Dr. Turek's Blog

Eat, Sleep, Reproduce

It has been said that we, like many other living creatures, were put on this good earth to eat, sleep and reproduce. In a minimalist, animalistic and mechanistic way, everything else is we do to make the world a better place is icing on the cake. Of course, we have free will and we can […]

Clinic by the Bay, San Francisco’s Volunteers in Medicine Clinic

Clinic By the Bay’s overarching goal is to improve access to comprehensive, quality health care for the region’s working uninsured, while providing meaningful opportunities for civic engagement. As one of 84 Volunteers in Medicine clinics nationally, we engage retired and practicing doctors, nurses, and other community volunteers to provide compassionate care, free of charge, to […]

Mice Sperm in a Dish

It’s not the mother load of discoveries in our field, but it’s pretty close. It tells us that the mother load is definitely out there…and within reach. Yup, the good news is that real. live, old-fashioned sperm were made in a dish… at least for mice. The Holy Grail: Artificial Sperm For the 55,000 reproductive […]

Giving Up the Gavel

In two days, I will hand over the gavel. It’s actually a meat tenderizer that I bought to run the meetings this year and it worked just great. A gavel with teeth. Regardless, I surrender it with mixed feelings. On one hand, a year as President of one of America’s leading academic societies is a […]

A Primer on Radiation

We are all concerned for the Japanese after their recent, unheard of, triple cataclysm of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown. The catastrophe was horrendous and the photo-footage of the disaster is mind numbing and knee buckling. And next on our minds, occurring on the heels of the Haiti earthquake is what’s next for Japan: infectious […]

Boxers or Briefs?

You’ve been wearing the same banana hammock for as long as you can remember. They’ve been fine for years. No beefs. Then, all of a sudden, like a left hook outta nowhere, you are trying to have kids, and the issue comes up: boxers or briefs? Which is better for fertility? The Underwear Tradition According […]

Myth Busters – Is Coca-Cola a Contraceptive?

The Mythbusters team approached Dr. Turek, an expert in sperm biology, to help them figure out how Coca Cola irrigation of the female reproductive tract after sex could be a contraceptive. They wanted to better understand if there was any biological basis for a Coca Cola “contraceptive effect”. On reviewing their “scientific” experiments, Dr. Turek […]

Cancer and Male Infertility – Segment on The Economist

The Economist TV (United Kingdom) interviews Dr. Turek about his published research discovery showing that many infertile men may have problems with DNA repair. DNA repair is critical to normal growth and development. Studies show that problems with DNA repair can lead to cancer and infertility in animals. This finding has potentially profound implications on […]

Male Infertility Blockage Repair

CBS This Morning interviews Dr. Turek about a common male infertility blockage problem that can be cured with microsurgery. This is the same kind of procedure that is used to reverse vasectomies, but in this case, the patient did not have a vasectomy. He presented with a blockage of unknown cause and Dr. Turek repaired […]