Childlessness isn’t just a ‘female’ thing, it cuts up men too - I and other men I know have felt each cut

Writer, speaker and broadcaster Sheridan Voysey shares his experience of infertility and explains why we need to talk about the damage it can do to men as well as women.

Thanks to research conducted by Leeds Beckett University and Fertility Network UK this often ignored side of the infertility story is starting to be recognised. Their study found that infertility can affect a man’s mental health, self-esteem, relationships, sex life, masculinity, even his career and finances. And given childlessness is often seen as a ‘women’s issue’, men are often ignored during the treatment process or in follow up support. Men are one-half of the fertility equation yet are often relegated to the sidelines.

For ten years my wife Merryn and I dreamed of starting a family. Our journey in pursuit of that dream included special diets, courses of fertility-boosting supplements, healing prayer, even chiropractic sessions (you’ll try anything). The journey included numerous rounds of costly IVF treatment, and a year of assessment as potential adoptive parents followed by an agonising two-year wait for our hoped-for adoptive child.