Q: I am 24 years old male, got married last year. Our sex life is normal and I want to have a child. Recently, I went for semen analysis and the results are as follows:- Volume: 1 ml; PH: 8.5; Viscocity: Normal; Concentration/ml motility: 18 million/ml; Rapid linearprogression: 20%; Slow progression: 23%; Non-progressive motility: Nil; Immotile: 52%; Vitality: 53%; Morphology: 50%; Agglutination: Nil; Fructose: Present; WBC: 1; RBC: 2. The doctor told me that my sperm count is low and has asked to me take Furtifil L for 2 months. My hormone assay reports are-FSH: 4.03 m IU/ml; Prolacton (PRL): 29.61 ng/ml; Testosterone: 7.08 ng/ml. How should I overcome my fertility problems?

A:You have low sperm count and poor motility in the semen, called oligoasthenospermia. The chances of conception at these readings are bleak (without assisted fertilisation methods). There can be lot of reasons resulting in the same outcome. If you take similarity to a factory producing sperms, there can be poor raw material (testis having poor germ cells), defect in machinery (defective formation processes in the testis) or a transport problem (problems occurring during the transport of sperms from testis to outside). Hormonal profile tells us about the health of germ cells in testis. A testicular biopsy details the sperm forming processes in the testis. An ultrasound and doppler examination of the testis tests the environment outside the testis. Varicocele of scrotum is one of the causes affecting the third segment, the transport mechanism. The physician urologist looking after you would work in these details to find the cause and will assist with the treatment and prognosticate the outcome properly.