By Laudia Sawer
Tema, June 5, GNA-There is more to fertility than a man getting an erection, Dr Frank Ewusie Brown, a Consultant Specialist Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the Presby Hospital, Donkorkrom, has stated.
Dr Brown stressed that “sometimes, men believe that once I can penetrate a woman, I am fertile, and that’s a big fallacy,” adding that in his professional practice, he has met a lot of men with such challenges.
He revealed this when treating the topic: “Fertility Management Options: Messages for the Community” during a community awareness programme on infertility, diabetes, and hypertension organised by the Merck Foundation in partnership with First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo, ambassador of the Merck Foundation More Than a Mother project.
He explained that infertility in men could be caused by the absence of sperm production, indicating that the man can achieve erection, penetration, and ejaculation, but there is no sperm in the semen.
He added that there were instances where, even when there were sperms available, the quality of the sperm was so poor that it could not penetrate an egg and cause fertilisation.
“The woman must produce the egg called ovaries, and the man must produce potent sperm with capacity. Sometimes, sperms can be produced without capacity; they are frozen; they can’t move; I call them stressed sperms, and if a sperm cannot move, it cannot penetrate and fertilise the egg,” he noted.
Dr Brown said pregnancy was a process that contained a lot of stages of natural fertilisation that started with the depositing of the sperm, explaining that the cervical mucus in the woman aided sperm penetration into the tubes.
He indicated that when the sperm was not well-formed with abnormalities, they could not do anything; therefore, a very healthy gamete and a healthy anatomy on both sides of the man and the woman were needed to ensure the occurrence of fertilisation.
He said a look at the female anatomy showed that penetration occurred in the vagina and the sperm were deposited at the back of the vagina, stressing that the process was critical.
He stated, however, that there were times that the cervix could be very hostile, where sperm could not even penetrate, and it was equally important to have a very favourable cervix.
Dr Brown added that the male anatomy ensured that testes were positioned outside, as they functioned best in low temperatures, expressing worry that there were some boys and men whose testes were not descending, which he noted had implications for their future fertility.
“I have met a man who has no testicles, so, you wonder, when growing up, what did our mothers do? Mothers need education to examine their boys’ tests to identify such issues early to prevent future infertility,” he said.
The Consultant Specialist Obstetrician and Gynaecologist said when men agreed to seek medical care for their infertility early, such issues could be diagnosed early and interventions such as treating poor sperm quality and medically assisted procreation could be initiated early.
He explained that during medically assisted procreation, the poor-quality sperm would be extracted, treated, energised, and injected into the woman during ovulation, adding that sometimes, lifestyle modification and some medications also help resolve the sperm problem in men.
GNA