Getting Your Partner Fertility Tested
While it’s not always the case, the fact of the matter is that women are often more concerned about fertility issues than men. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, and there are of course a great many exceptions. On average, however, it’s the woman in a relationship who tends to initiate discussions about families, conception and fertility.
In some ways, this is unfortunate, especially for the couple that’s having a hard time trying to conceive. The fact is that about 40 percent of fertility issues have to do with a male factor infertility problem. This means that, even after you’ve had all of your fertility testing and done months of ovulation tracking and other kinds of testing and research, you may still need to convince your partner to have his sperm tested.
There are a few situations, of course, when it’s an especially good idea to get your partner fertility tested. If he works with or around heavy metals, this can have a negative effect on sperm. If he’s a bike rider, there are some studies that show that particular hobby can affect sperm production. The same is true if he tends to wear constricting underwear, or spends a lot of time in a hot tub.
The most important thing to keep in mind when approaching your partner about getting fertility tested is to keep it blameless. Your partner isn’t withholding children from you on purpose. Chances are pretty good that he has no idea what would cause him to have a fertility problem, and he may not even realize what kinds of male factor fertility problems even exist.
The last bit of advice we can give you about getting your partner fertility tested is to be informed. The more you know about the process and potential problems, the easier it will be to convince your partner that it might be time to have his sperm checked out.
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