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Shaun Greenaway: From the Outside, the Male Part Seems Pretty Simple…

Shaun Greenaway/shaungreenaway.co.uk

Oct 3, 2026, 07:08

Shaun Greenaway: From the Outside, the Male Part Seems Pretty Simple…

Shaun Greenaway, Co-Founder of The Male Fertility Hub, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“I’ve lost count of how many semen samples I’ve had to produce over the years.

From the outside, the male part seems pretty simple.

Turn up. Produce. Hand over the pot, and stroll off into the sunset – hi-fiving everyone on your way out.

But when male infertility is already wrapped up in guilt, blame, and everything else swirling around in your head, there’s nothing easy about it.

Before fertility treatment, my only real reference point for producing a sample in a clinic was the scene in Road Trip.

Full of bantz and bravado.

The reality was very different.

Cold, clinical rooms.

Questionable ‘material’, and the form asking you to note if you spilled any…and the knowledge that what you manage to produce can have a very real bearing on what happens next.

For me, the room was never really the hardest part. It was the pressure.

On one occasion, there was so much riding on the sample that after 45 minutes I had to accept that it just wasn’t going to happen.

I handed the cup back empty. That was embarrassing.

But phoning my wife afterwards and telling her I couldn’t do it was far worse.

My head immediately went to the feeling of letting her down.

That guilt was already there from watching everything she was physically going through in treatment.

This just added another layer.

Acknowledging that this can be incredibly difficult for men takes absolutely nothing away from what women go through during fertility treatment.

Two things can be difficult at the same time.

I eventually came to dread every time I had to produce another sample, and from the conversations I’ve had with other men since, I know I’m far from alone.

Because that little plastic cup can carry a hell of a lot more than a semen sample.

Pressure. Fear. Embarrassment. Guilt. Hope.

So perhaps we can finally stop calling it ‘the easy bit’.”

Shaun Greenaway