How can Men feel more confident to talk more about infertility?

Meet Rod Silvers, our latest guest on 'Talk Fertility' the show I'm co-hosting with Kate Davies for UK Health Radio.

We caught up with Rod, Actor, and Writer about the impact of infertility on men, why medical professionals need to include men in the conversations, and the importance of getting men talking. Rod’s film and play covering the topic of male fertility are England Expects and Terry and Jude.

I've met Rod a couple of times and was struck by his cheeky chappy persona and have been keen to capture his story to share with you for a while. Rod has recently been on Radio 4 interviewing experts in the field of male fertility. Rob struggles to talk about his fertility journey but uses his voice and creativity to encourage other men to get talking.

In our, chat Rod talks about how he feels that men are beginning to open up and talk more but states it’s important not to make the assumption that all men will talk. Some men feel they can or shouldn’t talk. It’s not a weakness to talk but a strength.

We discussed 'The Arc of Life' something that came out in a conversation Rod had with Dr. Robin Hadley about the differing ways infertility affect men throughout their life. You can hear a previous conversation I had with Robin here and you can search by Robin's name in the podcast section of this website, to find hear more of our conversations.

Rod talked about how he recently spoke to a gay man who talked about how he is finding it really hard to talk about fertility among the gay community.

We also discussed how during Rod and his ex-wife’s IVF treatment Rod felt that there was no involvement or inclusion for him as a man. Apart from the first appointment he was never again involved in a conversation during their IVF treatment. This was something we certainly experienced during our treatment and it caused stress between the two of them.

Rod talked about how all of his focus was on his wife and he wanted her to be happy and get what she wanted and therefore he didn’t focus on himself or even considered talking.

We spoke about Andrologists who are the experts in male fertility but men are infrequently referred. Jonathon Ramsey, a renowned urologist promotes the fact that all men should be examined as well as having a semen analysis and you hear a clip with Jonathan at Fertility Fest at the end of this episode.

Points discussed were how focusing more on men could, in some circumstances, avoid the invasive, expensive, and emotionally draining IVF treatment.

We asked Rod his advice to his younger fertile self would be – talk. Tell someone how you feel and more importantly talk to your partner and tell them how you feel. It’s a strength, not a weakness.

Find out more about Rod here

Listen to ‘My name is Rod Silvers’ BBC Radio 4 show -

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