fertility – La Vista Church of Christ

Why can’t we get pregnant?

Jeffrey Hamilton — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 02:59:10 +0000

Question:

I have been married for seven years, but we don't have any children. My wife has no problem; I mean she is fine. I had my sperm tested and a doctor told me that my sperm count is 45 million and active sperm are 30%.

Our sex life is good. Can you help me understand which tablets are good for my condition or any treatment if you know? I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Answer:

There are three measurements for male fertility: how many sperm cells you have in each ejaculation, whether they are properly formed, and their motility (how many are actively moving).

A typical adult male has about 500 million cells in each ejaculation. A man with more than 40 million cells in each ejaculation (or 20 million cells per milliliter of semen) is considered fertile, according to the World Health Organization.

At least one-third of your ejaculated sperm cells should have the proper shape. You didn't mention this particular number.

At least half of your sperm should be actively moving (50% motility). You only have 30% motility.

Thus, you have two strikes against you which makes it more difficult to conceive a child. Technically only one sperm is needed to reach your wife's egg in order to conceive a child, but a large number of sperm cells needs to be ejaculated to increase the odds. You can improve your odds by having sex more often, especially in the days just before your wife ovulates (releases an egg). A woman releases an egg 14 days before the start of her next period. Since that time varies, you might want to start 7 to 10 days before you expect her ovulation to take place. Your active sperm can survive up to six days in your wife's body, so by having sex frequently, say once a day, you are accumulating the active sperm in your wife's body. Also by having sex frequently, you are making sure the freshest sperm (i.e. more active) sperm are always available.

Treatment to increase your sperm count depends on the reason why your sperm count and motility are so low.

One cause of low sperm count in men is when they are exposed to excessive heat for a long period of time. If this is the case, then you need to find a job that allows you to stay cooler and to wear less and lighter clothing around your groin. Also, stay out of hot tubs or saunas. It can take up to three months for the sperm-producing mechanism to recover from excessive heat.

Chemicals you are exposed to or take can also lower your sperm count. The following are known to lower sperm counts and motility:

Steroids and testosterone
Alcohol
Marijuana
Prolong use of Aspirin
Cigarettes, cigars, and chewing tobacco
Narcotics
Malaria drugs
Some antibiotics
Some anti-depressants
Exposure to pesticides

It may be a simple matter of stopping the use of these chemicals and allowing your body to recover its ability to produce sperm.

Other causes may be due to physical problems, such an infection or blow that damaged the testes. An undescended testicle can also not produce sperm properly. Or a varicocele (a vein allowing blood to pool in the scrotum) can interfere with sperm production. The latter two can be treated with surgery and the testicle might recover.

The Mayo Clinic recommends taking a multivitamin, one that includes selenium, zinc and folic acid which are important in the production of sperm. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables as well as exercising daily will also improve your health and the health of your sperm.

Does a small penis prevent pregnancy?

Jeffrey Hamilton — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 02:49:51 +0000

Question:

I married four years ago. About two years ago, my wife had a miscarriage. Since then we have had no hope. I think it's because of me. I think my penis is undersized and that is why we are not able to have children. My penis is about two and a half inches. Is it enough or not? Please answer me.

Answer:

The size of a man's penis has nothing to do with whether he is able to father children or not. The penis is only the delivery vehicle and since a man is able to ejaculate with some force, even a man with a small penis is able to deliver sperm into his wife so that pregnancy can take place.

Since a child was conceived two years ago, it does mean that you two have some fertility. What you need to do is visit a doctor who can check both of you out. For your wife, the doctor will need to confirm that her hormones are in the proper balance to release eggs and that she doesn't have any scar tissue blocking the eggs from entering her uterus. For you, the doctor needs to check that you are producing enough sperm and that they are active. It is only from the position of knowing facts can you then decide what needs to be done.

In the meantime, the best way to increase your chances of conceiving a child is to have sex more often, especially toward the middle of the time between your wife's blood flows. Frequent sex will make sure that fresh, viable sperm is available to meet the egg when your wife releases one.

Is it possible that I’m not producing semen?

Jeffrey Hamilton — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 02:27:20 +0000

Question:

I have been married for two years, but in those two years, we have had no children. We had a check-up with a doctor. My erections are normal during sex. The doctor suggested that I get a semen test, but I have a feeling that I'm not producing semen. What do I do?

Answer:

If you are able to have sexual intercourse and you are reaching orgasm, then you are ejaculating semen. There are then two possibilities as to why you are not having children:

There is a problem in your wife's body
There is a problem in your body

Because the reproductive organs are internal on a woman, checking them is difficult and can be expensive. Therefore it is easier and less expensive to start by checking the man first. What the doctor needs is a sample of your semen to look at with a microscope. He will count the number of sperm that he sees in an area to estimate how many sperm you are releasing with each ejaculation. He will also count how many sperm are viable (that looks healthy and active). A healthy adult male releases about a half-billion sperm with each ejaculation. Generally, it is thought that for a husband to produce children, he must release at least 50,000 viable sperm with each ejaculation.

