Hormones
The production of sperm all takes place in the testicles (the “factory”) within your scrotum. Similar to an automobile assembly plant or a computer chip facility, the big decisions regarding how much sperm to produce are made by the administrators in managment. In the case of sperm, management resides in your brain. If management thinks that there is not enough sperm being made, then they will send a hormonal request down to the factory for more sperm to come off the assembly line.
Hormones are substances that your brain releases into your blood (for those of you who like specifics, the hormones are proteins that come from the pituitary and the hypothalamus). Your blood vessels then carry these hormones down to the testicles. The factory supervisor is always counting how many hormonal requests for more sperm are being made by your brain. When the brain thinks that sperm production is way too low, it will send tons of hormonal requests for the factory to pick-up sperm production.
Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) is the main hormone that fertility specialists focus on. It is that hormone request form that the brain sends to the testicular factory for more sperm production. When men have no sperm or very little sperm in their ejaculate (azoospermia or oligospermia), the brain doesn’t like this and sends lots of FSH down to the testicles. Modern blood tests can detect this by measuring very high levels of FSH in your blood.
To be complete, the testicle is also home for the production of testosterone that supplements your ability to make sperm. Testosterone production is controlled by another hormone called Luteinizing Hormone (LH) that also comes from your brain (the pituitary). The significance of the LH and testosterone is two-fold. First, they indicate if your brain and your testicles have a healthy relationship. If the testosterone and LH levels are abnormal, it may be a tip-off to Dr. Kuang at the Southwest Fertility Center for Men that sperm production may also be not working properly and may even give clues to the reason why.
The second reason that these hormones are important is that it is not uncommon to find young men on testosterone or steroid supplements. The reasons that the supplements are started often involve a desire for increased energy, improved sexual performance or improved physical performance in sports. What many of these men don’t realize is that when a man takes testosterone or steroids, no one remembers to let the brain know. As a result, the brain sees a sudden surge of testosterone/steroids in the blood stream and thinks that it is all coming from the testicular factory. It falsely interprets that the factory assembly line has gone into overdrive and is making too much of everything including sperm. As a result, it begins to shut down the factory. Consequently, sperm production is reduced or even completely stopped which results in oligospermia or azoospermia. Please let Dr. Kuang know if you are on any steroids or testosterone since it can have a significantly adverse effect on your fertility potential.