Fertility Specialists of Texas

Male Fertility Testing

Male fertility testing can help you get started on your path to parenthood

Many people don’t realize that male infertility is just as common as female fertility issues. It turns out that one-third of infertility cases are due to male issues, while another one-third of cases are due to female infertility. The remaining one-third of infertility cases are unexplained or due to a combination of female and male infertility. This is why male fertility testing is so important if you and your partner are struggling to conceive.

Fertility Specialists of Texas (FST) is home to experienced and caring fertility doctors. These experts know how to diagnose and treat the complex causes of infertility. To start the process, the team at our Dallas-Fort Worth fertility center will take a medical history and order testing for you and your partner.

What is the first step of the male infertility evaluation?

When you and your partner come to your first appointment with us, your doctor will first take a thorough medical history. For men, our doctors will ask the following questions.

  • Do you have any medical conditions?
  • Are you taking any medications, including supplements?
  • Have you fathered any children before?
  • Did you have mumps as a child?
  • Have you had any surgical procedures or injuries in the pelvic area?
  • Did you ever have a vasectomy?
  • Do you smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol or use any drugs?
  • Do any genetic conditions run in your family?

While they may seem unrelated, the answers to all of these questions can provide valuable clues about why you’re struggling to welcome a baby. After providing this information, you will take the next step at our Dallas-Fort Worth fertility center.

What does male fertility testing involve?

While women undergo diagnostic tests like bloodwork and ultrasounds, men will have a semen analysis. This test requires you to provide a semen sample by masturbating into a sterile collection container.

Once your sample arrives at our laboratory, our andrologists will evaluate it for several factors.

  • Volume
  • Concentration, or sperm count (the number of sperm per volume of semen)
  • Motility (the percentage of sperm that are alive and moving)
  • Morphology (the percentage of sperm with a normal shape and size)

If you have a low sperm count or other issues appear, our Dallas-Fort Worth fertility center team may refer you to a local urologist. This doctor focuses on the male reproductive tract and can provide more advanced testing.

What male infertility treatments do you offer?

If your male fertility testing results reveal any issues, your doctor can recommend the best course of treatment for you.

For mild male factor infertility, intrauterine insemination (IUI), or artificial insemination, is usually the first-line recommendation. With this treatment, the doctor will place concentrated sperm directly into the uterus of the female partner.

For more severe cases of male infertility or when the female partner is over 35, in vitro fertilization (IVF) with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is often the best option. This multi-step treatment requires the female partner to take medications to stimulate egg production and then undergo an egg retrieval. Our embryologists will fertilize the eggs in the laboratory by inserting a single embryo into each egg. Then the doctor will transfer the embryo to the female partner’s uterus.

Your doctor will carefully review your medical history and test results before working with you to develop your customized treatment plan. Contact us if you’d like to schedule an appointment and get started with male fertility testing.

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