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The Fertile Life · Episode 25
Male factor: the other half of the conversation
with Dr. Marc Goldstein, Andrologist
Why male evaluation should be day one — and what semen analysis, lifestyle, and treatment can change.
March 2026 48 minTreatment
OrRSS
Male fertilitySemen analysis
Key takeaways
- 01
Male factor accounts for ~40% of fertility issues — yet evaluation is often deferred.
- 02
A semen analysis should happen in the first month of any workup.
- 03
Heat, alcohol, and certain medications have measurable effects on sperm quality.
- 04
Many male factor cases are highly treatable once identified.
Transcript
Dr. Ghadir
Marc, thanks for being here. Let's open with the statistic that surprises every patient I share it with: male factor is involved in roughly 40% of fertility cases.
Dr. Goldstein
And yet we still see workups where the woman has had every test imaginable and the male partner hasn't been asked for a single sample. It's the easiest test in reproductive medicine and it's still skipped constantly.
Dr. Ghadir
On day one of any workup in our practice, we ask for a semen analysis. It costs almost nothing, it takes a week, and it can completely reshape the treatment plan.
Dr. Goldstein
And the lifestyle conversation matters. Heat exposure — laptops, hot tubs, saunas — is real. Alcohol is real. Certain blood pressure medications are real. None of these are deal-breakers, but they're correctable.
Transcript edited for clarity. The audio is the authoritative source.
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