Many women trying to conceive worry about their partner's sperm count

Washington, March 9 (ANI): Many women who are trying to get pregnant worry about fertility more than their partner, despite the fact that half of all fertility problems are due to the male, with low sperm count the main cause, a new survey has revealed.

According to the survey conducted for SpermCheck Fertility, 42 percent of those who conceived say they became obsessed with getting pregnant once they started trying. Yet just 10 percent say their partner shared this obsession.

This year, approximately 7 million couples will experience conception issues and about 50 percent of these infertility problems will be directly attributed to the male, according to John C. Herr, Ph.D., director of the University of Virginia's Center for Research in Contraceptive and Reproductive Health.

Most male infertility problems are mainly due to low sperm count, he added.

Yet women are typically the ones to take action when conception is slow to happen, often undergoing a battery of sometimes invasive and typically costly testing.

While - analyzing the male's sperm count is considered a key first step by infertility specialists - less than one-fifth of men (17 percent) ever get tested for their sperm count, according to the SpermCheck survey.

And just 23 percent of the women surveyed who are currently pregnant or who have conceived a child said their partner did everything he could to get himself as healthy as possible before they started trying to conceive.

"While there is absolutely nothing to be self-conscious about, many men are often reluctant or embarrassed to go to their healthcare provider to take a sperm count test, even if it means that their partner might take it upon herself to start having herself tested and in some cases begin taking fertility treatments," said Pamela Madsen, a nationally recognized fertility educator, advocate and founder of the American Fertility Association.

"Now, with SpermCheck Fertility, a new and easy, 10-minute, over-the-counter, FDA-approved, at-home sperm count screening test that men can take in the privacy of their home, they can find out if their sperm count is normal or low - and have an accurate answer, right then," she noted.

The SpermCheck survey found that 8 out of 10 women (83 percent) trying to or planning to conceive say their partner assumes he is fertile, and 43 percent say their partner would like to know for sure that his sperm count is normal.

A much higher number, more than two thirds of women surveyed say they would like to know their partner's sperm count is normal when they start trying to get pregnant. (ANI)