sperm counts are very low. But even with pretty significant male infertility factor we may see still hundreds of thousands of live sperm in the ejaculate. We can perform IVF or ICSI. We only need the number of sperm to match the number of eggs (oocytes). (ICSI = IntraCytoplasmic Sperm Injection, IVF = in vitro fertilization). Dr. Heather Huddleston, MD. A typical in vitro fertilization cycle can create ten oocytes (eggs) ready for fertilization. So even in most severe male infertility case there are sill at least 10 living sperm. That number is sufficient to cause fertilization of the eggs. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Male infertility causes and treatment. Varicocele causes male infertility. Most male infertility causes unknown. But infertility in males is very treatable.