Dr. Turek's Blog

Brosectomy®: A Special March Madness Bro Weekend

Here’s a notion from the natural world: there’s safety in numbers. Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it. But why is mass behavior safer? Apparently because having many eyes allows for earlier threat recognition and herds offer dilution of danger to individuals within it. Even in humans,

Artificial Sperm Reinvented

Do you really know that the world isn’t flat? C’mon, tell the truth. In fact, debate raged on whether the earth is flat or spherical from the 8th century BC well into the second millennium (1520) AD, well over 2000 years! Magellan and scientific proof ended up nailing the truth. In the mystical words of […]

Can You Be Allergic to Your Sperm?

They sat in front of me, notes in hand, having read all they could, and looking somewhat concerned. “We read that vasectomy reversals don’t work because of antibodies that men make to their sperm. Is this true?” Don the Immunology Hat Practically speaking, the world’s first immunologist was the formidable warlord King Mithridates VI of […]

How to Impress Her on Valentine’s Day

You asked her for a date on Valentine’s Day. Now what? You really want to impress her. Dinner and a movie? A dinner show? Just dinner? A ball game? Hot tubbing or a spa? Karaoke? Salsa dancing? Split some chocolate lava cake? The pressure is on. It must be perfect. What’s a guy to do? […]

Epigenetics: The Real Reason You Are Who You Are

You share 99.5% of your DNA with the person sitting next to you. In fact, you share 97.5% of your DNA with mice. And, believe it or not, 50% of banana DNA is identical to yours! So what makes you so special? Epigenetics. The New Plastics Remember the scene in “The Graduate” when the smug, older […]

Helping Wounded Veterans Live and Love

His kidney harbored a cancer and it needed to be removed. As a first-year surgeon-in-training, I was consenting him for surgery at the Veterans Hospital in Philadelphia. Unlike most patients, he was unusually calm as I talked him through the procedure and its potentially life-threatening complications. At one point, he gently put his hand on top of […]

A Good Year for Sperm

You know about what happened to oil prices last year. And you know about the Paris and San Bernardino shootings. There was also the marriage equality ruling by the Supreme Court and the Baltimore protests. All newsworthy by any measure. But did you know that it was also a big year for sperm? What’s in […]

A Trip to the White House

It was a “seminal” event, and by The White House invitation. The topic? The future of men’s health. Why are men medically underserved in America? What cultural factors are at play that we can change? Who should be involved? Seeds of Change An impressive array of stakeholders was present for the dialogue. Hats off to the […]

How to Help Men Live Longer

He was desperate, despondent and depressed. Both his life and marriage were falling apart, literally unraveling right in front of him. He mustered the strength to reach out and seek help. And he was cured of his disease. Sounds like the “C” word, eh? Nope, he was cured of the “I” word: Infertility. Read it […]