Male Infertility

Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are the days set aside to celebrate the joys of parenthood. However, men who are infertile feel a touch of pain when they see fathers playing with their kids. Male infertility is a medical condition that defines a man’s inability to impregnate a fertile female. Male infertility accounts for about 40-50 % of infertility cases in humans and is caused commonly due to various deficiencies in the semen. Infertility in men can be caused due to a number of factors such as hormonal disorders, various illnesses, reproductive anatomy trauma or obstruction, sexual dysfunctions and many such factors that affect the sperm. These factors temporarily or permanently affect the quality of the sperms thus rendering a man infertile. Let us study in detail the causes of male infertility and try and understand the importance of this condition. Read the following sections to know more about them.

• Varicocele is one of the major causes of male infertility. There is a network of veins that carry blood away from the testicles and back up into the body. But, if these veins gets enlarged or get twisted and swollen then this condition is termed as ‘varicocele’. This leads to impaired testicular functions and hence leads to infertility because of the dysfunction of the testicles.
• Another common cause of infertility in men is a condition known as ‘cystic fibrosis’. Cystic fibrosis can cause the obstruction of the seminal tract such as epididymis, vas deferens or seminal vesicles that can further lead to infertility in men due to congestion.
• Certain drugs and medications are also known to cause infertility in men. The drugs used to treat hypertension, arthritis and digestive diseases as well as certain chemotherapy medications are known to cause infertility or problem in sperm production.
• Ductal obstruction that is usually caused by vasectomy or might be because of conditions like repeated infection, inflammation or some development defect can also lead to infertility in men by restricting the transport of sperms.
• Prostatitis or the inflammatory infection of the prostate can also lead to irreversible infertility in men if this infection occurs before puberty.
• Retrograde ejaculation is another medical condition that can cause infertility in a man. Retrograde ejaculation is a condition that occurs due to the impairment of the muscles or nerves of the bladder neck that restricts it from closing during ejaculation. This causes semen to flow back into the bladder thereby restricting the flow of sperms. This condition can be a result of bladder surgery, some developmental defect of the urethra or bladder or any disease that affects the nervous system like diabetes.
• Some injury, surgery or infection can lead to testicular trauma in which the immune response in the testes damages the sperms. Antibodies can impair a sperm cell’s ability to swim through the cervical mucus or to penetrate into a female egg.
• Sexually transmitted diseases can also lead to infertility issues in men. STDs like genital herpes and syphilis can cause sores on the external portions of the penis and the testicles which can physically damage a man’s ability to reproduce.
• Certain congenital abnormalities in the sperm can lead to a failure of the sperm tail to develop properly that can affect the motility of the sperms thereby causing infertility in men. Due to these congenital abnormalities sperms maturation can also get affected.