Traditionally, the health care response to a couple with infertility has been for the female partner to visit the gynecologist for an evaluation. The male partner may or may not be asked to give a semen analysis.
When male fertility is examined, a male factor infertility “issue” is found in 30% of couples, and a contributing male factor is involved in 50% of couples. Besides being the cause of the problem, another reason to evaluate men for infertility is because it may be a symptom of significant but otherwise silent disease.
However, amidst the thick fog that often clouds scientific fact and fiction, what is now emerging from the shadows is a form, a relationship, between semen quality and longevity in men. One that may have nothing to do with fertility potential, but everything to do with health. Could this be the era in which the semen analysis is viewed as an early “biomarker” of men’s health? Only time will tell. Said Joseph Conrad: “Great achievements are accomplished in a blessed, warm fog.”
Paul J. Turek MD, FACS, FRSM is Director of The Turek Clinics (www.TheTurekClinic.com) men’s health clinics in Beverly Hills and San Francisco. As a former Endowed Chair Professor at UCSF, he is a highly decorated teacher, mentor and internationally recognized authority on issues of men’s sexual and reproductive health.
Dr. Turek attended Yale College, followed by Stanford Medical School. After a urology residency at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Turek was fellowship trained at Baylor College of Medicine. His over 200 publications have advanced our knowledge of stem cells, fertility genetics, Sperm Mapping and the epidemiology of men’s reproductive health. He is Past-President of the American Society of Andrology and the Society of Male Reproduction and Urology. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Société Internationale d'Urologie and the Royal Society of Medicine (U.K). He has consistently been voted a “Top Doctor” by seven national accrediting agencies.
Dr. Turek has received an NIH grant to develop an artificial testicle. He is a consultant to Healthcare 2.0 organizations, is a board member of several non-profits, and regularly advises the NIH, the CDC and The White House. Dr Turek maintains an award-winning blog on men’s health issues (www.TurekonMensHealth.com) and is syndicated contributor to WedMD.