Hepatitis B is a viral infection that primarily affects the liver. This virus is transmitted through contact with blood or other body fluids; therefore, there is a high risk of contracting the virus in babies born to mothers with hepatitis B.
A man with hepatitis B does not have problems conceiving naturally because he has this infection, i.e. infertility is not a symptom of any type of hepatitis. However, there are some risks to consider when conceiving a baby, either naturally or through fertility treatment. First of all, there is the risk of infecting a partner through unprotected sex and thus infecting the fetus.
To prevent the couple from becoming infected and, therefore, to ensure that they can have a healthy baby, the best thing to do is to vaccinate them. It is also advisable to resort to an assisted reproduction treatment in which a seminal lavage is performed, the objective of which is to eliminate the virus from the sample previously taken. Normally, several seminal lavages are performed on the same sample and this washed semen is frozen for later use in fertilization.
There is no specific treatment recommended for these couples; the ideal would be to perform a study to assess the fertility of both members and to determine the most appropriate treatment.
