Male Infertility with Kevin Button
In this episode, we’re focusing on Male Infertility which is still not understood well enough and it’s something Natalie has been passionate about giving a voice too. As it was her and her husband’s experience and the pair felt very unsupported when going through treatment. Since its launched The Fertility Podcast has shared numerous episodes about Male Fertility explaining the issues that affect sperm health and also explaining how Men can seek more support and investigation.
Men are often overlooked in conversations with medical professionals and we have had numerous conversations about men feeling ignored at the fertility clinic, the very fact that when it comes to IVF treatment in a heterosexual relationship is it is the woman who has to go through the procedure means men are often left to feel redundant. In the many conversations we’ve had with Men, they have talked about the shame and guilt they have felt if the issue has been a male factor and how many men struggle in silence.
Kate and Natalie discuss the factors that can affect male fertility, such as diet and lifestyle issues. Smoking and drugs are a real no-no for sperm health. It’s really important that alcohol is taken into needs to be taken into consideration and ideally should be limited but not stopped. Factors such as heat and stress can impact. So consider saunas, heated seats, mobile phones in pockets, laptops on laps as important things to think about. Plus wearing tight pants and trousers can also be restrictive for the wrong reasons. When it comes to health and wellbeing, environmental toxins can impact sperm health and there is a real argument against Protein shakes and steroids impact which can you find out more here in this great conversation with Professor Allan Pacey thanks to our friends at Dr. Fertility
Our guest is Kevin Button who talked about his decision to set up The Man Cave to talk about mental health and male Infertility about 3 years ago after losing his cousin to suicide unrelated to fertility. Personally, Kev has had two failed attempts with NHS funding - IVF and ICSI and he couldn’t find anything online and has learned more from being on Instagram than just googling.
Kev’s diagnosis is Non-Obstructive Azoospermia which is defined as no sperm in the ejaculate due to failure of spermatogenesis and is the most severe form of male infertility. He had to undergo a micro-tease ( sperm extraction( which didn’t work and Kev was told his options were sperm donor or adoption.
You can imagine how heartbreaking this was for him and he was told the news without any support which was part of his motivation for setting up what he has done. Kev explained how when he was younger and out dating, he’d end relationships as soon as the conversation moved on to having a family until he met his partner Nicky, who at first he tried to end things, but luckily the pair are still together.
Kev is part of Fertility Network’s Male Fertility as an Ambassador and we spoke about the new HIM campaign and the brilliant Rhod Gilbert documentary’ Stand up to Infertility’
All too often Men won’t talk about this but they are finding their voice within support groups. We also discussed the brilliant Easy Bit documentary which you can find links to more information below;
Kev and Nicky won a competition to have treatment in California with California IVF and are waiting for current
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