Full transcript
0:00Two and a half years ago, I told you
0:02guys in a video I would probably still
0:04want to do a sperm test just before
0:07trying, and I finally took my own advice
0:10after being on finasteride for almost
0:12seven years. And in today's video, I'm
0:14going to be sharing with you my actual
0:16numbers, sperm volume, sperm counts,
0:19morphology, motility, and overall
0:22vitality of my sperm. If you are new
0:24here, my name is Matt Dominance. This is
0:26Let's Get Hair, helping you make
0:28well-informed, safe, and best decisions
0:31on your hair loss or hair transplant
0:33journey based on my own experiences,
0:36mistakes, or failures that I have shared
0:39on this channel with my own hair. I'm
0:41also somebody who has been very public
0:43about his finasteride usage over the
0:46last seven years. And if you want to
0:48watch some of these deep dives and
0:51unfiltered, raw, shared experiences,
0:54check out some of the links below. A
0:56couple of years ago, I sat down with Dr.
0:59Bhatti, and we talked about whether
1:02finasteride is safe to take before
1:04trying to have children.
1:06>> a family, you should stop these
1:08medications minimum 60 days before
1:11planning to conceive.
1:13>> Now, one disclaimer, this is by no means
1:16an official guideline, not an
1:18FDA-approved protocol whatsoever.
1:20However, it's something that a doctor
1:23with 20-plus years experience
1:25prescribing finasteride is advising to
1:28his own patient. But that video left one
1:31question unanswered. What if you are
1:33still years away from trying to have a
1:36child? What is finasteride potentially
1:38doing to your sperm today while you are
1:41taking it? See, the unfortunate reality
1:44of today's world is that even healthy
1:47men can have low sperm counts. In fact,
1:51this study from 2019 done in Switzerland
1:55on healthy males between 18 and 22 found
1:59out that 17% of young men had a sperm
2:02concentration below 15 million per
2:06milliliter and the rate of
2:08morphologically normal forms was below
2:104% in 40% of subjects. Like that's quite
2:15a lot and these men have never used
2:18finasteride before. So every time
2:20someone blames finasteride, you have to
2:22always ask, was it really just
2:25finasteride or was it a combination of
2:28environmental, lifestyle, and maybe drug
2:31usage factors? I myself did not want to
2:34guess, so I did the test myself. Now
2:37whenever you try to do this type of
2:39exam, they will tell you to not
2:41ejaculate for four or five days. In my
2:44case, it was four days. Let's start with
2:46the macroscopic examination. The
2:48ejaculate volume 1.4 ml. Reference value
2:53is 1.4 ml or more. So in this case, I'm
2:57right at the reference level. Now here's
3:00the pH, which is also normal. Viscosity
3:05is normal, which means one plus. If you
3:08get more pluses, that means it's
3:10increased and that is less than normal.
3:13Let's go further to microscopic
3:16examination. It seems like all of the
3:18things are normal. And now let's come to
3:22the more interesting part of the
3:25examination that many people are
3:27concerned with, potentially worried
3:30about their sperm being affected. So
3:33let's start with sperm concentration
3:35then, sperm motility, and sperm
3:37morphology. Sperm counts were measured
3:40as followed. 53 million sperm 1 ml of
3:45ejaculate and the reference range is 16
3:49or more. So I'm way above. Total sperm
3:52counts are 74 millions. Ideally, should
3:56be 39 or more, so we are above here. And
3:59total count of sperm with good motility
4:02and normal morphology is 3.6
4:06million. Unfortunately, we do not have a
4:08reference range for total count of sperm
4:11with good motility and normal
4:13morphology. However, we do have motility
4:17and morphology, and we will take a look
4:19at them right now. Sperm motility, we
4:22can see the total motility was 52%. The
4:26reference value 42% or higher.
