Men are losing their 'manhood': Dr Howard Carp

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Y chromosome, what makes man a man, at least genetically, is slowly on its way out of the human population. This revelation came from an infertility expert from Israel, Dr Howard Carp.

Dr Carp said that this degeneration of the Y chromosome across the populations is one of the major causes of male infertility around the world.

“Unlike all other chromosomes, the Y has no pair and genetic repair usually does not happen. When the Y chromosome deteriorates and carries the defective genetic material to the embryo, the embryo can die and it most often results in a miscarriage,’’ said Dr Carp, who was in the city to take part in a scientific seminar, ‘Advances 2011’, organised by the Trivandrum Obgyn Club as part of their annual meet.

Author of two classical textbooks on infertility and recovering pregnancy loss, referred to by medical students globally, Dr Carp said that male infertility with advancing age is not in the same degree when compared to infertility seen in women with advancing age. He said that even in Israel, male infertility is only 40 per cent of the total infertile population.

However, unlike in India, infertility is seen as a disease and the Public Health Services subsidises infertility treatment, until it succeeds. “Yes, it allows you to have children irrespective of your financial status, but it is also very expensive for the health service, since there is no limit to the treatment cycles,’’ said Dr Carp.

Female infertility is more common than male infertility not just in Israel, but the world over and the major reason is the delaying marriage and pregnancy, he opined. “When pregnancy is delayed to mid or late 30s, the fertility is much less. So also the probability of chromosome aberration increases from 0.5 per cent at age 35 to 1 per cent at age 37 and 2 per cent at age 40. We have been designed to become pregnant by 17 or 18 and we have decided to delay it, because it is inconvenient,” said  Dr Carp.

On his second visit to Thiruvananthapuram, Dr Carp said that the country has changed so much in the last 15 years and that the medical facilities  are on a par with units anywhere in the world, except in villages and tribal pockets.

“We are open to tribal system of infertility treatment just as we are to any form of alternative medicine. Chinese medicine such as acupuncture and acupressure are now more acceptable in the West and Ayurveda medicine is making inroads into treatment now. Sometimes, it takes time, but we are definitely open,” he said.