Dr. Turek's Blog

Complex leaf pattern in nature.

Are the Sons of Infertile Men Also Infertile?

There are certain questions in life that have never been answerable until now. For example, given that many human diseases are treatable, how long can we actually live?  It took the jet age for us to figure out just how much g-force the human body can handle. And it’s only been a hundred years or […]

Can You Be Too Fit to Be Fertile?

It’s well known that women athletes can stop having regular periods if they exercise too much. Termed “exercise-induced amenorrhea,” this prevents pregnancy during times of extreme physiological stress. Think of it as Darwin would: Why would you want to bear children as a cavewoman running for your life? Survival Comes First The mechanism for this […]

Want to be Fertile? Be the Best Man You Can

We’ve known for a while now that, pound for pound, as a group, infertile men aren’t as healthy as fertile men. It started with research showing that infertile men have higher rates of cancer after infertility than fertile men. Then, it became clear that infertile men harbor more disease than fertile men. The latest data suggests […]

Climbing tall mountains

How Patients Teach Doctors a Thing or Two

This Case of the Year is an actual patient of The Turek Clinic We can learn so much from those we meet. My patients teach me more about life and medicine than any book ever could. I think it was Bill Nye who said: “Everyone that you will ever meet knows something you don’t.” Up […]

Daisies in the desert

Staying Connected Through the Storm of Infertility

I am constantly impressed by the profound impact that infertility has on relationships. I’ve seen 15 years of family building effort end up in bankruptcy, failure and divorce as well as in healthy babies. The strain of being infertile can send a relationship spiraling faster than a lead balloon. Others, though, show incredible buoyancy, almost […]

van Leeuwenhoek, father of microbiology

The Smartphone Semen Analysis: Cool or Crazy?

It’s amazing what you can do at home nowadays. Get a college degree, work a job, sell anything you own to someone half way around the world, garner YouTube fame, exercise along with hundreds of others, or self-publish a book. And now you can also analyze your sperm. Patient lab testing, otherwise known as “at-home” […]

Presidential seal.

Presidential Infertility Throughout American History

Michelle Obama recently revealed in her book, Becoming, that she and President Obama were infertile. Both Malia and Sasha were conceived with IVF (in vitro fertilization) in the 1990s when IVF was only about two decades old. A hard story to tell (I’m sure) but an important one to hear from one of America’s most popular first […]

Do Flu Shots Affect Fertility or Pregnancy?

Its flu season. You’re trying to conceive or maybe you’re pregnant. Should you get a flu shot? For those of you who never get the flu, here is the modern definition: A terrible sickness where you feel like you shouldn’t be able to walk, but somehow you can. For about a week, everything is achy […]

Yosemite in winter

Tips for Coping with Infertility During the Holidays

Along with the cool, crisp air, long nights and brisk mornings come….the holidays. Add to this a rash of mass killings, hurricanes, wildfires, downed jets and politics and what do you have? A season of especially high anxiety, magnified even more by that simple problem you’re quietly trying to solve at home: unwanted childlessness. Stress […]

Deep Blue computer chip

The Penis: An Organ of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is on fire right now. But AI is by no means new. The concept was coined 60 years ago by John McCarthy who defined it as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines.” And there’s been some impressive AI successes since then. Remember when IBM’s Deep Blue beat world chess champion […]