What John Paul Abi-Khattar remembers most was the awkwardness.

The Western Sydney project manager was sitting in his urologist’s office, naked below the waist, undergoing a scrotal examination months after his wife’s ovaries and fallopian tubes had already been scrutinised by doctors.

The medical exam caused no pain and it was over within a minute or two.

Abi-Khattar was subsequently diagnosed with treatable varicocele – varicose veins on the left testicle – which can diminish sperm production.

“I then went under the knife, and happy days,” he says.

This was about 10 years ago. Abi-Khattar and his wife, Natalie, have since had three children: a girl and two boys.

The one in 20 Australian men with treatable fertility issues will now be identified sooner – leading to more couples being

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