Men who take testosterone are often unaware of the connection. This is why some 15 percent of men who’ve taken the drug regret doing so. “It’s not uncommon for me to see two or three patients a week who didn’t know their testosterone was shutting off their sperm production,” Honig says.
Men who don’t produce enough testosterone in their testicles can benefit from other forms of hormone therapy, though. Hormones like clomiphene citrate, follicle-stimulating hormone, or luteinizing hormone stimulate testosterone production where it is needed. Eighty percent of men taking a combination of hormonal drugs improve lagging testosterone levels.
Myth #4: Most fertility therapies target the woman
Aside from hormone therapy, other medications aid male infertility by boosting low libido or slowing premature ejaculation. Dietary antioxidant supplements, including lycopene, zinc, coenzyme Q10, and vitamins C, D, and E, can all boost sperm production.
If the problem is mechanical, doctors can perform surgical procedures to remove cysts, repair ducts, shrink enlarged veins, or fix other plumbing glitches.
Even treatments that largely focus on women can improve male fertility issues, too. When undergoing in vitro fertilization, where eggs are removed and fertilized outside the body, for example, pregnancy rates significantly rise when the sperm is inserted directly into the egg rather than asked to get there on their own. Newer tests can also evaluate the DNA of individual sperm to select those most likely to succeed.
