Dr. Turek's Blog

A Woman Among Women

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

Excuse my diversion from men’s health, but a very important woman in my life has just passed away. My last grandmother (known as Oma) lived a fiercely independent life for over 99 years, longer than most countries.   She brought our family to America from what is now Czechoslovakia in 1950, after 1000 years of […]

The Symphony of Surgery

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

I spent an evening this past weekend listening to the mighty Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. Listening to their performance of Wagner, Schoenberg and Brahms left me utterly breathless. A magnificent musical experience. Why? Because every single musician thinks and responds incredibly quickly and appears to give their all to a whole […]

What Comes After the Pill?

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

In this forum, I’ve already talked about how erections occur and also about pills used to treat erectile dysfunction in men. But what if they don’t help? What comes after the pill? There are about 30 million men in the U.S. affected by erectile dysfunction. For 20% or more of men, common prescription therapies – […]

Music to Our Ears

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

For as long we have pounded drums and plucked strings, listening to music has affected people’s sense of well-being, lifting and consoling their spirits, inducing calm and tranquility, or the trance of dance. I have listened to the sounds of classical jazz during microsurgery operations throughout my professional career as a surgeon. Coltrane, Miles, Evans, […]

The Bumpy Lives of Teenagers

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

How seriously do you take the medical symptoms of your teenager? Aren’t the aches and pains, and the bumps and bruises the stuff of the young and the restless? Besides, kids are not supposed to get cancer and other bad things. That’s not fair play by God or Darwin. In any case, a new study […]

Sex: Warts and All

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

What is all this news about warts? Although incurable, genital warts (condyloma acuminata for the Greek among us) are the most common sexually-transmitted disease caused by a virus. The human papillomavirus (HPV) to be exact. Not to be confused with HSV that causes genital herpes. Less than 5% of those who have an HPV infection […]

Happy Anniversary to Testis GPS

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

It’s been 13 years. Certainly a significant amount of time for any recent tech start up, but also impressive for a medical procedure. It’s the 13th anniversary of the invention of fine needle aspiration mapping of the testis for sperm. Nine hundred cases and going strong and many families created along the way. It all […]

A Short History of the Y Chromosome

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

Among the many chromosomes in a man’s body, the smallest one with the largest personality has to be the Y chromosome. With it, you are a male; without it, you are a female, with few exceptions. More than any other chromosome, it really defines who you are. This tiny chromosome also controls other traits as […]

Are We Replacing Ourselves?

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

When a couple decides to have children, they rarely, if ever, contemplate the effect this has on the nation. But population scientists do. The effect that birth rates have on society is critical—as basic as knowing whether a nation is sustaining their population or not. But, trying to figure out if birth rates are going […]

Autumn in California

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

Autumn is approaching, and San Francisco is sweltering in an Indian summer.  In the city where I live and practice my profession, September is our most California-like month. The air goes still and briny as the breeze wanes, and drapes itself heavily on the roofs and hills. The clouds dance with delight in a painterly way. Our Junes […]