Daily Stormer The Most Censored Publication in History
Ashley Pearson
Daily Mail
August 20, 2013
Tall, blonde, slim and successful, it was hard to imagine that Kate had any problems.
At 38, she’d just had a big promotion at the glossy magazine she worked for, and was newly married to the man of her dreams. She was also excited about the idea of having a baby.
Except that it didn’t happen. Month after month we’d meet up for our regular girls’ nights at a trendy bar in Manhattan, and I expected a happy announcement.
But time after time, none was forthcoming. She began to talk openly about a battery of tests she was having, eliciting massive sympathy from the rest of us.
Until one day she casually mentioned that her husband had had some tests too; the rest of us sort of giggled at the idea. It seemed so silly.
Nearly 10 years younger than she, at 29, Alex was a tri-athlete and the picture of perfect health.
Clearly if something was wrong it had to do with her nearly 40 year old eggs.
We were all wrong.
It seems it was Alex who had the issue that was scuppering their efforts. It was several painful months before the problem was discovered, and once it was, they were told to go directly to ICSI and IVF.
Alex’s case if far more common than you may think. A recent study found that sperm concentration has decreased by a third since the 1990s.
The findings were so significant that experts are calling it ‘a sperm crisis,’ cautioning that action should be taken immediately. This comes on the heels of a prominent study from the 1990’s which suggested that sperm count has decreased by half over the past 50 years.
What seems clear is that the media focuses almost entirely on female fertility issues; bombarding us with the dangers of ‘leaving it too late’ or articles about how our diet and drinking, weight or smoking may keep us from conceiving. But that’s not the whole picture.
It’s time we started another conversation.
Dr Sheryl Homa operates the only HFEA licensed UK fertility clinic dedicated entirely to men.
She says ‘having worked in academia and then at IVF clinics, it struck me how marginalised the male side of things is.
‘In this country, 95 per cent of IVF clinics, (or more) are run by gynaecologists. And yet 50 per cent of the genetic material that makes up a baby is derived from the male. Why are we so obsessed with women and fertility?’ Dr Homa, who is a clinical scientist, adds, ‘Women are the ones seeking help, and being proactive about it – but men contribute 50 percent at the end of the day. With women it’s a yes or no proposition.
‘When you ovulate you either have a good egg or you don’t. With men it’s more complex. And if you don’t start with the correct genetic material from the beginning you will have a problem.’
Mr James Nicopoullos, who is a consultant Gynaecologist at the Lister Clinic says: ‘Unfortunately in the majority of men with a fertility issue the underlying cause is never identified. It’s true that the vast majority of fertility clinicians are gynaecologists and even amongst those of us (like myself) who have done heaps of research in male fertility our clinical expertise is still with the female partner. And unfortunately, many urologists who specialise in the male urological tract know little about fertility so men often never get worked up as well as they should!’
