Dear Smile E.
Are men with primary ciliary dyskinesia sterile?
Signed,
Wanting to be a Father
Dear Wanting to be a Father,
It was once thought that all males with PCD were sterile. With advances in research and the scientific understanding of ciliary this has thankfully been proven to be false. Hundreds of medical professionals still counsel male PCD patients and there families that their will be sterility due to PCD. Unfortunately theses professionals may not be up to date on their latest journals and research. Which isn’t surprising, because the medical field is vast and not everyone specializes in primary ciliary dyskinesia. They instead rely on old data. Most medical books also propagate this myth.
The flagellum of the sperm is basically put together with the same protein building blocks as motile cilia. This means the sperm tail doesn’t move adequately or at all which them doesn’t allow the sperm to do it’s job of swimming. Advances in fertility treatments have enabled doctors to use cytoplasmic injection to insert the sperm into the egg and then put it back into the female’s uterus via IVF. This has enabled makes with PCD to have their own biological children.
Also it important to note that there are males who have spontaneously fathered biological children without the need for any medical intervention. This is something I urge you to discuss with your medical team, when you (the male patient) are ready to start family planning. You as the patient should never be made to explore this aspect of PCD until you are ready. However on that note, PCD itself should not be used as birth control method because spontaneous pregnancies where one partner has PCD is very real. If you want to avoid accidental pregnancy, contraceptives are just as crucial for a person with PCD as they are for a person without PCD.
Yours Truly,
Smile E. Turtle
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