Every once in a while the miracle of reproduction hits me smack in the face. This week’s Creating a Family Radio Show was one such time. I was talking with Dr. Cappy Rothman, founder of the Center for Male Reproductive Medicine, about male fertility and male factor infertility–Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Male Fertility.
It is an interesting topic and we tried to cover it A to Z. We talked about what a thorough workup for male infertility should look like, when vasectomy reversals make sense, the success rates for reversals, azoospermia, varicoceles, hormonal imbalances that can lead to male infertility, how many sperm you really need, causes of male infertility, do sperm boosting supplements really work (loved his answer on this one), and much more. He’s a fun and informative guest.
He said something on the show that I’ve been thinking about ever since. The journey of a sperm to the egg in natural conception is the equivalent of a person running from Los Angeles to Seattle. Think about that for a minute. Wow! It’s a darn miracle that babies are ever conceived at all.
He took his analogy further:
Artificial insemination (IUI) shortens the distance to San Francisco to Seattle.
IVF gets you into the Seattle city limits.
ICSI (Intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection) takes you all the way to the front door of a specific address within Seattle.
Like I said—WOW. That we live during a time that medical science has progressed to this point is amazing and it is good to be reminded of this fact every once in a while. I know that if you are struggling with infertility, this analogy might not give you much solace, but I hope it puts your struggles in some perspective.
Image credit: Caro Wallis
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