“What does it mean to be a man if you can’t reproduce?” This is the query Conor Moehle requested himself after he was instructed by a health care provider that he would by no means father youngsters.
Moehle, who’s from Dublin, had simply turned 30 when he acquired the devastating information on Valentine’s Day final yr.
“As soon as the doctor told me I would never father children, I dropped my head — I couldn’t make eye contact with him. I felt this hot wave of guilt and shame. I remember looking down and seeing his feet, and he was wearing white Crocs. That memory is lodged in my brain.”
Moehle says that the next weeks had been “pretty dark”.
“I questioned so much about what it means to be a man and probably had depression-like symptoms because it was just such a challenge to my male ego.”
Dr Tim Dineen, senior scientific embryologist on the Waterstone Clinic, says this questioning of their masculinity is a standard response from males. He has researched the psychological impression of infertility on the male accomplice and has labored on the fertility frontline for many years, and says males can expertise “infertility distress” in relation to their idealised masculinity, psychological well being, shallowness, and relationship satisfaction.
Dr Tim Dineen says males typically expertise ‘infertility misery’
It was by likelihood that Moehle discovered he was infertile. After a yr making an attempt to conceive along with his spouse Kerri, in a second of boredom whereas working overseas in Germany, the then 30-year-old determined to get a fertility take a look at. The outcomes indicated his sperm motility, focus, and morphology had been at a really low degree, which might make it nearly not possible for him to conceive a toddler naturally.
After receiving the take a look at outcomes, he struggled with telling his spouse. Kerri.
“One of the first things I said to her was that I completely understand if you want to leave me,” he says.
Moehle says it was her unwavering help and reassurance that gave him the energy to look into what he might do to enhance the state of affairs.
When he requested his physician if there was something he might do, he instructed him to “maybe try a supplement”.
Moehle, who works in enterprise technique in a German retailer, took to the web, researching what he might do to extend his sperm high quality.
He began with comparatively simple life-style modifications, together with lowering his consuming, as alcohol is related to oxidative stress, which might have an effect on sperm high quality. He additionally averted warmth round his groin space, transferring his telephone from his entrance to his again pocket. Heat publicity can quickly decrease sperm rely and cut back motility — testicles must be 2C to 4C cooler than the physique’s core temperature for regular manufacturing.
Making life-style modifications may help to enhance sperm high quality in a matter of months.
“Sperm are built continuously,” says Dr Sarah Martins DaSilva, chair of replica and fertility drugs on the University of Dundee. “It takes about three months to build a sperm from start to finish. Any change that you make can potentially make a difference to your semen test three, four, five months down the line.”
Martins DaSilva led a 2025 analysis examine into male fertility, and particularly, how male fertility is handled when testing or figuring out points. The survey of 504 males in Waterstone Clinic in Cork and ReproMed Clinic in Dublin discovered that one in eight of these surveyed had been making an attempt to conceive for greater than three years earlier than they underwent any fertility assessments.
“If a couple go to their GP or a family doctor, and they’re struggling to get pregnant, there’s a real immediate focus on the female partner. Is she ovulating and hormone tracking? That will be followed by blood tests and ultrasound scans. And the man often is not included in those initial evaluations and conversations,” says Martins DaSilva.
“That’s the message the research paper was trying to get across — it takes a sperm and an egg to make a baby. We know that a male factor is the likely reason behind people not getting pregnant in half of all cases. So why aren’t men being asked to be evaluated, and why aren’t we testing men sooner?”
As properly as making life-style modifications, Moehle researched dietary supplements he might take. He recognized 10 elements that stored developing in respected research on male sperm well being. “I bought them all individually. So for months I was taking 14 tablets a day.”
After 5 months, Moehle obtained his sperm retested, and “my numbers went way up”. His sperm morphology (the scale and form of a sperm cell) went from 0% to three%, sperm focus went from 16m per ml to 33m per ml and progressive motility (how a sperm strikes) went from 21% to 75%. Martins DaSilva breaks down the necessary numbers in relation to semen evaluation. “There are really three headline results: sperm count or sperm concentration needs to be at least 16m per ml. We also look at the way sperm swim, it’s called progressive motility, which describes sperm that are swimming in a meaningful way, in a certain trajectory and at a certain speed. And you need about 30% of the sperm with this progressive motility.
