Dr. Kavoussi stays involved in teaching residents to improve fertility care for patients through the training of others.
Dr. Parviz Kavoussi has a great appreciation for his mentors and teachers that trained him over the years. He states “I really enjoy the opportunity to give back to the academic community and teaching what I have learned to trainees to allow them to provide better care for their patients.” On Monday, May 12th, 2014, Dr. Kavoussi will give a lecture to the urology residents training at the University Health Sciences Center at San Antonio on the diagnosis and optimal treatment of men with low testosterone. This is an extremely common problem and it is very important for physicians at all levels to understand the optimal treatment, especially in men wanting to preserve fertility potential or those trying to actively conceive.
Whether it is in the form of gels, patches, injections, or pellets that are placed under the skin; direct testosterone replacement is a great treatment option for men with low testosterone when they are done having children, but is not a good option when a man wants to maintain fertility potential. Dr. Kavoussi explains, “when we give a man’s body direct testosterone replacement, it fools his body into thinking he made that testosterone. The body cannot differentiate between the medical testosterone a man is being given and the testosterone his testicles make, which results in the signaling center that tells his testicles to work to think they are doing a good job, and the signaling decreases, and the testicles essentially shut down”. This results in men who are being treated with testosterone to drop their sperm counts to very low levels, if not to zero. A recent study out of Baylor revealed that about 30% men who are on testosterone replacement for long enough may not recover their ability to produce sperm and can have a permanent impact on fertility.
There are other options with medications to treat men with low testosterone to push their bodies to make testosterone in a way that is safe for fertility, and may even optimize their sperm production. These are clearly better options than testosterone replacement for men wanting to maintain the ability to father children, until they are done building their family. The choice of medication is based on the overall hormonal picture in that man. Dr. Kavoussi states, “Unfortunately , at least once a week I see a patient who has been trying to conceive with his wife or partner and is found to have no sperm in his semen and testosterone is the first medication on his list.” This is why Dr. Kavoussi feels it is so important to educate other health care providers regarding the intricacies of the management of testosterone deficiency in this patient population to optimize care for these couples.
