Low sperm count

[javalava]

A friend of mine was told he couldnt have kids because he has a low sperm count. This was years and years ago...

Firstly... what causes low sperm count?

How come you just cant build it up again or something??

I know nothing about this and am very curious to understand.

Is he really never ever going to be able to conceive his own children?? :confused:

[QTB]

Im not gonna be a huge help... but here goes...

Firstly... what causes low sperm count? no idea.... but i know that smoking, excessive booze drinking and a few other things can contribute...(told u i wasnt gonna be much help...)

How come you just cant build it up again or something??
again, no idea.... i guess it depends how well the gland is that makes the sperm....

I know nothing about this and am very curious to understand. hehe fair enough :D

Is he really never ever going to be able to conceive his own children?? i guess it depends on whether he has 'low' sperm count or 'no' sperm count.... it only takes one spermy to make a bubba :D

[littledarling]

We think that my DH may have low sperm count (having another test this week :fingerscrossed: ), so I would also like to know the answers to these questions please!

[javalava]

:yes: You would think it only takes one so how hard can it be right?? But there is obviously so much more to that.

I dont know the whole story as it upsets him to talk about but maybe if i knew more we could get some more answers.

I hope someone here knows something about this!!

[diva-n-dan]

I might be a little more help ... first of all you need to understand that there can be a "low sperm count" (WHO recognises anything under 20 million as low) or is it low "motility" (meaning that whilst he may have a "normal" amount of sperm, they might not be alot of live sperm or the sperm might not have the strength to swim up the cervix and penetrate an egg) ... for even though it only takes one to fertilise, it takes about 1 million to breakdown the tough outer layer of the egg for one to penetrate for fertilisation ...

Now as for whether he can father children or not, is up for debate. There are many men that have a "low" sperm count (be it motility or actual count) that still father kids ... it just takes alot longer ... there is also a possibility that his count or motility is so low that it is within the realms of impossiblity for him to conceive naturally, but it certainly wouldn't stop him conceiving through IVF ...

As to if it can be raised, that's a possibilty, but as to what he'd need to do it, I couldn't say ... my DH is on some vitamin supplements that are said to help. His best bet would be to see a urologist, who could test and do u/s and see where he's at ...

But it's certainly not a lost cause ... there are tales of men who have no sperm count and a urologist has discovered that the only reason for the "no" sperm count was a blocked duct!

Sorry for the long winded tale, but he's certainly not out yet ... there's lots of things they can still do for him if he's interested ... he just needs to go and find out ....

I hope that helps!

[javalava]

thank you very much dnd.... do not apologise.. i found that very informative.

I was thinking surely this didnt mean he was definately out for life. But like i said in a previous post i think i need to ask for bit more info.

I have no idea what counts and all kind of stuff was involved at the time. And he said it was years ago. I dont know how many but surely before he goes worrying about it he sould be retested.

Anyway ill pass on any info given here and he can make up his own mind whether he wants to go into it more.

Thanks so much for the info so far guys.

[kali]

Hiya
Another bubhubber suggested this great website a few weeks ago. It has an excellent FAQ and a whole section on male infertility which is really useful for the information you are after:

http://www.babyworld.co.uk/faq/section.asp?Section=Pre-Pregnancy&SubSection=Fertility+issues

[littledarling]

Kali, thanks for the great website- I just spent 1 hour on there!