Male Infertility issue - To Brief or not? - Part 1

This is a very important topic for all of us, especially if you are male above 15 years old and more so for a female who is related to a male above 15 years in whichever way. This blog is all about emphasizing the importance of "Tear and wear" than the "Wear and tear". Can’t follow? Read on.

Before we get into the actual topic I want to take your concurrence on the following in a generic way.

• You would have read this in any bottle / packed item about the storage procedures (store at less than XX degrees) avoid direct sunlight etc. I suppose all of us agree that if any item is not stored as per the recommended procedure then it shall deteriorate / coagulate / expire earlier than its useful life.
• If the item has already expired / coagulated then its potency would be much lesser than expected from its healthy condition and in some cases if consumed / utilized it may produce undesirable results.

Assuming that all of you would concur to both the above statements let me ask you, there is an alarming rate of increase in infertility among men and women in our society. What do you think is the reason for this infertility? As you mull this question with some irrelevant answers like nutritional and life style issues, let me share the following with you. This blog is to discuss one of the most seemingly innocuous and so called unavoidable things we do in our daily life that is leading to infertility among males. I am going to discuss the female infertility issue possibly in the next blog.

Now let’s start with some statistics in India:

• According to International Institute of Population Sciences in 2010, It is estimated that out of around 250 million individuals estimated to be attempting parenthood at any given time, 13 to 19 million couples are likely to be infertile.
• The report said that in India, 13 percent of ever-married women aged 15-49 years were childless in 1981 (rural 13.4 percent and urban 11.3 percent) which increased to 16 percent in 2001 (rural 15.6 percent and urban 16.1 percent). Over half of married women aged 15-19 years were childless in 1981, which increased to 70 percent in 2001.
• Nearly 30 million couples in the country suffer from infertility, making the incidence rate 10 percent. Earlier childlessness in a couple used to be talked about in hushed tones, with the problem, without doubt, being attributed to the women. 
• What we need to remember is talking about infertility and attributing it to male in the family is still a taboo in the Indian family system. The extent of infertility that is unreported should be much higher so called the reported statistics.

Today, infertility is no longer recognized as only a female problem. In fact, the term infertility is a broad term, often loosely used. It actually refers to a range of disorders some of which affect the male, and some the female, and contribute to childlessness in a couple. There is also something called unexplained infertility, where doctors fail to come up with a medical explanation for the couple’s inability to conceive.

• Study reports suggested that male infertility is almost as high as female infertility. One in every five healthy young men between the age from 18 to 25 suffer from abnormal sperm count.

• In every 100 couples, 40 percent of the males suffer from infertility compared to 50 percent women. In the remaining 5 percent, the causes are common to both men and women.

Some common causes of infertility in men are irregular sperm production, hampered sperm delivery due to either erectile dysfunction or early ejaculation, presence of medical conditions such as obesity that may hamper sperm production, certain infections such as Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), and lifestyle conditions such as diet imbalance, addiction to smoking or alcoholism, sedentary existence, or mental and emotional stress, all of which contribute to poor sperm count.

While the infertility clinics have cropped by 2 per street with advertisements in almost every page of the news paper, the actual reason for the alarming rate of rise in infertility is still not conclusively stated.

We cannot attribute this to just nutritional or disorder related issues and too without much statistical correlation. During my grandfather times giving birth to half a dozen children is normal. With poor medical facilities, malnutrition, unhygienic conditions etc, still 60 years back there were no biological issues with our grandfathers and grandmothers. They never needed any fertility clinics, no C section procedures and they could go on to build a populous India.

I agree that the mortality rate was high and the availability and awareness of contraceptive tools were non-existent. I am not going to discuss if a high rate of growth and hence a populous country is good or bad thing. But the point I was making is that they were healthy enough to have a good erection and potent enough to produce an offspring, as and when they wanted.

(Physics-cally speaking J) They could defy gravity at will and where has that trait gone to a large section of their descendents? Why is there a necessity for infertility clinics and herbal help lines in every nook and corner of India? This is not nutritional imbalance since we are eating more nutritious food today.

It is not due to diabetes or other disorders since infertility hits an individual far earlier than diabetes in most cases. The sperm count study suggests 20% of males between 18 and 25 have this problem. The IVF industry, in fact, reportedly has a year-on-year growth of 20 to 30 percent with around 40,000 IVF cycles done every year.

Then what is the issue? This is known but not talked very often due to various reasons but I am going to state it to the extend i understand this.

The infertility is growing in males primarily due to their dressing sense. The type of briefs and pants that we are wearing precisely to show our macho personality seems to be leading us to path of infertility. If you don’t agree please read on as I explain this.