Ladies, beware: this post is for all the guys out there. Feel free to share it with all the men in your life, because I’m betting you want to keep them around as long as possible. Most of them, anyway.

Guys, here’s the deal. It’s National Men’s Health Week, which gives me a great excuse to talk directly to you. I know you don’t like going to the doctor. I’m a doctor and I don’t like going to the doctor. But sometimes you have to bite the bullet and do things you don’t want to do – taking your partner to some fancy event rather than kicking back to watch football, cleaning the gutters rather than kicking back to watch football, going to the opera rather than watching paint dry, etc. This is one of those times.

You need to be as healthy as possible for obvious reasons – suddenly dropping dead puts a serious cramp in your weekend plans. Seriously, and especially if you and your partner are trying to have a baby, you’re going to need to be around for the next 20 years or so to help out: labor coaching, nighttime feedings and shouldering at least some of the estimated $250,000+ it’ll cost to get that baby through high school are just a few of the activities on your new dad to-do list.

So go get a checkup, especially if you and your partner are struggling with infertility. As much as our egos may hate to admit it, at least 30 percent of the time, the medical issue causing the problem is ours – and that fertility statistic holds true across all ethnicities. The good news is, in most cases, there are treatments that can help male infertility. We’ll even turn on the baseball game while you’re at the clinic - your partner will be so happy you’re there getting the medical care you need that she (or he – we’re equal opportunity) won’t think twice about the ESPN Sportscenter theme playing in the background.