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As Shakespeare said Alcohol, tobacco and drugs can all damage sperm production. "Alcohol increases the desire but takes away the performance." Not only are alcoholics unable to perform, but their liver function also deteriorates, resulting in excessive levels of the female hormone, estrogen, which has a severe sperm suppressing effect.
Drugs of abuse (such as marijuana) can also create malformed sperm with poor motility; they also alter hormonal balance and testicular function; and cause impotence and erection problems.
Tobacco is a potent toxin. It attacks the tail of the sperm so that it is unable to swim to its goal. The testicular artery can go into spasm because it is choked with nicotine. Prolactin levels in smokers tend to be higher, so sexual desire often disappears in smoke.
This is why men with low sperm counts are urged to stop smoking, drinking alcohol and abusing drugs. However, it is impossible to predict the extent to which sperm function will improve on stopping these toxins.
Undescended testes are a tragic cause of male infertility, since often it is preventable. Some babies are born with one or both testicles up in their bellies instead of hanging down in the scrotum. Sometimes the condition might correct itself by the time the toddler is around 2 years old. (Don't worry unduly if you find the testes "disappearing occasionally" from the scrotum of a young boy. These are called "retractile" testes, and are very common.) However, if left unattended, the undescended testes tend to get damaged by the heat in the abdominal cavity; and they can even become cancerous in adult life. The child should be operated before two years of age or else fertility can be lost forever. Treatment with hormonal injections (HCG injections) to cause testicular descent is another alternative.
© Dr. Aniruddha Malpani and Dr. Anjali Malpani www.drmalpani.com
Credits: How to Have a Baby: Overcoming Infertility
