If you’re reading this, you’re probably struggling in some way with infertility. In recent decades, the science of fertility has advanced with mindboggling speed, and procedures like IVF have radically improved a couple’s chances of conceiving. What’s now possible in labs would have been considered miraculous a generation ago. 

But there’s still much we don’t know about the causes of infertility. And there’s also a lot of misinformation out there that makes finding a pathway out of infertility all the more difficult.

Our goal here at Snowballs, besides making men cooler, is to provide clear, actionable information to help men take some control of their reproductive health, and to help them realize that they’re definitely not alone. 

In that spirit, here are the four male infertility facts that still seem to surprise most people.

Four Surprising Male Infertility Facts

1. The issue is equally shared. For couples having difficulty conceiving, male infertility is the cause fifty percent of the time. Until now, treatments have tended to focus on women (partially for the obvious biological reasons), while men have been left to masturbate into a cup and hope for the best. That’s not a great feeling. Often it has left men feeling powerless, or even disconnected from the whole process. Thankfully that’s beginning to change.
2. Age matters for men. We all know that female fertility declines with age, but male fertility does too. There’s even a word for “male menopause”: andropause. We regularly read stories about men (often famous actors) who father children well into their 70s or 80s, but sperm quality begins to decline as early as age 35. The main reason for this is that the sperm of older men show more DNA damage. From the ages of 30 to 45, DNA fragmentation in sperm typically doubles and plays a significant role in miscarriages and birth defects, which are 20% more likely from men over 40. Having a child with autism is twice as likely for men over 50 as it is for men under 29. And sperm count, motility, and morphology decline as well (we’ll get into those terms a bit later). But don’t panic. Research also shows that some of that natural decline can be prevented, and even reversed.
3. Sperm grow slowly. It takes about 74 days (10 weeks) to create a sperm. In other words, 10 weeks from now is likely the earliest you’ll see any positive results from changes you make in your habits right now. 3 months of healthy habits can make a big difference, but some benefits from changes like weight loss, fitness, diet, and body chemistry will need even more time to fully “upgrade” your internal fertility factory.
4. Fertility isn’t potency. Society has made some strides in relaxing rigid stereotypes, but a lot of uneducated people out there still don’t understand the difference between fertility and sexual performance. You could be God’s gift to women – go ahead and make that all women, in every single way imaginable – and still struggle with infertility. A lot of people in the world still haven’t wrapped their heads around this. A lot of people are still working with faulty definitions of what makes a “real man”, and that’s a shame. Just be thankful you’re not one of them.

The more you know, the better you can adjust your habits for optimal fertility. And by ridding yourself of a few common misconceptions, you’re already making improvements.