India, June 22 -- Can I father a child if I have very low or nil sperm count? The answer is yes. These type of couples visit our infertility clinic almost daily. Male infertility constitutes about one-third of the causes of infertility in a couple. Obesity, smoking, alcohol, diabetes, and sedentary habits have a damaging effect on the quality of sperms. For this, lifestyle modification goes a long way to improve the count, motility, and DFI (DNA fragmentation index) of sperms. Couples with nil sperm count are very dejected because they think that donor insemination is the only solution, which is very difficult to accept. They should be made aware that nowadays, they can have their own children through ICSI (intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection) with sperms derived from their testes. Here sperms are retrieved from the testes after examination under a high-power microscope, processed in laboratory and then injected into the egg. This procedure requires team effort comprising an IVF specialist, andrologist, and an embryologist in highly equipped units with great expertise. Thus, hope is not lost for male infertile couple. The author of this article is an IVF and fertility specialist at Jindal IVF, SCO 21, Sector 20D, Dakshin Marg, Chandigarh, who can be contacted at 958-246-9429....