Dr. Turek's Blog

Let’s Go Fishing

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

What’s 4000 years old and still alive and kicking? Traditional Chinese medicine. It’s a form of complimentary or alternative medicine that should be better integrated into our modern medicine healthcare toolbox in the future to keep America’s reproductive age men healthy. Why do I say this? Because I like to face facts. Currently, alternative medicine […]

Know Your Wooly Mammoths

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

Whenever I mention to the media that “stress” is bad for male fertility and men’s health in general, they show images of snarling, bumper-to-bumper traffic with heat shimmering off of the asphalt. Sure, that works for stress. But that is not the half of it. Being stuck in traffic is a form of acute stress, […]

The Age of Aquarius

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

It really seems like the moon is in seventh house, and that Jupiter is aligned with Mars. Why? Because our government gets it and want to know how it can help. Last week, I spoke at a stakeholder meeting about men’s reproductive health, held at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta. You may […]

Where There’s Smoke

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

Smoking is bad for men’s fertility. Not unexpected, you might add, since 1000 smokers die each day around the world from smoking related diseases. But what else is new? A lot. And this matters because 25 million men in America smoke. Along with 21 million women. Any other condition this common would certainly be considered […]

The Man in the Mirror

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

What is the most commonly asked question in my male fertility practice: “What can I do to improve my sperm count?” My answer: “Treat your body like a temple; all things in moderation.” I’m sure that this is a disappointing answer for many men, but it’s true. There are no tricks here. Here’s why: Unlike […]

Listen and Learn

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

This week, I refused to perform a vasectomy on a patient of mine. That is, until he saw a doctor about his sky-high blood pressure. Thirty years old and a father of three, he is a productive, hardworking member of society who just happened to never have seen a doctor as an adult. Unusual? Not […]

A Sword with Two Edges

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

  You may know what testosterone can do for your strength, but did you also know that it is a contraceptive? That’s right, taking any synthetic testosterone will reliably make you infertile. I’ve discussed the reason for this in other posts, but I’ll explain it again. Essentially, the brain drives the testicle to make sperm […]

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Babies…Naturally

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

In the daily life of my fertility practice, I’ve noticed a trend lately as I help couples conceive a child: patients are less interested in using high levels of “assisted reproduction” to have children. In particular, they would like to avoid in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), the Cadillac of all techniques. Even before they meet […]

Medicine Light

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

Can prayer heal? Does touch matter in medicine? Long considered a nonrational part of Western medicine, these “lighter side” topics are now receiving close attention and study. I am reminded about distant healing on the anniversary of the death of a medical school classmate and friend Dr. Elisabeth Targ. As a psychiatrist, daughter of a […]

A Good Planet is Hard to Find

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

Most couples in most countries will conceive within a year of trying. Families in the Ukraine take an average of 2.5 years, according to a new U.S. publication. Why? Radiation discharged from the ill-fated nuclear explosion at nearby Chernobyl in 1986 is the likely culprit. Male infertility is the consequence. We know that sperm production […]