Mommy, where does male infertility come from?

March 17th, 2008

When a mommy and daddy love each other very much…. OK I’m kidding.

I found this article that sheds a little more light on the origins of male infertility, which is the cause for 25% of all infertility cases. Apparently it starts very early in the womb, within the first 12 weeks. During this time, the hormone levels in the womb can determine “common genital disorders, low sperm count and testicular cancer.”

This fits right in with what Shelton and I were told for his infertility. He has a natural vasectomy, basically. The Vas Defrens never developed fully into a tube, it’s just a piece of tissue. Our doctor explained that this is most commonly caused by being a carrier for cystic fibrosis.

I took a blood test, an expensive blood test that fortunately at the time was still covered by insurance, to see if I was a carrier of the gene. It was negative. So we did not spend the money to test Shelton because having only one of us as a carrier meant we would not give birth to a child with CF.