If you are a man and intend to procreate at any time in your life, you should get your sperm checked out. It’s non-invasive and quite easy (some might even say pleasurable). Just as women are freezing their eggs and getting a baseline on their reproductive health ahead of having a child, so too should us guys. The fact we don’t talk about this more openly and often is a disservice to our gender and perpetuates the myth/stigma of a fertility burden on women.

Let me tell you a personal story – we have a lovely daughter who was the byproduct of a successful IVF. My wife and I were trying naturally for about a year but it wasn’t working out. Not the “timing cycles and rushing home at 12:04pm to bop” trying but still, trying. So we went to our respective fertility doctors. The wife discovered she had the eggs of a woman a decade or more younger than her actual age – ie fertile as heck. I had a normal sperm count but lower than average motility (ie slow swimmers). The doc told me we could try for another year and perhaps it would work or we would be excellent candidates for IVF. And we were!

It was a great outcome but I still ask myself why I didn’t get checked out at 20 and every few years after (we conceived at 37)? If the motility issue was known at the very least I could have reduced any concern my wife had during the “year of trying” that it might be “her” issue.

So dudes, do yourself a favor. Get your reproductive health checked out in 2019 – whether you’re planning on fatherhood this year, or 10 years down the road.