Doctors Seeing Male Infertility On The Rise

PEMBROKE PINES (CBS4) - Couples who struggle with infertility will do anything to figure out the problem, and the testing usually starts with the woman.

But many doctors are seeing male infertility on the rise.

After trying for three years to have a baby, South Florida couple Anthony and Andrea Temperino found out there was a major fertility problem, but it wasn't with Andrea, it was with Anthony. After a simple test, doctors found his sperm count was zero.

"I was very embarrassed by the whole situation," said Anthony.

"When we first found out we couldn't have children we didn't talk about it with anybody," said Andrea.

The Temperino's met with Pembroke Pines infertility specialist Dr. Ellen Wood, who discovered that Anthony had a thyroid problem which affected his sperm.

With a few changes in his diet and lifestyle, doctors were able to extract viable sperm from Anthony and join it with his wife's egg, which was then implanted back in Andrea.

The result was a healthy baby boy named Ayden, who is now four months old.

"Every child is a miracle, but these children are real miracles they wouldn't be here if not for the doctors and technology," said Anthony.

Dr. Wood says over the past 30 years male infertility has been steadily on the rise. Forty percent of her female clients are infertile, another 40 percent of her male patients are infertile, and the other 20 percent, both the male and female couples are having problems.

"There's speculation that the plastic bottles and the lining of cans can leak estrogen into the environment and those estrogens could affect certain males," said Dr. Wood.

In the Temperino's case, changing his diet to all organic did the trick.

"The interesting thing about male infertility is there are certain toxins that affect certain men," said Dr. Wood.

Infertility treatments can be expensive.

If not covered by insurance, procedures can cost anywhere from 16 to 25 thousand dollars, depending on the test or treatment.

IVF is responsible for 4 million births.