About 50% of the cases in ART clinics is attributed to male factor, so 50% of infertility is down to the male factor and the male cause.
So recent data is showing to us that male infertility and female infertility are almost similar in the rate that they have. So, almost 50% of the cases are related to female and other 50% are related to male and of course, there will be some that overlap where some couples will both have some fertility issues – both male and female and therefore, the rate of male fertility is actually higher than what we initially expected or it was reported back 20 years ago, 30 years ago or even 10 years ago. So unfortunately, we have seen an increase in male infertility and there are a lot of social and lifestyle factors that have actually been associated with increase in the male infertility.
Nowadays and according to the data we have in our hands it seems that at least 30 to 40 % of the couples struggling to conceive, in these couples, a male factor may be involved and in 20% there are both maternal and paternal factors involved. So this brings us up to 50% of the cases with a paternal factor being involved. So, it’s quite often.
I think it’s really important that we pay more attention to our male partners. I think it’s important that men are checked out themselves and that men’s sperm are checked out more carefully and I also think it’s important for couples to ask for this and when they go to a clinic, very often in a private clinic, they’re paying for the treatment and they should ask for what is best and ask for the most up-to-date and innovative tests that there are as long as they’re evidence-based. So that they get the very best diagnosis and the very best personalized treatment for them as a couple.
It’s very common. It’s the commonest single reason for couples who are having a problem conceiving. It affects maybe up to 40 to 50 percent of all cases of infertility. It might be the only cause perhaps in sort of 30 – 40 percent so, it’s common – it’s common and it’s important.
The World Health Organisation has estimated that around the world, more or less 190 million people are struggling with infertility and of these, 50 percent of couples experiencing male infertility is due to the male factor. So we can calculate around 93 million in the entire world are struggling with male infertility. Also 30-50 percent of these cases are categorised as idiopathic which means that the man shows abnormal semen parameters but without any identifiable reason. On the other hand, around 15 percent of infertile men are categorised as unexplained. In this case the person shows normal semen parameters but is still infertile, so the reason for infertility, as I have already said, is unexplained.
I believe as you said, the male factor was neglected for many years and the whole focus was on females but now we think that at least 20 to 30% of infertility globally is due to sperm and is male factor related.
Nowadays, we see that there is more awareness about male infertility and more men become aware that they need to get tested and they need to check their semen especially if a couple has been trying for approximately a year and they haven’t achieved a spontaneous pregnancy.
Male infertility it’s quite common and this is something that it wasn’t believed years ago.
If we think that statistics say that on a global scale usually 1 out of 10 couples get affected by infertility and of those infertility cases approximately 50% of that cases the infertility lies within the man so it is not uncommon at all.
Male infertility is not uncommon. I’d like to define infertility before I give the statistics. The accepted definition is infertility after 12 or more months of unprotected intercourse, with this definition 15% of couples are infertile at one year. If they continue trying, then this percentage drops to 10% at two years. One-third of these cases are purely due to male causes, the other one-third is purely due to female causes and then the last one-third is both. I’d like to compare this percentage to the success rate of a normal so-called couple other words 30-year-old normal healthy couple will become pregnant after three months of trying at a rate of 50 percent. Overall of men of reproductive age; about 10% have fertility problems and the same percentage applies to women.
