Medical experts in Ho Chi Minh City have called on infertile husbands to undergo medical check-ups for treatment, as up to 90 percent of male infertility cases can now be cured.

Dr. Nguyen Thanh Nhu, an andrology expert, said 40-50 percent of infertility cases in Vietnam are men and more than 90 percent of them suffer from a low sperm count or poor quality sperm.

However, he said, men are always hesitant to go for a medical examination and some of them even blame the sterility on their wives, prolonging the infertility .

Doctor Nhu said that it takes only one to two days to detect infertility and that treatment costs are not high and the surgery is minimal and only takes a short period of time.

Dr Ho Manh Tuong from the HCM City Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Association (HOSREM) said that medicines and surgery are the most common methods of male infertility treatment.

Males with poor sperm quality will be prescribed with various kinds of medicines including Androgens, Antiestrogen, hCG, GnRH agonist, FSH and GH.

However, the success rate of cases involving surgery depends on the females age and reproductive capability, said Tuong.

If the surgery fails, patients can turn to intrauterine insemination, in vitro fertilisation or an intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

Doctors say a couple who have been having regular sex for a year without using contraception but have still not conceived is usually a case of infertility. For a couple, the chance of women becoming pregnant after sexual intercourse reaches about 20 percent after a month, 75 percent after six months and 90 percent after one year.

Around 10-15 percent of newly-weds are infertile with males making up 30 percent of infertility cases and females failing to conceive, 40 percent. The remaining 20 percent are a combination of fertility problems from both the male and female.

The Ho Chi Minh City-based Tu Du Obstetric Hospital’s Infertility Department provides treatment to between 10,000-15,000 couples each year and statistics indicate that more than 50 percent of the males are infertile./.