Georgia Professor Fights the Rise of Male Infertility
Z Urology is a leading urological care center that helps tackle male infertility. This is more important than ever, as, for reasons that aren’t completely understood, rates of male infertility in the United States and many Western nations have been on a steady upward trajectory for the past several decades.
“This is a growing problem that keeps getting worse with time,” said Charles Easley, an assistant professor in the University of Georgia College of Public Health. “About 10% of reproductive age men in America have some type of infertility issue, and 45% of those patients have no treatment options at all.”
With a team of scientists that includes undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, a research coordinator and a lab manager, Easley is conducting research that offers hope for couples struggling with infertility. His work also has the potential to help keep reproductive toxicants out of the products that millions of people use daily.
An Infertility Crisis
Sadly, declining levels of male fertility date back to at least the 70s and have been attributed to a variety of factors. These factors include lifestyle and certain medical therapies. Exposure to environmental toxicants such as chemicals that disrupt the endocrine system is thought to play an important role, as well. Easley points out that avoiding some of these everyday chemicals is “borderline impossible.”
If you’re sitting on a foam covered chair, for example, chemicals that impart flame retardance are leaching through the fabric and into your body. Compounds used in plastic food packaging, children’s toys, and some cosmetics have been shown to disrupt the endocrine system, as well. Byproducts from industrial processes make their way into the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. It is basically unavoidable.
A major roadblock to the effective assessment of reproductive toxicity has been that results from studies on mice and other animals don’t necessarily translate to humans. In a breakthrough that has the potential to dramatically improve the testing of chemicals, Easley and his colleagues have developed a method to direct stem cells to become sperm precursors that can be used to screen chemicals for toxicity.
New Hope For Treating Infertility
The ability to direct stem cells to become precursors to sperm cells holds promise for men suffering from infertility, as well. Easley and his colleagues made international news in 2012 when they developed a method to take skin cells and transform them into sperm precursors.
If proven safe and effective, first in animal trials and then in human clinical trials, the technique could potentially give infertile men a chance at fatherhood. With the support of the Georgia Research Alliance, Easley has founded a company, known as Fertiligen, to help make his discoveries more widely available.
His idea is that for one who is rendered sterile by chemotherapy as a child and now, as an adult, has no options, can use their skin cells to restore their natural fertility.
If you feel you are in need of a urologist in South Florida to aid in helping deal with and correct male infertility, then contact Z Urology for a group that is dedicated to delivering world-class expertise in urology, along with an unwavering commitment to their patients. The three locations to choose from are located in Fort Lauderdale, Coral Springs, and Pompano Beach.
You can go to the website directly and set up an appointment or you can call 954-714-8200. Either way, you contact, you will be setting up to see the leading urologist office in all of South Florida. With an extremely talented and professional staff of doctors and more, you are in truly good hands with the doctors and nurses at Z Urology. Z Urology is your leader in urological care. Go ahead and call now!
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