When a couple struggles to conceive, the assumption is often that there is something wrong with the woman.

Women are evaluated for infertility far more often than men, but male factor infertility accounts for about half of all infertility cases.

And when it is the cause, men are less likely to talk about it, seek support, or even get tested in the first place.

I'm Jen White. This is the 1A podcast. Today, for the latest in our series in Good Health, we're talking about male infertility, what causes it, what can be done about it,

and what it's like to go through it. And we share some of your stories along the way. Stay with us.

Let's get to the conversation and start with our first guest. Dr. Paul Shin joins us in studio.

He's a urologist specializing in male infertility

at Shady Grove fertility. That's the largest fertility clinic chain in the country. Dr. Shin,

welcome to 1A. Hi. It's super nice to be here. So first, just define male factor infertility for us.

What is it? So male factor infertility carries a whole broad array of

definitions, but put most succinctly, it's where either a shortage of sperm, either in terms of number

or motility, causes a couple to have difficulty would naturally achieve pregnancies. So time

to intercourse for six months to a year. And you said it's either the

sperm count or motility and just to find motility for us. Motility is just simply the number of

sperm that are actually moving and swimming. The way I kind of put it to patients, the sperm have a job

to do. They've got this massive Easter egg hunt to go on and you need as many runners to start the race.

How common is male factor in fertility?

So amongst the couples that we see, as you mentioned, the perception is that fertility is a female

only problem. But the reality of it is, again, you've got two people. It's a problem about 50%

of the time. In your experience, what are some of the most common medical causes?

So the most common overall cause of male infertility is actually a very benign testicular

condition called varicose veins of the testicle, or what's called a varicoseeal.

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