Dr. Turek's Blog

Do Flu Shots Affect Fertility or Pregnancy?

Its flu season. You’re trying to conceive or maybe you’re pregnant. Should you get a flu shot? For those of you who never get the flu, here is the modern definition: A terrible sickness where you feel like you shouldn’t be able to walk, but somehow you can. For about a week, everything is achy […]

Yosemite in winter

Tips for Coping with Infertility During the Holidays

Along with the cool, crisp air, long nights and brisk mornings come….the holidays. Add to this a rash of mass killings, hurricanes, wildfires, downed jets and politics and what do you have? A season of especially high anxiety, magnified even more by that simple problem you’re quietly trying to solve at home: unwanted childlessness. Stress […]

Deep Blue computer chip

The Penis: An Organ of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is on fire right now. But AI is by no means new. The concept was coined 60 years ago by John McCarthy who defined it as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines.” And there’s been some impressive AI successes since then. Remember when IBM’s Deep Blue beat world chess champion […]

Fallen leaves in fall

Autumn and Infertility: A Match for the Ages

I’ve always felt that having infertility is similar to having cancer. Not in a life-threatening way but certainly in psychological impact. They can both be brutal. But this is autumn, a time of change. Cloudy, Chance of Rain This first became apparent to me when we showed that infertile men had higher social strain and […]

Bent but not broken tree.

Birth Defects, Fertility and Fatherhood

Ever wonder about the future fertility of children born with birth defects? As a urologist, I’ve treated hundreds of boys with two common birth defects: undescended testicles and hypospadias. Throughout my career, it’s been hard to address the question of a boy’s future fertility with these conditions. Until now. Missing in Action Birth defects occur […]

Brosectomy® patients of Dr. Turek's

The Science Behind Brosectomies®

Cheers to the Topic article on Brosectomy® that demystifies for all time the “unorthodox” idea of having men do vasectomies in groups. Brilliant the way they got under the skin of why men might actually hesitate to get their wings clipped, or why they consider the snip as a “second puberty.” At the heart of […]

sperm headed toward an egg

Which is Cheaper: Vasectomy Reversal or IVF?

Six of one, half a dozen of the other. Spoiled for choice. How do you decide which path to take to have children after a vasectomy? Do you do a vasectomy reversal or undergo a sperm retrieval and assisted reproduction (IVF-ICSI). Stuck between a pillow and a soft place now becomes a pillow and a […]

Boxer shorts covered with cats

What’s Best for Your Boys, Boxers or Briefs?

When you hear two different stories, which do you believe? Well that depends. Typically, we use 4 kinds of information to help us to decide what to think: intuition (gut feeling), source authority, logic and evidence.  Now the story: Boxers are better than briefs for your fertility. Believe it? Intuition and logic suggest that the […]