{"id":622215,"date":"2026-09-12T07:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T07:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/622215\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T07:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T07:30:08","slug":"40-of-infertility-issues-are-linked-to-mens-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/622215\/","title":{"rendered":"40% of infertility issues are linked to men\u2019s health"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A leading HSE expert has called for the recruitment of more specialists in male infertility and greater awareness of the fact that 40% of infertility issues are linked to men\u2019s health.<\/p>\n<p>John O\u2019Sullivan, a consultant andrologist and urologist working at St James Hospital, is taking part in a new HSE drive to highlight men\u2019s health issues, and will attend next week\u2019s Ploughing Championships to discuss the issue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Andrologists specialise in male reproductive health, sexual function, and urological issues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cWe need to improve access to care for male patients. There needs to be more andrologists funded to see patients,\u201d said Dr O\u2019Sullivan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cWe need to improve access to care and improve awareness that male infertility is so common.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cAbout 15% of couples are going to have fertility problems, so one in eight couples. And in those couples who have a fertility problem, 40% are those or greater, it is a male issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cWe don\u2019t have access to specialists to care for men adequately.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cWe\u2019ve made great strides in this, and the HSE is aware of the issues. There are improvements in that regard, but there\u2019s still a deficit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">The issue will be highlighted at a stand at the Ploughing Championship run by the HSE\u2019s National Women and Infants Health Programme, who have been behind the development of the six fertility hubs now offering access to publicly funded care.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cThe man\u2019s reproductive health is a barometer of the man\u2019s overall health,\u201d added Dr O\u2019Sullivan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cSperm are miniature versions of ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Habits such as smoking, drinking too much alcohol, poor diet, stress or being overweight can have a negative impact on sperm, he explained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cIt can make the sperm lower quality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">In his experience, heterosexual couples struggling with infertility usually associate this with the woman\u2019s health.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\n            Men are probably thinking \u2018it\u2019s not them\u2019 because they just don\u2019t know.\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Dr O\u2019Sullivan will be at the Ploughing Championships from Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cCome and talk to us,\u201d he said, stressing that no appointments are needed and people can have an informal chat about their concerns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">He called on men to talk to them at the stand, or talk to a GP about infertility issues, rather than seeking advice online.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cWe see a lot of guys who are struggling with their sex drives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cThey\u2019re struggling to procreate, so what they decide to do is take testosterone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cIf you inject or rub on exogenous testosterone, you completely shut down your sperm production.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A leading HSE expert has called for the recruitment of more specialists in male infertility and greater awareness&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[494,103,2120,61,60],"class_list":["post-622215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-fertility","tag-health","tag-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}