Male Fertility and Sperm Health: What Your Sex Drive and Testosterone Really Mean | Dr. Michael Eisenberg
The Dr. Gabrielle Lyon Show
Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
4.5 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 24 February 2026
⏱️ 79 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Male fertility is declining, and most men have no idea why.
In this episode of The Dr. Gabrielle Lyon Show, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon sits down with Dr. Michael Eisenberg, Director of Male Reproductive Health at Stanford University and Chief Medical Advisor of SwimClub, to break down what truly determines sperm health and reproductive success.
They discuss:
- How metformin, GLP-1 medications, testosterone therapy, and anabolic steroids affect male fertility
- Why sperm count is a powerful biomarker for long-term health and longevity
- The role of sleep, muscle mass, exercise, diet, marijuana, and environmental toxins like microplastics
- Whether platelet-rich plasma, or PRP, can help severe male infertility
- Daily habits that quietly reduce a couple’s chances of conceiving
If you care about fertility, hormones, metabolic health, or the future of men’s health, this conversation is essential.
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Chapters:
00:00 Sex habits, libido, GLP-1s, and what counts as male infertility
01:46 Metformin and male fertility, what the Denmark study found
07:27 How long sperm take to regenerate after meds, illness, or chemo
09:24 GLP-1 medications, weight loss, and semen quality in men
10:52 Testosterone therapy, anabolic steroids, and why sperm shuts down
16:41 Sperm as a vital sign, fertility as a window into long term health
19:14 Microplastics and environmental toxins found in semen
22:21 Paternal age and sperm quality, DNA fragmentation and pregnancy risk
26:03 Supplements and nutrients for sperm quality, what matters and why
30:00 Sex frequency, masturbation, libido, and fertility myths
35:38 Male infertility guidelines and medications that quietly lower fertility
48:41 Semen quality and future disease risk, diabetes, cancer, mortality
54:45 Anabolic agents, sperm banking, and how long frozen sperm lasts
1:04:14 PRP for severe male infertility, azospermia and real outcomes
1:16:41 New frontiers in male fertility, immune profiles, genomics, omics
Disclaimers: This episode includes paid sponsorships.
The Dr. Gabrielle Lyon Podcast and YouTube are for general information purposes only and do not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical advice, and no doctor/patient relationship is formed. The use of information on this podcast, YouTube, or materials linked from this podcast or YouTube is at the user's own risk. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their health care professional for any such conditions.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Are there any sex habits or behaviors that can reduce fertility? |
| 0:05.0 | Is low libido a sign of poor sperm quality? |
| 0:08.0 | What about the use of g-lp1s? |
| 0:10.0 | How does that look from a male perspective? |
| 0:13.0 | Does, say, looking at increase or decrease sperm quality or volume, |
| 0:18.0 | how do we define male in fertility? |
| 0:20.0 | It's a good question. I mean, ultimately |
| 0:21.4 | fertility is a team sport, and so it's sort of defined at a couple level, so trying for a year and not |
| 0:26.1 | getting pregnant. When we look at male, you know, sometimes when couples are trying to conceive and |
| 0:31.7 | or not, you know, we worry, is it a male problem? Is it a female problem? Is it both? So usually |
| 0:36.8 | we talk about male fertility, |
| 0:38.8 | we define it in terms of semen quality. |
| 0:40.6 | I know that you're really at the forefront |
| 0:42.2 | is male infertility, and it's a real problem, |
| 0:45.3 | and it's very impactful for people, |
| 0:47.8 | and all joking aside from positions and all of that, |
| 0:50.8 | that it can really affect people's lives. |
| 1:01.1 | Dr. Eisenberg, welcome to the show. |
| 1:02.4 | Thank you so much for having me. |
| 1:08.2 | Now, there is a lot of conversation about infertility, sex, testosterone. I mean, I think that you are at the forefront of changing the trajectory of our health, because, again, sexual health is, it's a dual role. |
| 1:19.9 | One of the things that has been really on my mind is this idea of performance enhancing medications. |
| 1:26.7 | And what do I mean by that? |
... |
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