First-time father Paul Mwanjala (not his real name) dubs the birth of his baby girl last month "a miracle". He and his wife had waited seven years before successfully conceiving their first child via in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

Various tests run on the couple had found that Mrs Mwanjala, in her late 30s, was fine but that Paul, in his early 40s, had very few sperms in his semen which made conception a challenge.

"The diagnosis was a shock. We stopped trying for a baby for over a year to discuss our next step. I tried alternative therapy such as traditional African and Chinese medicine but that did not work," Paul said.

According to Dr Alfred Murage of MyGyno limited, the Mwanjala's case is not unique since doctors are finding that many men have poor sperm quality, which is either the main or contributing cause of couples struggling to conceive.

Statistics show that men with this condition make up about 10 to 15 per cent of the total number of male infertility cases globally and that the proportion of couples with male fertility issues in developing nations has risen from about 30 to 40 per cent in the past decade.

A 10-year-long survey carried out in northern India which studied the lives of 1,000 men found that various lifestyle factors are major causes of decreasing sperm count. These include: Tight clothing, hot tub dips and long visits to the sauna, intensive gardening and farming resulting in pesticide exposure and increased obesity rates.

• .

  Keep Reading

• 
  Hope as more mothers deliver virus-free babies
• 
  Baby formula: How added sugars predispose children to diabetes, hypertension
• 
  Out in the cold: The quiet lives of sacked Cabinet Secretaries
• 
  Nine-month-old baby stolen in Nakuru

Studies have also shown that majority of men who were exposed to high temperature at their workplace — welders, dyers, blast furnace workers and those employed in cement and steel factories — were more prone to infertility. This is because the additional environmental heat increases the temperature of the scrotum, causing a negative effect on sperm production.

Male fertility also declines with age so the longer couples wait before starting a family has been flagged as a contributing factor to infertility among couples.

In Kenya, Dr Murage, who focuses on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART), sees about 30 male patients each month. They form about half of all infertility cases he sees at his clinic.