Doctors said I was infertile. Now I'm cradling my newborn daughter... and the miracle is all thanks to a common drug taken by millions

This week, for the first time, Bill Meincke cradled the newborn daughter he never thought he would have.

The 37-year-old from Los Angeles and his wife, Kristen Tallon, 36, had been trying to conceive since 2019.

After about a year of trying naturally, Meincke underwent testing to measure the amount of sperm in his semen. While the average man's testicles produce up to 300 million sperm cells every day, his had none.

A journalist and communications specialist, Meincke was diagnosed with azoospermia, which causes the testicles to produce zero sperm cells - meaning he was infertile.

While most cases of azoospermia, which affects one in 100 men in the US, are caused by blockages in the reproductive tract, genetics or some medications, Meincke's doctors found no cause for his case. After being evaluated, he was given just a two percent chance of ever having a biological child.

'I was an anomaly,' he told the Daily Mail. 'It was heartbreaking.'

After years of biopsies and failed fertility treatments, Meincke sought help from Dr Paul Turek, a fertility specialist in California who is studying an unlikely solution for infertile men: isotretinoin - an acne medication sold under the brand name Accutane.

Despite long established links to birth defects when taken by pregnant women, Meincke took the drug as part of a trial for about a year while Tallon had her eggs frozen.

By the end of the regimen in the summer of 2024, Meincke's testicles had produced about 100 sperm - a miniscule fraction of the amount most men have, but enough to undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF) and conceive.

Meincke and Tallon came out with five embryos, one of which then became their daughter, who was born in early October.

Meincke is one of 30 men with either low or no sperm count who were part of a pilot study from Turek's team measuring the effects of isotretinoin on sperm production.

After an average of six months, just over one in three began producing enough sperm to undergo IVF without needing invasive surgery to locate sperm within the testicles.

And for those who did need surgery, called a microdissection testicular sperm extraction, the procedure took half as long as normal, making it far less invasive.

'It's almost miraculous. It is a baby maker,' Turek told the Daily Mail.

'It is the first evidence-based, non-hormonal medical treatment for severely infertile men.'

He noted the findings are based on 100 years of research that has found retinoic acid, a derivative of vitamin A, helps guide early reproductive cells, called germ cells, through a 12-step process to create sperm.

Studies show men with low or no sperm counts also have low levels of retinoic acid in their testicles.

In 2021, Dr John Amory, a researcher at the University of Washington and a colleague of Turek, was trying to see if blocking retinoic acid could serve as a form of contraception for men. When he hit a wall, he reached out to Turek and flipped the idea on its head.

'I said, "That's incredible. Let's study it,"' Turek recalled to the Daily Mail.

Isotretinoin, he believes, mimics natural retinoic acid, which could help sperm cells increase and become more mature.

Each man in the study took 20 milligrams of isotretinoin twice daily for at least six months.

The typical dose is between 0.5 milligrams and one milligram per kilogram of body weight, given in two doses. So a person weighing 70 kilograms (154 pounds) would take between 35 and 70 milligrams total per day.

Of the 30 participants, 11 started producing sperm that can efficiently swim and fertilize an egg. The response group included four men with initially low sperm count and seven with initially no sperm count.

Turek said he was 'surprised' that even men who had been through the most intensive and 'traumatic' fertility surgeries, and had seen no progress, were able to make sperm just after taking isotretinoin.

One of those men was Navin Kesari, a 37-year-old neurologist in Houston.

After trying to conceive with his wife, Asmi Trivedi, for a year, Kesari underwent fertility testing in the summer of 2020. Results showed he could not produce any sperm on his own.

'It was very disappointing,' Kesari told the Daily Mail.

He sought Turek's help in 2021 and had a sperm mapping procedure done - which involves drawing a grid on a testicle and inserting fine needles into different points to collect samples.

The surgery allowed Kesari and Trivedi to conceive their daughter through IVF. She was born in April 2022.

A few months later, the family consulted Turek again, asking what options they had if they wanted to have a second child.

After taking isotretinoin for about a year and a half, Kesari was able to produce enough sperm to create an embryo with his wife's eggs.

Just last month, he celebrated the birth of his son.

Despite its benefits in men, isotretinoin has proven to be dangerous for pregnant women. It has showed an increased risk of severe birth defects, including heart conditions, hearing loss, spinal cord defects and hydrocephalus, which causes excess fluid to build up in the brain and can lead to pressure that damages tissues.

It is thought that the drug disrupts natural signaling pathways that control fetal development, especially in the first trimester.

'The reproduction of men and women are parallel universes in some ways, but they're not in others, and this is the way they're not,' Turek told the Daily Mail.

Both Meincke and Kesari told the Daily Mail they dealt with dry skin - a known side effect - while taking isotretinoin.

Additionally, Meincke noticed the Los Angeles sun would burn his skin within just a few minutes of being outside, which was a departure from his usual UV tolerance. He also suspects isotretinoin exacerbated his major depressive disorder (MDD), as the drug may alter levels of mood-boosting neurotransmitters like serotonin.

Turek told the Daily Mail his team is now planning on 'working out the kinks' of using isotretinoin to treat infertile men in future studies, which includes finding the appropriate dose and narrowing down which levels of infertility would benefit the most.

He is also offering six-month programs where men can be evaluated and try the drug under monitoring.

'If you've been through the ringer as an infertile man, and you've been told you need to adopt or go in a different direction other than being a bio dad, this is just a ray of hope,' Turek said.

As Kesari adjusts to caring for his two children, he urged men battling infertility to 'think outside the box' as they hope to become fathers.

'It sucks. It's disheartening. It's defeating. For me, it was just very disappointing because I've always wanted to be a dad,' he told the Daily Mail.

'It's not over until it's over. It's a long, long battle until the baby is born - it's a very long battle, and it just requires a lot of endurance, a lot of patience, a lot of hope.'

The Daily Mail spoke with Meincke just days before his daughter's birth, with the family's hospital bags packed and the house ready to welcome a new addition.

As family, friends and strangers have warned he and his wife to rest while they can and prepare for long nights ahead, Meincke is sure he is ready.

'We're not going to take anything for granted,' he told the Daily Mail.

'We had a two percent chance. We're here through science and just the drive that we had. So when our baby's crying at night, yeah, I'm sure we'll be tired and maybe we'll be a little bit grumpy. But we'll do everything in our power to change that mindset, because we fully understand how lucky we are.'