Male Fertility Facts

Top 11 Male Fertility Facts

Chances are, if you’re reading this page, you are on a mission to have a baby. Regardless of your age, race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender, we are all bonded by a shared goal, and that is to help you grow your family by having a baby.

We know our patients do a lot of research and we hope that by sharing facts about the prevalence and nature of male factor infertility you’ll feel more empowered to ask questions and feel informed of your options when deciding what your best next step is.

1. 1. Among couples having difficulty getting pregnant, males contribute equally to infertility: 1/3 of the time the cause is solely a male or sperm factor, 1/3 of the time it is a female or egg factor, and 1/3 of the time both partners have issues contributing to infertility.
   2. The only way to assess your fertility is a semen analysis. Young, healthy, strong, ‘masculine’ males are just as likely to have sperm issues. Healthy sexual function does not indicate healthy sperm. Fertility ≠ Virility
   3. Why so much sperm? The best chances for pregnancy occur with > 40 million total motile sperm, or moving sperm, on a semen analysis. Even with all those millions of sperm, only a minuscule fraction make it to the egg, meaning your chances of fertilization and pregnancy drastically decrease with low sperm counts.
   4. An abnormal semen analysis is very common: among couples having difficulty getting pregnant approx 50% of the time a semen analysis will be abnormal revealing a male or sperm factor.
   5. Azoospermia, or zero sperm, in the ejaculate occurs in 1% of all men and 10% of men experiencing infertility.
   6. Among men with an abnormal semen analysis, an evaluation with a reproductive urologist (male fertility specialist) will identify causes more than 70% of the time.
   7. Many causes are reversible with changes in lifestyle, medications, hormone treatments, or procedures to address anatomy factors.
   8. An evaluation can also reveal genetic causes of infertility and conditions that may be passed onto offspring and inform genetic counseling prior to getting pregnant.
   9. About 10% of the time male infertility or an abnormal semen analysis is the presenting sign of an underlying medical condition, such as testicular cancer or a pituitary tumor
   10. Getting evaluated and treated affords you more options. Improving your semen analysis can make less invasive options for getting pregnant possible or even improve your success with IUI or IVF
   11. In the U.S., we have more than 13,000 Urologists but fewer than 200 Reproductive Urologists, also known as, Male Fertility Specialists. This creates an access barrier for couples seeking to understand their full fertility picture.

We started Posterity Health to shine a light on the most often overlooked and misunderstood area of reproductive health: Male Factor Infertility. Read more about our mission to bring equity to fertility.