Hello and welcome everybody to our Male Fertility LIVE BLOG.
I'll start things off with a question I know we'd all love the answer to. Is fertility declining, especially among men? Dr. Leader, I will direct that one to you. Please go ahead
Chris and I were very impressed with the Documentary. I am glad to hear that Amir Attaran is joining this discussion. We were so impressed with his interview and glad that people are fighting our government to help those struggling with infertility. Infertility does not discriminate and it is a medical issue. -The Willdigs
It looks like Dr. Leader might not be on the blog just yet. Amir, why did you feel you needed to go to the Human Rights Tribunal?
It's simple: I'm doing it because of people like Amber and Chris Willdig -- people who deserve better than government is giving them when it discriminates and refuses to pay for IVF. Government illegality (discrimination, remember, is illegal) has to be fought, particularly when it hurts decent people with real medical problems.
And Amber and Chris - thanks for the kind words!
This is an open question. Where do you think this "resistance" comes from to recognize infertility as a medical condition?
I personally think some of the public is afraid to recongnize infertility as a medical condition because they are afraid their taxes will be raised to cover treatment.
Amir, please describe how the Human Rights Tribunal is going.
I can't imagine, at least not logically. Infertility is a failure of the body's reproductive functions. Therefore, like any other condition where the body fails, it is an illness. Some p
eople try and make it seem otherwise, but they aren't very clever in their analysis.
We think it's mostly ignorance. Just the mentality that there is more important things to deal with. I guess helping people have a sex change or a breast reduction is more important then couples who need medical help to have a baby. I never in a million years thought at 23 I would have an egg issue.
That's an excellent point Bill and Kelly. Reports have indicated that funding IVF would actually save money. Quebec says it is already seeing savings after just one year.
It's already been proven how much the government will save if they fund infertility. And Like Amir said in the interview. We are a public health insurance. We pay in and sometimes we benifit and sometimes we don't.
Beatrice, the Human Rights Tribunal case is on temporary hold. The government unlawfully breached several deadlines it had to produce evidence (i.e. documents) before the Tribunal. Emphasis on the word "unlawfully". They asked for more time. So now they have it, but unless something changes for the better, the Tribunal process will resume shortly. This sort of thing takes years, unfortunately.
Hello and Welcome Dr. Leader.
I'd like to direct one question to you Dr. Leader.
Are there methods by which men can go about raising their sperm counts?
Amir, is there a site or email of yours we could have to follow your process with this "fight"?
Apologies everyone, I should be numbering the questions so that we can all keep track of where we are. Let's call "methods by which men can raise their sperm counts" QUESTION #1.
I don't think anything will help sperm count - but we were told ZINC a multi vitamin and possibly even DHEA can help sperm Quality and EGG quality. If it wasn't for DHEA I don't think our third IVF would have workd for us. I really do believe that it helped improve the quality of what eggs I had left.
Question #1: Dr. Leader, I've heard that the drug Arimidex may improve sperm counts. Can you tell us about that?
Thank you Global for capturing this imerging pendemic! Is there any drugs such as clomid or something along those lines to increase sperm count? I am taking fertil pro which is a multivitamin...but i am wondering is there is a drug to increase the count?
Chris and I were very impressed with the Documentary. I am glad to hear that Amir Attaran is joining this discussion. We were so impressed with his interview and glad that people are fighting our government to help those struggling with infertility. Infertility does not discriminate and it is a medical issue. -The Willdigs
It's simple: I'm doing it because of people like Amber and Chris Willdig -- people who deserve better than government is giving them when it discriminates and refuses to pay for IVF. Government illegality (discrimination, remember, is illegal) has to be fought, particularly when it hurts decent people with real medical problems.
I think infertility is a medical condition when there is no way a baby can be made without medical intervention. When sperm and egg have no way of meeting without medical intervention, that is where the government should be able to step in and help finance this for these couples.
I really don't think anything can help sperm counts. We were told that things like zinc and multivitamins - even DHEA can help sperm and egg quality. Don't quote me but I think they quantity of sperm (or eggs) you have is what you have to work with. But you can improve quality. Hope that helps -The Willdigs