Jonathan Ramsey

It's so lovely to have you here, particularly because I think when we talk about fertility and fertility issues, we so often think about women, but we forget about the men.

In your experience and in your practice, why do we need to be thinking more about male fertility?

Well, on one level, Harriet, and thank you for the invitation, that's a very, very simple answer.

Because biology would suggest, whether it's animal or human, that the making of a baby, an embryo, is 50-50, men and women.

And of course, historically, even religiously, the load has always been on the female shoulders.

But biologically, the more we are able to research male fertility and the quality of sperm, it's becoming evident that, not surprisingly, it's 50-50.

So this is interesting because I think one of the myths that we've had essentially brought into our culture is that men can have babies for as long as they like.

Picasso was having babies at 86.

What is the reality of male fertility and age? Do we need to be more aware?

Yes, I think we do.

Because once again, not dissimilar from female physiology and the way it works, then we now know with better testing of sperm quality, that actually males fertility in terms of the quality, not the numbers, because of course men are making sperm all the time.

The trick must be that that sperm needs to be of good quality as well as sufficiently numerous and vital to get to the egg but that quality does tend to decline after the age of 35 or 40.

And after the age of 45, you can begin to measure significant reductions in sperm quality when you look at its DNA.

So never mind what it looks like, it's payload, the DNA inside it, that may be more important.

This is so interesting.

So when men come to you in your clinics, are they coming early in the fertility journey or have they come when everything else has been exhausted and now they think it might be a them problem?

I'm delighted to report partially actually because of increased awareness, partially maybe because of the sort of thing that we're doing now.

they are beginning to come earlier.

If we look back 10 years ago, they didn't come at all until there was a big problem, perhaps no sperm at all, which occasionally occurs, or when they'd had a lot of difficulty already with their partners, and then they were encouraged to come because whatever was going on just wasn't working, and that was usually IVF.

But now, in the last year or so, I'm seeing more couples at the beginning of their journey.

This is fascinating.

It's so lovely to have you here, particularly because I think when we talk about fertility and fertility issues, we so often think about women, but we forget about the men.

In your experience and in your practice, why do we need to be thinking more about male fertility?

Well, on one level, Harriet, and thank you for the invitation, that's a very, very simple answer.

Because biology would suggest, whether it's animal or human, that the making of a baby, an embryo, is 50-50, men and women.

And of course, historically, even religiously, the load has always been on the female shoulders.

But biologically, the more we are able to research male fertility and the quality of sperm, it's becoming evident that, not surprisingly, it's 50-50.

So this is interesting because I think one of the myths that we've had essentially brought into our culture is that men can have babies for as long as they like.

Picasso was having babies at 86.

What is the reality of male fertility and age? Do we need to be more aware?

Yes, I think we do.

Because once again, not dissimilar from female physiology and the way it works, then we now know with better testing of sperm quality, that actually males fertility in terms of the quality, not the numbers, because of course men are making sperm all the time.

The trick must be that that sperm needs to be of good quality as well as sufficiently numerous and vital to get to the egg but that quality does tend to decline after the age of 35 or 40.

And after the age of 45, you can begin to measure significant reductions in sperm quality when you look at its DNA.

So never mind what it looks like, it's payload, the DNA inside it, that may be more important.

This is so interesting.

So when men come to you in your clinics, are they coming early in the fertility journey or have they come when everything else has been exhausted and now they think it might be a them problem?

I'm delighted to report partially actually because of increased awareness, partially maybe because of the sort of thing that we're doing now.

they are beginning to come earlier.

If we look back 10 years ago, they didn't come at all until there was a big problem, perhaps no sperm at all, which occasionally occurs, or when they'd had a lot of difficulty already with their partners, and then they were encouraged to come because whatever was going on just wasn't working, and that was usually IVF.

But now, in the last year or so, I'm seeing more couples at the beginning of their journey.

This is fascinating.