Paul Turek, MD, Author at The Turek Clinic

Is COVID-19 Our Modern Plague?

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Paul Turek, MD

It’s hard to believe that something so small can kill us in epidemic numbers, not to mention utterly and completely change life as we know it. The COVID-19 virus is about 50 times smaller than a red blood cell and contains a single strand of RNA with 26,000 base pairs. By way of comparison, the […]

Coronavirus and Male Fertility

Posted on April 3, 2020 by Paul Turek, MD

Flu season typically wreaks havoc on my male fertility practice. A solid flu, complete with fevers and body aches, drops sperm counts like a brick. But only temporarily. Things usually bounce back within 2-3 months. In contrast, the common cold doesn’t affect male fertility. This leads us to believe that the fever’s the thing. Fevers […]

The Skinny on Marijuana and Fertility

Posted on January 6, 2020 by Paul Turek, MD

In 1996, California was the first state to legalize medical marijuana, sparking a trend that now includes 30 states. Five years ago, Colorado and Washington became the first of 11 states to legalize recreational cannabis. Currently, pot is the most widely consumed semi-legal recreational drug in the western world with an estimated 250 million users, […]

Case of the Year: Reversible Azoospermia & the Power of Observation

Posted on January 3, 2020 by Paul Turek, MD

The Case of the Year is an actual patient of The Turek Clinic A couple that had recently emigrated from Myanmar (Burma) was desperate to have a child. However, they had just received terrible news. He was diagnosed with testicular masses on both sides, and it was recommended that he have both testicles removed for […]

New Year’s Resolutions for Couples Facing Infertility

Posted on December 27, 2019 by Paul Turek, MD

I’ll bet you didn’t know that the idea of New Year’s resolutions dates back 4000 years to Babylonian times. Back then, as today, we wished ourselves to be better souls going forward into another year. To be sure, making resolutions is a part of our cultural DNA. Humbug! But you’re infertile. Beat up, tired and […]

What I’ve Learned About Life After Infertility

Posted on December 20, 2019 by Paul Turek, MD

The couple hailed from Mexico and came to me after all prior attempts to conceive had failed. She was 20 and he was 24 years old and had been told that he was azoospermic, meaning he lacked sperm. He underwent sperm mapping with me and it showed that in fact he did have sperm. They […]

How to Treat Early Symptoms of an Enlarged Prostate

Posted on December 13, 2019 by Paul Turek, MD

Ok, so you’re not a spring chicken anymore. Maybe it takes a little longer to finish urinating. Maybe it’s harder to write your name in the snow. Maybe the interval between voids is much shorter than it used to be. Or, your warning signal that it’s time to go is immediate and more intense. Even […]

Can Tomato Puree Improve Male Fertility?

Posted on December 6, 2019 by Paul Turek, MD

Tomatoes have had a good year in my field. This tasty little fruit-vegetable (yes, it’s both) has always been a workhorse dietary antioxidant. And when cooked into a sauce or paste, the all-star phytonutrients in tomatoes, including lycopene and Vitamins A and C, become even more concentrated. But could eating tomatoes also improve reproductive health? […]

How Good Are Genetic Screening Tests?

Posted on November 29, 2019 by Paul Turek, MD

Think of your genome — all the DNA in your body — as a big book. Twenty-three chapters long, containing hundreds of thousands of letters and tens of thousands of words, all telling your story. If you alter a paragraph, a sentence or even a letter in a word in your book, will it read […]

Can the Keto Diet Affect a Man’s Fertility?

Posted on November 22, 2019 by Paul Turek, MD

Name something you routinely do every day that has the single largest impact on your health. Sleep? Nope. Exercise? Nope. Eating? Yup. Do you doubt the power of food? Then please consider the French Paradox: the fact that heart disease among the French is incredibly low despite an American-equivalent, fat-loaded diet. And then there’s the […]