GET FIT: Thin is in for better fertility

While women's infertility problems get all the press, men's infertility accounts for as much as 40 percent of the infertility problems among couples.

That would mean more

than 3 million men have sperm with no sense of direction or sperm that doesn't know where it's going - or no sperm.

Dr. Edward Marut, medical director of Fertility Centers of Illinois, says three factors of male infertility may be controlled by healthy living.

Obesity: Researchers from Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine have found obese men have hormonal changes that can affect fertility. And obese men father fewer children than men who aren't obese, the research says.

Prescription medication: Some antidepressant drugs can damage sperm, says research from the Cornell Medical Center in New York. Even if sperm fertilizes an egg, the embryo may not survive because of the damage, the research says.

Air pollution: Research from the University of Utah's Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility has found that mobility of sperm in some men decreases as certain types of air pollution increases. The research is under way.

Dr. Marut suggests men who want to make babies maintain a healthful lifestyle: healthful eating, maintaining a good weight, no smoking, less drinking, more exercise, taking a multi-vitamin, reducing caffeine - the whole regimen. link