ABSTRACT

INFERTILITY IN PATIENTS WITH TC AT DIAGNOSIS At the time of diagnosis, an abnormal semen analysis report is a frequent finding in patients with TC: among them, 54% to 57% presented with oligozoospermia and 11% to 13% with azoospermia before orchidectomy. It is, therefore, not surprising that 30% of these patients will have an elevated folliclestimulating hormone (FSH) level (5,6); in addition, up to 20% of the patients might show elevated luteinizing hormone (LH) levels although testosterone level is generally in the normal range indicating a normal Leydig cell function. From the literature, even more data are available on postorchiectomy parameters in patients presenting with TC, and one can derive from those data that an impaired spermatogenesis is initially present in approximately 50% to 70% of these patients before any cytotoxic therapy (7).