Fertility has always been framed as a woman's problem, and meanwhile half the equation is standing quietly in the background with nobody asking about him.
Dr. Nanos sits down with Dr. Kian Asanad, a fellowship-trained reproductive urologist and microsurgeon who directs the USC Fertility and Men's Sexual Health Center at Keck Medicine of USC.
The number that reframes everything: male factor is involved in about 50% of infertile couples, and it's the sole cause in roughly 20%. Half. And the male workup is now genuinely easy, which makes it strange that it's so often the last thing anyone does instead of the first.
They get into what happens when a test comes back with no sperm at all, which is about 10% of men evaluated, and the microsurgery that can still find sperm about half the time. They get into how he tells a couple the odds without taking their hope, and what he sees in those same couples on the other side.
And then the part every man in his thirties needs to hear: testosterone therapy is, functionally, a contraceptive. It shuts down the signal that tells the testicles to make sperm, and about 65% of men go to zero within four months. It's usually reversible, but it takes months to years. Dr. Asanad points to a secret-shopper study in JAMA Internal Medicine in which 6 of 7 online platforms offered testosterone to a man with normal levels who had said he wanted children.
This is The Kind Revolution — where we bridge science, compassion, and courage.
Hosted by Dr. Georgine Nanos, MD, MPH | Kind Health Group, Encinitas, CA
kindhealthgroup.com
Guest: Dr. Kian Asanad, MD | USC Fertility and Men's Sexual Health Center
asanadmd.com
For education, not medical advice.
