You can overcome infertility

Jan 25, 2008

For a long time, Mukasa wanted to have a child with his wife. Like many men, Mukasa always believed that the problem was with his wife.

By Maureen Nakatudde

For a long time, Mukasa wanted to have a child with his wife. Like many men, Mukasa always believed that the problem was with his wife.

And in the process of pressurising her to have a child, Mukasa would sometimes act violently by abusing her.

Grace tried all she could, even visiting witchdoctors, but she could not conceive. In the end, Mukasa sent her away.

Not long afterwards, Grace got a boy friend and she became pregnant.

Dr. Tamale Ssali, a fertility expert, says Mukasa’s scenario is common.

Whereas most people blame a woman when a couple fails to conceive, medical tests find that in half of the couples suffering infertility, the problem is with the man. “It is not only women who get infertility. We have been able to help some men,” he says.

Ssali explains that a normal man should produce 2-5ml of semen each time, containing 20 million sperm cells per milliliter. However, some men produce much fewer sperm cells or nothing at all, hence failing to cause a pregnancy.

Dr. David Kiragu, in his article infertility in men, says some men with low sperm count will still prove fertile while others with higher count will seem infertile, because quality of the sperm is also determinant.

There are several reasons why a man can fail to produce sperm to cause a pregnancy.

One of them is having sex too frequently. If you have sex daily, for instance, you do not give enough time for your body to produce enough sperm cells.

If you want to be at your best fertility, you have to wait for at least three days between each ejaculation, explains Kiragu. Heat, too, can reduce sperm production.

The reason the testis hangs outside the trunk is that it should be kept cool.

Wearing tight underwear heats it up, leading to death of sperm cells. It is important for men to be cautious when soaking themselves in saunas and hot baths. Some overweight men can become sterile because the sagging layers of fat can overheat the testicles.

Another major cause is sexually transmitted infections such as gonorrhea, while some men are born without tubes that carry sperms.

Smoking over 20 cigarettes a day has been shown to reduce both the sperm count and sperm motility.

But giving hope to infertile men, Dr. Ssali says: “a man can be helped to get a child using various approaches.” These include medication, surgery or invitro fertilisation (test-tube babies) depending on the cause.

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