Once it is determined that you are not having a problem, then the doctor will order tests for your wife to see if there are problems on her end.

Can I conceive with only one ovary?

Jeffrey Hamilton — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 02:11:40 +0000

Question:

I am 38 years old. I had one of my ovary removed shortly after I gave birth to my daughter several years ago. Since giving birth, I have had very normal menstruations each month and it varies approximately every 28 days. My last period began twelve days ago. My husband and I are trying to have another baby. Is there any chance that I can conceive, even though I only have one ovary? What should we do?

Please help me as I am worried. We don't have enough money to have me checked by the doctors. Thank you very much in advance. Please let me know as soon as possible.

Answer:

For women who have two ovaries, one ovary each month releases an egg to be fertilized. Usually, they take turns, one releasing an egg one month and the other releasing an egg the following month. When a woman has only one ovary, then that ovary tends to release an egg every month. So the odds of you getting pregnant is not all that much different than before you lost your ovary.

There are many factors which allow pregnancy to occur. Most of them cannot be determined without an examination by a doctor. For instance, some women end up with scarring in their fallopian tubes. The egg must travel down these tubes to reach the uterus, but scar tissue can block the way for the egg. If the tube on the side with the remaining ovary is scarred, then you will have normal cycles, but you won't be able to get pregnant.

The fact that you have regular cycles indicates that you are eating well and that your hormone levels are probably normal. However, once again, nothing can be certain without a check-up.

As you get older, the possibility of having a defect that interferes with conceiving increases. Generally, women over 40 have a harder time conceiving a child than younger women.

The best time to conceive a child is two weeks before the start of your next period. Since you know fairly well when that time is, you and your husband can take advantage of that. A husband's sperm lives about six days after ejaculation, but the number of surviving sperm and their activity drops off each day. Some people think that holding off sex until the "perfect" day will increase the odds, but it actually decreases them.

First, a man releases about the same amount of sperm each time he ejaculates. The amount of fluid the sperm is in (the semen) might increase a bit, but the number of sperm cells remain about the same.

Second, sperm is used in the order it is produced. So by holding off you are using older sperm cells.

Third, if your husband works in a hot job, the heat can kill his sperm. Holding on the sperm just gives them more exposure to heat.

Fourth, it is very easy to miss the perfect time. The sperm cells must be in place before ovulation. There is only a 24-hour window from the time an egg is released to the time it can be fertilized.

Thus the best way to become pregnant is to start having sex about three weeks before you expect your next period to begin as often as you can for about ten to twelve days. This will ensure that the freshest sperm is available for your egg. Your husband can also improve the quality of his sperm by wearing loose, light clothing and making sure he has breaks from the heat (if this happens to be the problem).

Response:

Thank you very much for your immediate answer. I really appreciate them so much and it gives me more hopes and knowledge as to what we should and shouldn't do. As to your explanation, it gives me a clear view of the matter. Just hoping to get pregnant soon. Please pray for us.

More power to you and may you help more people like me who are confused with our body. May the Lord bless you and your family.

How can I get pregnant when my husband’s sperm has low motility?

Jeffrey Hamilton — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 02:03:59 +0000

Question:

It's been almost two years since we have been married and trying to get pregnant. we have visited the gynecologist and was told that my husband has a low motility rate. Could you help me with the best ways of getting pregnant with an issue like that? We have been planning our intercourse according to my ovulation dates. But the semen just spills out of my vagina after intercourse. Are we doing something wrong? Could you give me the best practices for this problem?

Answer:

There are two measurements of how fertile a man is: one is the amount of sperm he releases with each ejaculation (his sperm count), and the second is the motility rate, which a measurement of how active his sperm swims. A sperm count over 50 million is considered good, though the typical number is 500 million. A motility rate of 50% or higher is considered good. Since your husband's motility is poor, then less than half of his sperm is swimming well.

Sperm doesn't survive forever in a man. Studies have shown that exposure to heat for long periods of time can decrease the motility of a man's sperm. If your husband works a job where he gets hot for long periods of time, he can try wearing cooler clothing and taking breaks to do cooler tasks while he cools off.

"Saving up" for the optimal time isn't going to increase your chances of getting pregnant. In fact, it will likely decrease your chances. One, it is hard to measure when is the optimal time, so it is easy to miss. And two, since he isn't producing high amounts of mobile sperm, holding back just means he has more inactive sperm in his semen.

