Ensuring your sperm are healthy will improve both the chances of your partner falling pregnant and your baby’s health. Learn more here about sperm health.

If you’re planning on having a child, it’s just as important for you be healthy as it is for your partner. Many things can damage your sperm, including being overweight, smoking, older age, and exposure to harmful chemicals. These factors won’t just reduce the chance of pregnancy – they can also affect the health of your baby.

Most men don’t give much thought to the quality of their sperm, until it’s time to start a family

Listen to this three part series on Dianne's journey to parenthood as a single mother using donated sperm, talking to her children about donor conception and meeting her sperm donor, Adrian

If your sperm quality is high enough, you’ll provide several more samples, which are then frozen and quarantined for further health screening.

Listen to this interview with Adrian, a sperm donor for single mother, Dianne

Semen can be frozen and stored long-term for future use. If you want to father a child at a later stage, the frozen semen is thawed and used in fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

What a man eats influences his fertility. Eating all the right foods can increase fertility for men trying to conceive, whereas an unhealthy diet contributes to infertility. Fruits, vegetables and other antioxidant rich foods are a key part of any fertility diet. Being overweight, obese and related conditions like type 2 diabetes mellitus and erectile dysfunction also negatively influence male fertility.

Male infertility is a major factor in 30-50 per cent of difficulties conceiving. It usually results from low numbers of, or poor quality, sperm.

Male fertility is vital for conception and a healthy pregnancy. Couples trying to get pregnant need to pay attention to factors which increase the chances of infertility in men. In addition to a healthy diet and regular exercise, treating sexual problems and avoiding recreational drugs helps boost male fertility.