Video Text Alternative: Meet Our Researchers: Three Myths and Facts about Infertility

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Meet Our Researchers:Three myths and facts about infertility

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GRAPHIC SLIDE: Stuart B. Moss, Ph.D.

Dr. Susan Taymans and Dr. Stuart Moss on camera.
Dr. Stuart Moss: So, one of the big myths that I would say is that a lot of people put all the blame on the female and say, “Well,
Dr. Moss on camera. Dr. Moss: if a couple is infertile, it must be due to the female.” And in fact, that’s far from the truth. Probably 30% to 40% of infertility is caused by the male partner. Another 40% is caused by the female partner, and the remainder is caused by a combination of the two of them. So, I think a lot of people think that the male will just produce sperm, it will be functional sperm, and it’s the female that may have a problem.
GRAPHIC SLIDE: Susan Taymans, Ph.D.

Dr. Taymans
and Dr. Moss on camera.
Dr. Susan Taymans: On the female side, I think that there’s a lot of information coming out now that shows us that women don’t know as much about their fertility and their bodies as we would like them to. I read a recent study from the Journal of Fertility and Sterility in which 60% of women incorrectly thought that
Dr. Taymans on camera. Dr. Taymans: the best time to get pregnant is after ovulation, and that’s incorrect. The best time to get pregnant is before ovulation. So if women are trying to get pregnant and they have this misconception, they’re really shooting their odds down.
Dr. Taymans and Dr. Moss on camera. Dr. Moss: Can I add one other myth that we alluded to earlier on? And that is the idea that men can father children through their entire lives, which theoretically is true, but you have to take into consideration the quality of the sperm as the male ages and that the offspring may have certain neurological issues like autism spectrum disorders or bipolar disorders.
Dr. Moss on camera. Dr. Moss: In a recently published paper looking at the Icelandic population and comparing 24-year-old men versus 45-year-old men, they showed that there was a 3.5 greater chance of fathering offspring that had autism spectrum disorders, 25% greater chance that the offspring would have bipolar disorders, 13% chance that the offspring would have attention deficit disorders.
Dr. Taymans and Dr. Moss on camera. Dr. Moss: And 45 years old is not that old in terms of fathering a child and having a family.
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