Sperm is able to survive up to six days in your body, so the best thing the two of you can do is have sex regularly and frequently especially as you near the probable time for your ovulation. What you want to do is build up the number of active sperm in you. Thus if you had sex every day up to the day you ovulate, you will have six days worth of active sperm in you instead of just one day's amount. Even if he had a 25% motility rate, then you have roughly 150% active sperm over a typical man's ejaculation. Now, this is only roughly because sperm die off each day they are in your body. The toughest sperm will survive six days, but many from six days ago will be gone.

The other advantage is that it forces your husband's body to get rid of the older, more likely not mobile sperm and start using fresher batches of sperm, which have a greater chance of being mobile.

So continue monitoring your ovulation cycle, but at a week before the estimated ovulation, start having sex as often as you can and continue to a week after (in case you missed your guess when ovulation would be). This will greatly increase your odds of getting pregnant.

In regards to semen coming out after intercourse, that is normal; in fact, it is what must happen. A typical man ejaculates about two teaspoons of semen. Within about twenty minutes the active sperm swim out of the semen and into your uterus. The rest is just leftovers and flows out of your vagina along with your normal secretions. But even as it is moving out, it is coating the lining of your vagina, giving more sperm a chance to swim toward your uterus. The problem the two of you are facing is not that the semen is flowing back out, but that not enough sperm in the semen is managing to swim out and into your uterus.

Would adhesions impact fertility?

Jeffrey Hamilton — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 01:46:32 +0000

Question:

Hello. I am 39 years old I have a son; he is 6 years old. My husband and I are doing our best to have another child. I have done vaginal laparoscopy and the doctor found adhesions in the uterus. My husband's sperms are 100 million and the motility is 70%. Is it possible to get pregnant? How long do sperms live inside me in this case?

Answer:

In regards to your husband, a sperm count over 50 million per ejaculation is considered good. Motility is a measurement of how many of those sperms are actively moving in a fashion that can lead them to an egg. Any value over 50% is considered good. It is possible to father a child with less sperm and less mobile sperm, but the odds begin to rise against it happening.

On your side, the adhesions would definitely impact fertility. An adhesion is scar tissue leftover from some type of trauma to the uterus, such as a prior abortion, prolonged use of an IUD for birth control, or an infection, such as endometriosis. Adhesions can be removed via surgery. Until such time, the scar tissue interferes with a fertilized egg from finding a place in the uterus in which to plant itself and mature. Depending on the extent of the scarring, it is still possible to become pregnant, but the odds are considerably less.

After ejaculation sperm lasts for up to six days. Thus sexual intercourse any time within six days of ovulation can lead to a pregnancy.

Question:

I wrote to you before about my adhesions in the uterus, but I forgot to tell you that the doctor removed all of them during a hysteroscopy. When I woke up from the anesthesia, he told me that I will have my period on time which was going to be after four days from the date of the hysteroscopy. I had my period on time as usual and he said there will be a great chance to get pregnant the very next month. But what happened is that the next month (March) I was supposed to get the period on the 27th March, as my last period was 28th February, unfortunately, I didn't receive my period until today 31 March. I did a pregnancy test and it was negative. The doctor said that I am stressed and he gave me a medicine called utrogestan (progesterone) to regulate my period. I am so much upset. I am fighting with time because as I told you before I am already 39 years and I have a six-year-old son, he wants so much a brother or sister. I don't know what to do. By the way, when I have intercourse with my husband all the semen comes out, I don't feel them inside at all and my husband says that he feels like a wall is preventing him from penetrating, what is this?

Thanks, sir, for your concern, please write to me and pray for us.

Answer:

I agree with your doctor, you do sound like you are getting stressed about the situation. I'm glad the surgery was successful, but you need to realize that even in the absolute best of circumstances, you won't get pregnant every month you try. The normal case for two healthy adults is an 85% chance of getting pregnant in one year's time of trying. Or another way of looking at it, the odds are on average that it will take about five months of trying to actually become pregnant. Sometimes it is sooner, some times it is later. Since you have had some scar tissue, it might take a bit longer than normal.

A woman's menstruation period can vary up to two weeks. It can be as short as 14 days and as long as 32 days. The average is 28 days, but this is only the average. Stress can cause the time period to shift. If your normal 28 days was March 28, then a three-day delay is nothing to be concerned about. But the fact that you had a period means that you didn't manage to get pregnant this month.

I know you are worried about your age, but many women are able to have children with little or no complications up to around the age of 45. So relax, you still have time.

My only concern is that you seem to be trying for the wrong reason. Having a child isn't something you should be doing to please your son. You should be having children because you and your husband would like to have another child. Tell your son that you and his father are interested in having another child, but whether one comes or not will be up to God. "Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward" (Psalm 127:3). Rather than trying to force God's hand, relax and leave your cares in His hand. He will do what is best, even when we may not fully understand.

If for some reason you are unable to bear a child after trying for a year or two, consider adopting a child. There are many children who need a home and you are wanting a child. Open your heart and you will find joy.