4:29Progressive motility is 41%. The
4:32reference value greater than or equal to
4:3530%. So, that's all good. Now, we go to
4:38vitality of sperm. It's 63% and ideal
4:42values are again 45% or higher. So, the
4:46sperm motility part seems to be all
4:48right. And now, let's go to sperm
4:50morphology. And this is the interesting
4:52part about sperm morphology, it is that
4:55the majority of your sperm will be
4:58actually considered abnormal. It's going
5:00to be the minority that will have the
5:02optimal morphology. That means no
5:05abnormalities to the head, midpiece, or
5:08tail. In my case, I actually have only
5:1012% of normal sperm when it comes down
5:13to the morphology, but the reference
5:16value is actually 4% or higher. So, you
5:19actually do not need to have 100% of
5:22your sperm to have ideal or perfect
5:25morphology without any abnormalities. Of
5:28course, the higher it is, the better of
5:30successfully conceiving and
5:32impregnating, of course. Now, there is
5:34one more thing down there where you can
5:36see total sperm with good progression
5:39and normal morphology. And this is
5:41probably the most important single
5:44parameter out of this test that combines
5:47not only the volume, but also the
5:50morphology and motility. And we can see
5:54it's 7.2 million. The reference value is
5:573 million or greater. If you do this
6:00test, definitely consult it with a
6:03urologist. Check out WHO just to make
6:07sure if these reference ranges are
6:09different, then you can see the ones I
6:11have here. Overall, I saw most of my
6:13values to be relatively above the
6:16reference value. However, there was the
6:19overall volume of my ejaculate, which
6:21was 1.4 ml. Now, for now, I will not
6:25worry about it. It is still considered
6:27to be in the reference range. However,
6:30on the lower end, I may redo that test
6:34another time, maybe later this year,
6:36just to make sure that maybe it was just
6:38a bit of stress, or maybe I didn't drink
6:41enough fluids, or some other factors
6:43that might have influenced the overall
6:45volume of the ejaculate, but it doesn't
6:48have to automatically mean that if you
6:50have more ejaculate, you will have
6:52automatic automatically more sperm
6:55cells. And who knows, maybe finasteride
6:58was slightly responsible for this
7:01slightly lower ejaculate volume, because
7:04in this study done on 0.5 mg dutasteride
7:07and 5 mg finasteride, they actually
7:10observed lower volume, lower motility,
7:15but no effects to the morphology. I'm
7:18going to also link the video where I
7:19broke down this study in the description
7:22below, so you can check it out later.
7:24So, if you wonder for yourself, is
7:26finasteride potentially going to affect
7:28my sperm, then do the tests yourself
7:31right now to just be safe, to have a
7:34peace of mind that if you take
7:36finasteride, it will likely be no
7:39effect. There's also a small chance that
7:42you may have less than 15 millions of
7:45sperms per 1 ml of your ejaculate. And
7:49in such case, if even total sperm cell
7:54count is less than ideal, which might
7:56even look like oligospermia, either
8:00moderate or severe one as you can see
8:02right here. And that's essentially if
8:04you have less than 15 millions of sperm
8:08cells in 1 ml of your ejaculate. And in
8:11such case actually,
8:13there is research on finasteride that if
8:17patients used finasteride who were
8:19already oligospermic, especially
8:22severely oligospermic, and as you see
8:24here in some of these cases of 1 mg
8:27users, they were able to dramatically
8:30improve the sperm counts after
8:32finasteride discontinuation. We are
8:34talking about 12 to 20 times
8:37improvements. Now, this is only sperm
8:39counts. The hormone parameters, sperm
8:42motility, sperm morphology were
8:45unchanged. The study concluded that
8:48finasteride should be discontinued only
8:51in already subfertile men with
8:54oligospermia and used with caution in
8:57men who desire maximum fertility. The
8:59typical improvement window was 3 to 6
9:02months. I will link the study below. In
9:04controlled data with 181 healthy
9:08non-oligospermic men, they were using
9:11finasteride 1 mg daily or placebo for 48
9:14weeks followed by 60-week off-drug
9:18period. A semen analysis subset included
9:2179 men, and the study found no
9:24significant effect of finasteride 1 mg
9:27on a neither of the following: sperm
9:29concentration, total sperm per
9:31ejaculate, sperm motility, or sperm
9:34morphology. I will link the other study
9:36in the description as well. So, take
9:38from this what you will, guys. I hope
9:40you enjoyed this video. Hope you found
9:42it valuable, and if yes, give it a like.
9:44Check out my other related videos to
9:47either male fertility and finasteride
9:50podcast with Dr. Baati and my own
9:52finasteride experiences in the last 7
9:55years. That was it from me. I'm going to
9:57see you in another video. Take care.