For decades, fertility has been seen as a female issue in that when a couple struggles to get a child, society is first to point the problem at a woman.
But infertility is equally a male problem, and men are now proving to be the most affected.
Every June, the world marks the Fertility Awareness month, where fertility issues affecting men and women are addressed to increase awareness on the issue.
How can a man know whether he is fertile or not?
Fertility expert Dr. Kireki Omanwa says that a man can know whether they are fertile by undergoing a fertility test. The man needs to avoid having sex for 3-5 days, after which a sample will be collected after masturbation.
After its collection, the sample is given a liquefaction, and the process of assessing it starts after it gets watery.
Half a tea spoon-full of semen is then analysed, looking at its PH, which should be between 7.2 and 8.
“We also look at the agglutination, which is the clumping of sperms. The clumping can be head to head, head to tail or tail to tail,” Omanwa said on Citizen TV’s Daybreak show on Wednesday.
Another factor that is looked into is the motility of the sperm. They are classified in Types, where; A swims fast, B are not as fast compared to A, C swims in one place and D are immotile.
The medics then observe how many sperms are in the 1ml of the ejaculate, it should be 15 million or more.
“Majority of the sperms is usually abnormal, but if we get 4 percent or more it is okay. We also do not want to see red blood cells or pus sells in the ejaculate,” said Dr. Omanwa.
After the analysis, the patient is told whether there is a problem with the motility of sperms, a low count or lack of sperms.
