Q. What can we do to help my husband? He has low sperm counts, but we really can't afford to do in vitro. Any ideas would be helpful.
A. The basics are no smoking, no overweight, limit alcohol and bike riding. You can go PubMed and enter "male infertility and causes" in the search area for some articles to read.
With a low sperm count, you can put your husband on fertility vitamins with antioxidants and make sure he ejaculates a lot during your nonfertile time as this helps boost sperm counts. Have intercourse every other day during your fertile time. Make it really fun, steamy sex during your fertile time (Pre~Seed can help); take the time for lots of foreplay and get him excited to boost those numbers (by as much as 50% in some studies!).
He should also work with an Andrologist (sperm doctor) to find out why his sperm count is low and what to do. Many RE clinics do not have an Andrologist or reproductive Urologist on staff. If they just send your sample out to a lab or have a nurse do the count - and it comes back with male factor issues - find a specialist to help you with the male aspects.
Good luck!
