Kyle Cooke's fertility test results are in on Summer House!
After a "little red flag" on his recent blood work caused some "concern" that Kyle's "nuts are workaholics," as he joked to his housemates, the Loverboy founder had a virtual appointment with his "sperm doctor" on Season 9, Episode 13, to find out if he is biologically able to have children with wife Amanda Batula.
"I'm, candidly, nervous going into this," Kyle admitted in a confessional. "There's always a chance that, like, I'm sterile, right? But also, in the back of my mind, I'm thinking about Amanda potentially ruling out kids forever. So, there's a lot riding on my sperm count."
Though his telehealth visit took place off camera, Kyle returned shortly afterward to share the good news: His motile sperm count was 159 million — well over the minimum requisite of 20 million.
"He's like, 'You could get someone pregnant by sneezing on them,'" Kyle gleefully quipped to the house.
Kyle Cooke reveals what's "changed" with Amanda Batula
Kyle didn't quite get the support from Amanda that he'd hoped for, though.
"A lot of what I would consider givens in our relationship over the years have changed, but I feel like there are moments it'd be nice to get a little, like, affection and attention out of her," he explained in a confessional. "I am just realizing that when I'm ready [to have kids], she might not be, and that is… something I never even saw coming."
In a separate confessional later in the May 7 episode, Kyle added, "I just wanna feel like she cares. I wanna feel like she's invested in our future. I wanna feel like she's my person. And if we are pushing pause and kind of continue to grow and change, I just wanna make sure we're doing it together."
Why Amanda Batula isn't ready to have a baby with Kyle Cooke
While out for a mini group dinner, West Wilson asked Amanda for her thoughts on Kyle's test results, prompting her to joke, "Are we at all surprised that his sperm is working overtime?"
When West followed up to ask if that brought them closer to talking more seriously about starting a family, she added, "We've had many conversations about it, but we're just not there yet. Not there yet at all."
Amanda further unpacked her reason for wanting to wait to take that leap with Kyle in a confessional.
"This is the first time in years that I've felt like myself again," she told a producer, referencing her mental health journey. "Being pregnant will knock me off my ass. Then, there's, like, postpartum [depression] to worry about, which, if I'm already depressed, [I] don't need to double down on that just yet. I just wanna feel normal for, like, a few months. I just wanna be hot and happy."
Later, she reassured Kyle that she was "happy" about his fertility results, though, and insisted she was fully in his corner.
"If something was wrong, I would've been right by your side and I would've done everything I could," she told her husband. "But you were fine. I knew you were gonna be fine."
Inside Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula's "timeline for having kids"
Previously on Episode 12, Kyle opened up to weekend visitor Tom Schwartz about wanting to be a father and his and Amanda’s "timeline for having kids," noting that he's already 42 years old. "I would never have thought I would not have kids by now," he remarked, as they joked about being "old dads."
Even so, Kyle referred to the possibility of Amanda getting pregnant as "not a matter of if," but "just a matter of when."
But while discussing Kyle’s potential fertility issues with him later on, Amanda noted that she'd "been struggling to take care of" herself sometimes and said that "it wouldn't be the end of the world" if he actually was sterile.
"There's some days where I feel like … Why are we wasting our time? And then there's other days where I'm like, should I even have kids?" she told him, later adding, "I don't love that I feel that way, but I think I need to make sure I'm OK."
As Kyle saw it, though, "time's ticking, and 90 percent of the blood, sweat and tears I put into Loverboy was for our future, for kids. In my mind, the only true payoff is if there's something more than what's in my life now."
As the couple figures out their family's future, don't miss what "shocked" Amanda at the Summer House Season 9 reunion.
