Good day to you internet! Hot off the keystrokes of the post that I wrote yesterday about National Infertility Awareness Week I woke up this morning feeling very motivated to keep writing for this infertility blog today. I already had a subject in mind to write about yesterday when I logged off yesterday and it came to me when I was reading about some of the myths regarding infertility when I was over at the Resolve website. The first debunked myth that they listed was the misconception that infertility is mostly the woman’s problem, WTF

I suppose the fact they listed this thought at the top of their lists would indicate how little people now about the seriousness of infertility. When it comes to the percentage split of infertility problems of a couple we are talking about an even split at this point based on statistics! I have seen this information on quite a few sites but I will just use the one’s over at Resolve which puts the split at 35% of either the man or the woman then 20% falls to a combo of the two and only about 10% are unexplained….. clearly not just a woman problem people!

Now I can understand how most people might think that this is just a woman problem since it is the woman that has to get poked, prodded, tested and all the other things that women have to go through for fertility issues. Then you have the guy who is asked to watch a little ‘stimulating material’  in a room and drop off their sample to the lab. That is probably the general consensus of what is required on the man’s part.

Since I am trying to highlight the point that it’s not just a woman’s problem when it comes to infertility I thought I would list some of the male fertility problems. Immunologic disorders are for example anti sperm antibodies that pretty much stop the boys from getting thru to the egg and doing their job. Impotence is not just a lack of sexual satisfaction for the guy but obviously a real cause of infertility as well, thankfully for those that have this issue and no heart problems there is a certain blue pill that can help with this problem now a days.

Then there are a couple of other male factors like congenital defects and sperm abnormalities or production problems. The list goes on and on when it comes to the male factors but the one’s that I listed are some of the more common issues. The point is of course that there is plenty of hurdles to overcome on the male side of the fertility coin and based on the percentages like I said things appears to be a toss up for where the most problems are.

I think part of the problem with this common public misconception that most infertility problems fall to woman is the fact that most men will not talk about the fact that they may have an ‘issue’ going on there or that something is ‘broken’ because in our heads we may not be seen as a real man anymore.

If you are faced with male infertility and you are having those feelings of being less of a man I say get over yourself and time to man up and face the issue head on. Especially if you are a couple trying to get pregnant and you find out that you as the man are the one with the fertility problem. The fact that you have male infertility problems does not make you any less of a man. Like I said it’s how you react to the problem are you going to man up and fight the problem or are you going to crawl up into your man cave Fighting infertility is a global issue that needs to be fought on both sides of the fertility coin if it is to be overcome.

OK internet I wrap up this post for now but I will let you know that I already have another idea for a new post tomorrow regarding the stress of infertility. How to manage that unique type of stress with some coping techniques to deal with the stress of infertility both for the individual as well as the family. Until then keep fighting and don’t let IF win!