10 things that lead to male infertility

In the last two decades, reproductive health of men have taken a serious beating considering a host of factors, most which can be ascribed to a faulty lifestyle. Says, Dr. Ruchi Malhotra, Head of the Fertile Solution IVF & Research Center, New Delhi, "It is a serious problem of modern day lifestyle today. Infertility in men has increased in India many folds due to the wrong habits and poor lifestyle. Any Kind of addiction is indeed bad for your reproductive health", "But it can always be corrected with lifestyle improvements", she added.

Here are a few key "wrongs" that need immediate correction. Make sure you are not at any of the!

1. Yes! Three pegs of alcohol can turn you infertile.

If you are alcoholic and you are consuming more than 60ml of any alcoholic drink in a day, there are fair chances you can turn infertile. Drinking alcohol lowers down testosterone levels, causes erectile dysfunction and decreases sperm production. Liver disease caused by excessive drinking also may lead to fertility problems.

2. 'Smoking', a hazard for your sperm count.

So you if are too much into Smoking tobacco or Marijuana it's directly going to affect your fertility. Smoking lowers your sperm count. Second hand smoke may affect male fertility. Male smokers can suffer decreased sperm quality with lower mobility and it boots numbers of abnormally shaped sperm. Furthermore, if you are a chain smoker it might also decrease the sperm's ability to fertilize eggs.

3. Hope you are not stressing out?

Stress comes with many problems but recent studies and research claims that if you are stressing out too much than its going to affect your sexual health. It was found that men who had experienced 2 or more stressful life events over the course of a year had lower sperm quality compared to men who hadn't experienced any kind of stressful life events. Learning yoga and meditation can be a constructive way to escape this problem.

4. Guys are you into tight clothing?

We all want to look fashionable and in course of doing so we overlook our comfort. But be careful, it's not only matter of comfort now if your jeans or underwear are excessively tight; you might get into infertility trouble. Wearing ultra tight jeans affects circulation of blood, especially in the groin area and the knees. They have a strangulation effect on the veins and this can be very damaging for your ejaculation of semen.

5. Beware of tooth paste and sunscreens as well!

This may sound a little vague to you but toothpaste and sunscreens have been declared dangerous for men fertility, owing to the harmful chemicals present in these products. They also lead to an early release of compounds critical to fertilization and make sperm less sensitive to female sex hormones.

These changes could make it more difficult for the sperm to reach the egg. So stick to organic products as they tend have less harmful chemicals.

6. Hormonal imbalance can be crucial problem

We all Know that hormones plays a vital role in sexual health. In men fat cells manufacture the estrogen, so by any chance if it gets affected it will lead to severe complications for your sexual health. Other non- sex hormones such as thyroxin can also affect your sex hormones.When we suspect a hormonal imbalance, we recommend blood tests and/or salivary hormone tests which often reveal what may be happening.

7. Boy are you too egoistic?

Do you have too much ego problem or self esteem is running in your vain terribly high, this can lead you to erectile dysfunction(ED). New research indicates that 90 percent of cases are organic in nature. However, most men who suffer from ED have a secondary psychological problem that can worsen the situation like performance anxiety, guilt, and low self-esteem. This is one of the common causes of impotence.

8. Mr. Fitness freak excess of everything is 'bad'

Excessive exercise could lower your sperm count indirectly by lowering the amount of testosterone in your body. And as you might have guessed, stay off the steroids they can cause testicular shrinkage, resulting in infertility.

9. Being obese is also a problem

Are you overweight? Be cautioned, else not only female obesity but male obesity too affects the pregnancy. In men Obesity tends to lowers down the Semen parameters. Overweight men are detected with decreased libido and erectile dysfunction. So you if you have realized that you are little more chunky than normal start working on it.

10. Are you diagnosed with any chronic disease?

For male and female both any chronic disease can led to infertility. Diabetes, Kidney related diseases, hypertension and cancer are few unending disorders which highly affects the sexual health of the person. So if you are planning a baby and you have any chronic disease, it is advisable to consult the doctor. In such cases an unplanned pregnancy can be life taking for both mother and child.

The silver-lining however is that, good number of males today are being aware of the issue and are eagerly coming forward to discuss their problems. "When we launched ivfgurus.com, for infertility problem we knew that Male factor contributed almost equally (about 30%) to known causes of infertility. However, we didn't anticipate that too many men would seek counseling in India .Now we have been getting over 65% of queries from the male partners and this shows the increasing rate of male Infertility problem in India" said Mr. Abdul Alim , Project Director, Healthcare Services at STG Lifecare Ltd, Gurgaon.