Cao Kaiyong's Health Prescription: Preventing Infertility Must Start from Childhood

**Cao Kaiyong's Health Prescription: Preventing Infertility Starts from Childhood**

Regarding male infertility, what we've discussed so far mainly concerns treatment and management. However, infertility in some individuals is a long-term process, stemming from factors like congenital malformations. In most cases, it's due to neglecting to protect male fertility, particularly failing to prevent certain infertility-causing diseases during infancy and early childhood, and being negligent in certain lifestyle details and hygiene practices. If infertility is discovered after the child has reached adulthood, the optimal treatment window has often passed. In some cases, fertility can be salvaged, while in others, lifelong regret is inevitable.

**Educate children from a young age to abstain from alcohol, smoking, and drugs.**

Nowadays, with the improvement of living standards, some families excessively spoil their only children, and some teenagers develop bad habits such as drinking, smoking, and drug use out of curiosity, novelty, and fun. These bad habits, formed in youth, are difficult to break throughout life and can greatly interfere with and damage future reproductive function.

Long-term alcohol abuse can affect sperm development, especially in people with chronic alcoholism, 70% of whom will experience poor sperm development or reduced sperm motility. Even if conception occurs, it may lead to birth defects.

Smoking is also a cause of infertility. Nicotine in cigarettes can lower sex hormones and kill sperm. Long-term use of drugs such as marijuana can also inhibit sperm production. Natural opioids can reduce fertility, and heroin and methaqualone can also lead to sexual dysfunction.

Young men of reproductive age should also be aware of the damage that environmental pollution can cause to their reproductive function. For example, long-term exposure to high temperatures, radiation, toxic chemicals, or pesticides can reduce or even eliminate fertility.

**Develop good living habits from childhood**

Some people's lifestyle habits do not meet the requirements of reproductive health, often resulting in infertility. The most common cause is decreased fertility in those who frequently take hot baths or saunas. Some parents are unaware of the dangers of hot baths and frequently take their children to public baths, causing young children to develop a habit of scalding themselves, which may lead to infertility in adulthood.

Some parents fail to stop or guide their children from wearing tight pants, allowing them to develop this habit from a young age. When these children reach adulthood, wearing tight pants can affect their fertility. This is because tight pants can raise testicular temperature or obstruct blood flow to the scrotum, thus reducing sperm production.

A man's fertility is closely related to the health of his sexual organs during childhood and adolescence. We should never take this lightly. If we think that a child's minor illness is nothing serious and do not actively seek treatment, we will miss the opportunity for treatment and the disease will become incurable in adulthood, leaving a lifelong regret.

As the saying goes, "He who does not plan for the future will have trouble in the present." If we don't focus on the healthy growth of our children, it won't be long before they grow up, get married, and are shrouded in the shadow of infertility, bringing lifelong unhappiness. We frequently encounter such tragedies in clinical practice, and we hope this will raise awareness and encourage everyone to start preventing and treating infertility from a young age.

**Cao Kaiyong's Mailbox**

How to improve sperm motility?

**Dr. Cao:**

I've been married for three years without conceiving. After a hospital checkup, the doctor said my sperm motility is low, with a sperm activity rate of only 10%, which is supposedly one of the main causes of infertility. I would like to ask you, how can I improve my sperm motility?

Sheng XX

Mr. Sheng:

Poor sperm motility is a common cause of male infertility. A sperm motility rate of 30% or higher is required for conception; otherwise, due to weak sperm motility, the sperm cannot swim actively and fertilize the egg.

To improve sperm motility, the first step is to quit smoking and drinking. Sperm are particularly sensitive to nicotine, a toxin found in cigarettes. If a man smokes 30 cigarettes a day, his sperm survival rate is only 40%. Long-term heavy drinking can cause 70% of sperm to be underdeveloped or lose motility. In addition, spicy foods such as chili peppers, mustard, and black pepper can also affect sperm motility and should be avoided. Secondly, it's important to change unhealthy lifestyle habits, such as taking hot baths, wearing tight pants, or jeans, as these can raise scrotal temperature and affect sperm production and motility. Thirdly, it's crucial to maintain a reasonable frequency of sexual activity. Sperm production and maturation have a reasonable cycle; having intercourse every 7-10 days releases mature sperm. Frequent intercourse results in the release of immature sperm, which naturally leads to weaker sperm motility. You should also pay attention to combining medication with dietary supplements. Weak sperm motility is a relatively stubborn form of infertility, requiring diagnosis and treatment at a specialized hospital, and a prolonged course of medication. At the same time, one should consume kidney-tonifying and essence-boosting foods through diet, such as yam, eel, ginkgo, sea cucumber, frozen tofu, tofu skin, peanuts, walnuts, and sesame seeds. Some foods can enhance libido and fertility, such as jujubes, honey, lotus seeds, edible fungi, dog meat, mutton, and animal penises. A person's mental state also greatly affects bodily functions. Men suffering from low sperm motility are already distressed; if their wives are not understanding and supportive, it will only increase their mental burden, further affecting sperm production and motility. Therefore, couples should be understanding of each other when facing illness, adjust their mental state, and work together to overcome the disease in order to have a lively and lovely baby as soon as possible.