Svitlana Yashchenok: Why Isn’t Anyone Talking about the Male Fertility Factor?
Svitlana Yashchenok, Practice Manager at Reproductive Health Medical Centre LADA, shared on LinkedIn:
”Male Fertility Factor: why isn’t anyone talking about it?
When a couple walks into a consultation, almost every question is aimed at the woman: her cycle, her hormones, her treatment protocol. But the male factor is far from rare; it’s the one cause of infertility in 20% of couples and plays a role in nearly half of all cases.
Why the silence?
There are a few reasons behind this silence, and each one makes psychological sense.
- Cultural stigma. Male infertility feels like a hit to masculinity, making it harder for men to open up
- Lack of data. Men remain underrepresented in fertility research, though that’s slowly starting to shift
- The cost is real. 93% of men in one survey said infertility took a toll on their self-esteem and overall well-being
A troubling trend.
There’s a scientific signal here that deserves more attention. A landmark meta-analysis by Hagai Levine and Shanna Swan, published in Human Reproduction Update, found that sperm concentration worldwide dropped by more than 50% over 46 years – and the decline hasn’t slowed down; it’s actually picked up speed since 2000. More recent data points to a drop of over 60% since 1972.
That’s the trend that pushed Shanna Swan to predict that by mid-century, the median sperm count could edge close to zero. That’s an extrapolation, not a proven fact, and scientists are still debating it. But the trend itself isn’t coming out of nowhere; it’s backed by a meta-regression of more than 200 studies across 53 countries.
What this means for fertility clinics.
A clinic that treats only the female patient is missing half the picture. Male infertility research isn’t underfunded because it matters less; it’s underfunded because it’s talked about less.
At LADA, we treat the couple, not just the one patient while their partner waits outside the door. For us, a semen analysis is a diagnostic test just as significant as assessing ovarian reserve. The silence around male factor infertility has never meant the problem doesn’t exist. It’s only ever meant the conversation hasn’t happened.”
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