MEN MATTER TOO

Dr Muhammed Akhtar, Dr Robin Hadley, Me, Dr Michael Caroll, Jack Broadley

Rosie Tadman

All too often men feel overlooked or invisible when it comes to talking about fertility issues. It’s not your average conversation for the pub, we know! But with infertility being a 50/50 issue between men and women and sperm count being on the decline across the world, we want to help the conversation along, so the brilliant group of ladies I’m involved with aka ‘Talk Fertility’ which is all about making fertility information accessible brought together some top-notch men’s fertility experts to offer top tips, to help both men and women understand what can be done to improve their sperm health and ultimately their fertility.

We discussed:

– Getting your head around what lifestyle and environmental factors can affect your fertility eg. diet, smoking and drinking, protein shakes, toxins, oxidative stress

– Be clear on what tests you can do at home, or via your GP or the ones you can pay for at a fertility clinic to understand more about your sperm

– How to field the questions if you’re being asked about having children, how it feels to be a man and not be able to have children

– Understand the signs and symptoms of testicular cancer, encouraging males to visit their GP if they detect any of the signs or symptoms.

Our panel was

Rosie Tadman 

Rosie Tadman (DipCNM, BANT and CNHC Reg) is a Nutritional Therapist who studied at the prestigious College of Natural Medicine, in London. Rosie now has a home clinic in Chorlton, Manchester. Rosie uses Modern Science + Traditional Wisdom to support couples to conceive. Rosie looks at root causes rather than masking symptoms.

Dr Muhammed Akthar 

Qualifying in Lahore, Pakistan, Muhammad completed his medical doctor (MD) at the University of Warwick and carried out further Obstetrics and Gynaecology speciality training at the Mersey Deanery. He is heavily involved in systematic reviews including Cochrane reviews and randomised controlled trials, with many internationally-published research papers and textbook chapters. Muhammad is also an instructor for the British Fertility Society special skill modules and is a Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists (RCOG) course facilitator and joins us from St. Mary’s NHS Hospital, Manchester.

Robin Hadley

Independent Researcher who specialises on male childlessness.Robin’s counselling and own experience led him to self-fund his MA and MSc (University of Manchester, 2008; 2009) on the desire for fatherhood and the levels of desire for parenthood in childless people and parents. His PhD (Keele, 2015) examined the impact of involuntarily childless on the lives of older men. He is a founder member of the campaign group Ageing Without Children and has written a great deal about his experience wantedtobeadad.com

Dr Michael Caroll

Course director, MSc Clinical Science / Cellular Science, Manchester Metropolitan University. Michael studied toxicology and shares his insight about lifestyle and environmental factors affecting male fertility. After completing a PhD in reproductive cellular physiology from the University of Newcastle he went on to do post doctoral positions at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, UT Southwestern, Dallas – The CNRS, Station Zollogique, VileFranceh sur Mer, France and at Southampton University. After his time in research Michael trained as a clinical embryologist (obtaining the ACE postgraduate certificate in clinical embryology) and worked in a busy IVF clinic before being appointed as a lecturer in reproductive science at MMU.Michael’s research interest includes reproductive cell biology, andrology, investigating lifestyle and environment effects on human sperm, and evolutionary biology.

Jack Broadley  

BaggyTrousersUK is a cancer charity based in the North West of England, it was founded by Jack Broadley in 2014. After going through his own experience of testicular cancer at the age of 21, Jack decided to take on this challenge to embark on a journey that would inspire him to helping others that have been affected by the illness that he’d once had. Jack felt an inherent urge to make a difference in the lives of males affected by testicular cancer and that, with the charity being run by a survivor, he could get the message across to others by the telling of his experience. https://baggytrousersuk.org/