What causes low sperm count?

Can working in a hot place make me infertile?

Low sperm count

My brother has blood in his sperm

Question

What causes low quality sperm count?

I have just been for a sperm test for IVF treatment my wife was going to have, and for the first time been told 99 per cent of my sperm are no good.

What can I do to improve this? Does this mean there is something very wrong with me?

Answer

It especially distressing when you've been putting your faith in the potential assisted conception or IVF to improve your chances of conceiving.

Sperm counts are usually checked at a fairly early stage of investigation into sub-fertility, because low levels do affect the choice of treatments available.

It's often unclear what causes a low sperm count. Sometimes a complete lack of sperm in the sample reflects an in-born abnormality but, more often than not, low levels of good quality sperm have no clearly defined reason.

It's thought that infection and trauma might account for some. The stress of illness or infection anywhere in the body can temporarily lower sperm counts. For this reason it's common practice not to rely on just one sample.

You may be asked to supply another sample in six or eight weeks (it takes this long for testes to produce sperm) to see if your low count is a consistent feature.

You will probably be advised to abstain from sexual activity for five or six days prior to the sample and you need to get it to the lab 'warm and fresh', say within half an hour.

If your sperm count remains so low as to have a significant effect on your chances of conceiving naturally there is a relatively new technique called 'intracytoplasmic sperm injection' (ICSI). I understand that this is used to inject a single sperm into each egg when only a few functional sperm are available. It's very specialist stuff, so when you're next reviewed in clinic, my advice is to ask if it is a technique that should be considered in your case.

Yours sincerely

The Medical Team

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