“Finally, we look at the morphology, which is how the head, neck, and tail [of the sperm] looks, and we score each cell. We’re looking for just 4% of the cells to look perfect from top to tail.”
The measurement and form of a sperm immediately have an effect on its means to make its approach via a feminine’s reproductive tract.
The most typical abnormalities with sperm, Martins DaSilva says, are motility points and a low sperm rely.
For Moehle, regardless that his new figures “weren’t superhero numbers”, he went from despair to believing fatherhood was doable. Just two months later — after taking the dietary supplements and making life-style modifications — on the finish of October 2025, Moehle’s spouse discovered she was pregnant. Their child daughter, Hope, was born in June.
His expertise of overcoming his fertility points obtained him pondering. In the absence of data on male fertility and sperm evaluation, and medical help, he says he had been unaware that he might make any distinction to his preliminary sperm evaluation.
Conor Moehle along with his daughter Hope who was born in June. When he was instructed final yr that he would by no means father youngsters, he set about making some life-style modifications.
“The education wasn’t there to tell me that some lifestyle changes can improve my sperm quality. Even if you do very simple things, like reducing alcohol, giving up smoking, then wait three months and see where you are. Had that information been given to me, I think I would have left the doctor’s office feeling a lot more hope.”
Information is energy, says Martins DaSilva. “The study found that 79% of men wanted more information about sperm testing, male reproductive health, and blood tests.”
Dineen is seeing some change in males’s fertility consciousness however says that change is sluggish. “There’s a bit more understanding that fertility isn’t just a female concern, but I still think there’s a reluctance to some degree for guys to just go ahead and have a semen analysis unprompted.”
He encourages males to be extra proactive. “Men need to man up, essentially, and get that information at an earlier stage.”
Knowing the fertility standing of each events in a pair makes for extra knowledgeable decision-making, argues Martins DaSilva. “It means the couple can say, OK, we know what we’re dealing with, so we know that we should try IVF, or maybe we might not need to go with IVF yet. It empowers the couple to make the choice that’s right for them.”
Having that info earlier could make all of the distinction, says Dineen. Time may be of the essence in relation to feminine fertility, he says, and if there are delays in getting the male examined, this will impression the general possibilities of success. “The couple may be coming through for treatment because of a male problem, but now all of a sudden the couple’s success may be related to the female age and not actually linked to the fact that he is the problem.”
Although Moehle didn’t hesitate to independently get his semen analysed, he confesses to being lower than knowledgeable about sperm high quality and male fertility on the whole. Apart from changing into a father, his expertise has been life-changing in different methods. He has since turn into a passionate speaker on male fertility at occasions just like the Future Fertility Show and has developed his personal vary of dietary supplements aimed toward serving to to enhance sperm high quality.
“I never planned to become an advocate for change in attitudes towards male fertility. ‘I’m passionate about sperm’ wasn’t exactly the bio I thought I’d have attached to my name, but here we are. I’m proud to be getting the message out there that men need to step up.”
Martins DaSilva outlines 5 actions that will assist enhance your fertility:
Smoking is strongly linked to poorer sperm rely and motility. Stopping is without doubt one of the few modifications the place docs clearly see enhancements in sperm counts and general well being.
Being chubby or overweight is related to “oxidative stress,” which might harm sperm DNA and the cell membranes that have an effect on how sperm swim. Weight loss may help cut back that stress on the physique.
Bring each alcohol and caffeine all the way down to average ranges. Heavy consuming particularly is linked with oxidative stress and decreased sperm high quality.
Certain bodybuilding dietary supplements and comparable merchandise might “inadvertently affect fertility”. Review what you’re taking and reduce or cease something that is likely to be dangerous.
Sperm are produced repeatedly, and it takes about three months to make a sperm from begin to end. Any life-style modifications you make in the present day might solely present up in a semen evaluation three to 5 months down the road, so earlier testing and modifications matter.
